| | Uniting Church agency, UnitingCare Australia, is urging the Federal Government to invest more in the care and community services sector following the release of new research highlighting the growing impact of climate change on frontline workers. Launched at Parliament House in Canberra yesterday, the report reveals the significant challenges faced by care and community service workers as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe across Australia. The research, commissioned by UnitingCare Australia and Uniting NSW.ACT and conducted by 89 Degrees East, surveyed more than 800 frontline workers. It found that 90 percent of respondents had been affected by extreme weather events in the past five years, including heatwaves, floods, bushfires, storms and cyclones. Workers reported disrupted access to clients, increased workloads and mounting pressures on their mental and emotional wellbeing as they continued supporting communities through times of crisis. UnitingCare Australia is calling on the Federal Government to strengthen the resilience of the care economy through targeted investment, workforce support and climate adaptation measures. National Director Tamara Thomas (pictured) expressed that that those who care for others must also be supported if services are to remain effective and accessible during future emergencies. UnitingCare Australia’s network includes 20 organisations operating across more than 1,600 sites nationwide, with approximately 55,000 staff serving communities throughout Australia.
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| | | | | President Rev Charissa Suli has been representing the Uniting Church in Australia this week at an international ecumenical consultation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, hosted by the Christian Conference of Asia. Gathering more than 70 church leaders, theologians and ecumenical representatives from across Asia, Europe and North America, the consultation is exploring emerging realities shaping the life and witness of the Church in the region. Yesterday, Rev Suli shared a Pacific perspective on migration, identity, faith and diaspora communities, reflecting on how movement, belonging, climate displacement and intercultural ministry are shaping the future of the Church. As an increasingly intercultural Church shaped by First Peoples, migrants and multicultural communities, and offers an opportunity to share our experience and contribute a Pacific voice to important conversations about mission, leadership and ecumenical collaboration across Asia and the Pacific. |
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| | | | As we journey towards the Uniting Church in Australia’s 49th Anniversary on 22 June, we are entering a shared season of national prayer. Uniting in Prayer invites the whole Church to pause, listen for God’s leading, and deepen our connection with one another across cultures, communities and distances. We encourage congregations and individuals to make use of the resources we have available, and to sign up to receive the daily prayer and other updates. |
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| | | | More than 80 people from across the Uniting Church gathered online in late May for the first Assembly Net Zero Emissions Roundtable of 2026, exploring how faith communities can strengthen their advocacy for climate justice. The roundtable focused on practical ways church members, congregations and communities can engage with wider Uniting Church initiatives and campaigns working towards a more just and sustainable future. Read more here. |
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| | | | Uniting Church minister Rev Bill Crews has renewed calls for stronger action on gambling harm, backing a proposal to halve the 88,000 poker machines in NSW over the next 10 years. Drawing on his decades of work with vulnerable and disadvantaged people through the Rev Bill Crews Foundation, Rev Crews says the human cost of poker machine addiction is visible every day. “We see every day the human cost of poker machine addiction,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald this week. “For the life of me, I don’t understand why governments refuse to take action.” Read the full story here (subscription may be required). |
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| | | | In Sumba, eastern Indonesia, families like Semis’ forage in the forest when the harvest runs short. They work hard for their food security, yet subsistence farming families are among the most exposed people in the world to global economic and environmental shocks, paying the highest price for a crisis they did nothing to cause. This is not the life God intends for anyone. Through Uniting Church partners in Sumba and across the Pacific, Asia and Africa, communities are building food security and lasting livelihoods, led from within. Together, we can help end the cycle of poverty and hunger in the world’s poorest places. Find out more. |
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| | | | The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding, deepening their longstanding partnership in support of refugees, displaced people and those living without nationality. Signed this week, the agreement, strengthens cooperation on advocacy, protection, inclusion and the promotion of human dignity, while encouraging faith communities to play a greater role in fostering belonging and peaceful coexistence. “Through this agreement, we are more closely connecting humanitarian action with the moral authority, global reach, and advocacy power of faith communities,” said WCC General Secretary Rev Prof Dr Jerry Pillay. |
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| | | World Environment Day is this Friday (5 June). UnitingWorld in collaboration with the Synods of Queensland, Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania have produced this handy resource. ICYMI: The World Council of Churches is inviting churches and individuals worldwide to join the Global Prayer for Peace in Ukraine on 11 June. You’re invited to ONE – a cross-cultural, intergenerational gathering celebrating our unity in Christ. Through worship, storytelling, conversation and reflection, explore what it means to live as ONE body, shaped by justice, compassion and reconciliation. Register today! Churches around the world are being urged to foster dignity, belonging and full participation for people with disabilities, following an international conference in Kenya, hosted by Hope Mobility.
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| | | June
14-20 Refugee Week
16 Net Zero Roundtable #2
22 49th Anniversary of the Uniting Church in Australia
28 UnitingWorld Sunday
July
5-12 NAIDOC Week
10 Anniversary of the UCA-UAICC Covenant
19 Intercultural Neighbouring Sunday
August 4 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day
30 Frontier Services Sunday
Click here for the Uniting Church Assembly 2026 calendar. |
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| | | Join us in prayer for... Frontline care workers. May they be supported practically, financially, emotionally and spiritually as they undertake vital work with Australia’s most vulnerable. the families, friends and community grieving the deaths of 16 students and injuries to 70 others in a fire at a school in Gilgil, Kenya. the safe return of six teenage girls reported missing across Fiji in recent weeks. Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho and Seychelles as part of the WCC Ecumenical Prayer Cycle.
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