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Blogs, Campaigns, Community Health & Infant Nutrition (Timor Leste)
April 20, 2026

In the midst of world events that feel out of our control, we take hold of the Easter resurrection story to guide our steps together.

When we turn our attention toward Christ, when we fast, when we pray, when we slow down enough to follow his footsteps, we don’t get pulled away from the world. We get pulled deeper into it.

I addressed churches during Easter with a message of hope and encouragement. I hope you’ll take a moment to be encouraged by watching, and share with others who need to hear again the Easter narrative of solidarity and transformation.

Find out more about UnitingWorld’s Lent Event.

by
Blogs, News
March 26, 2026

“A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable.”

It was acclaimed as the most important foreign policy speech in years. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney chose to speak with unusual candour in his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year.

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false” he said, “that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient.”

He called out what the global south has always known – that the fairness of that order was a collective illusion, and that it has always been weaponised against the powerless. We now live in a world where superpowers exert military might and economic coercion with flagrant indifference. Whatever illusion we shared, it is now shattered. Carney called on ‘middle power’ nations to build something better, an order grounded in human rights, solidarity, and the dignity of every nation. I look forward to how Australia might step up to this invitation.

But as Christ-followers we do not put our faith in empires. Even well-meaning ones. The value of each human life, the duty of the strong to care for the weak, to love without condition – these are Jesus’ teachings. Are we ready to hold to them, even when the world seems to be forgetting?

Whenever I meet with our church partners and supporters, I find my answer. Whether among old friends or new partners, in the wealthiest cities here at home or the poorest communities of India, Timor-Leste or the Pacific, sitting on mats under trees, or in cafes, the word that rings true is family. Even when I visit for the first time, it always feels like coming home. The spirit of God is always there, always weaving us together, gently urging our hearts to act with love and justice.

We don’t build fortresses, we build tables to gather around. Not an alliance for power, but a living community of people, across cultures, languages and oceans. People who choose each other, who keep showing up, who believe, as Jesus told us, that how we treat the most vulnerable among us is the truest measure of who we are in Christ.

You and I are part of this family, a taste of the kin-dom that Jesus proclaimed was at hand. So the question we face is this: can we hold onto hope and each other, and keep loving with courage and generosity?

Thanks for being with us.

by
Blogs, Campaigns
February 18, 2026

Outdated and irrelevant tradition, or the perfect season for our modern age? 

Every year, sometime between when hot cross buns unscrupulously appear in supermarkets and the eating of a chocolate egg, many of us catch a vague mention of “Lent”. 

To many the word will sound ancient, dusty. Locked in books and church halls from another time.  

For those of us who attend a mainline church, it will involve literal dust. Ashes marked on foreheads to remind us of our finite lives followed by a 40-day season of prayer, fasting (usually from chocolate) and giving to others. 

But to put it down to just a list of duties to perform would be to undercut one of the most powerful and contemporary aspects of the season: intentional time to clarify and refocus our lives on what really matters. 

And rarely has that felt more necessary. 

We live in an age of relentless fragmentation. Our attention is no longer simply divided; it is actively hunted. Algorithms are engineered to keep us anxious, scrolling, comparing. Every app, advertisement and news cycle competes for a piece of us. We are invited to perform our identities, signal our values and consume our way to meaning all at once, all the time. 

Nowhere is this divided loyalty more visible than in our relationship with material wealth. We accumulate position and possession, often not out of greed, but out of anxiety. Out of the quiet fear that we are not enough, that we do not have enough, that we must hold on to everything we can. Life becomes cluttered. Generosity becomes difficult. God recedes to the back of the queue. 

The disciplines of prayer, fasting and generosity are a direct challenge to that condition. They loosen the grip of status anxiety. They relocate our identity not in what we own or achieve, but in our relationship with God and with the people around us. They give us back what the algorithms are stealing from us: attention and focus. 

This is why Lent is not a relic. It is a rescue. 

Lent is the 40-day period leading up to Easter, a season the Church has observed for nearly two thousand years. Forty days echoes the time Jesus spent in the wilderness before his public ministry began. Hungry, tested and stripped of comfort, prayer and fasting didn’t diminish him. They clarified him. He knew who he was and what he was for. 

So we follow in those footsteps. 

The season of Lent has always been marked by three practices: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Three disciplines that together orient the Christian life not just inward, but outward. 

The logic is simple, but radical. When you fast, you create space, in your body, in your budget, in your attention. The tradition has always said: don’t leave that space empty. Fill it with something that matters. Feed someone. Clothe someone. Build something that lasts. 

Right now, that call has a particular urgency. 

Climate change is not an abstract future problem; it is an unfolding catastrophe for the world’s most vulnerable people. Harvests are failing. Coastlines are disappearing. Families across the Pacific, Asia and Africa are being forced from their homes and their livelihoods, not because of choices they made, but because of choices the wealthiest nations made for them. 

The injustice is stark: those who contributed least to this crisis are suffering the most. And they have the fewest resources to adapt. 

This is precisely the kind of moment that calls us back to the traditions of Lent: not to retreat into private spiritual exercise, but to look outward, let our hearts be moved, and ask: what am I willing to give? 

Lent Event

Since 2004, UnitingWorld has been inviting Australian Christians to make Lent a season of outward action through Lent Event and, for 2026, the call is as urgent as it’s ever been. 

Lent Event is built around a simple, powerful idea: that the Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and generosity can be channeled toward the lives of our global neighbours. 

This year, the heart of Lent Event is 40 for the Future: a climate challenge for individuals, families, and whole congregations to live more simply during Lent and raise funds for UnitingWorld’s life-changing projects.  

From helping families in Timor-Leste to grow their own food gardens, to planting trees in Indonesia to stabilise landslide-prone hillsides, to stocking evacuation centres in disaster-prone parts of the Pacific, every dollar raised goes to community-led climate action in places that need it most (see the impact your fundraising can have!). 

And it’s not just about the money. Lent Event is a way for your church community to walk through the season together, with shared stories, prayers, and reflective resources each week that connect the ancient rhythms of Lent to the urgent realities of our world right now. 

This year, consider what it might look like to let Lent be bigger. To let the ashes on your forehead be a reminder not just of your own mortality, but of the millions of people whose lives are being shaped by forces beyond their control, and of the power that ordinary people of faith have to change that. 

Don’t just give up chocolate. Give your prayers, fasting and generosity to shape a fairer world for all. 

Join us for Lent Event 2026 and sign up for 40 For the Future!

Lent Event 2026 runs 18 February – 2 April. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top photo: A woman in Timor-Leste waters her raised food garden made possible thanks to UnitingWorld supporters.

 

UnitingWorld’s work in Timor-Leste is partly funded by the Australian Government as part of the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).

by
Blogs, Social Empowerment for Excluded Castes (India)
November 11, 2025

When Sohadi Soren received a single goat through her local self-help group, she never imagined how much her life could change.

A mother and grandmother from a small rural village in eastern India, Sohadi was struggling to make ends meet after the sudden loss of her husband. Her family survived on a small plot of land, growing rice and vegetables mostly for their own table. Money was always tight.

Then came the goat.

The gift was part of a community development program supported by UnitingWorld through the Church of North India, Diocese of Durgapur. With training and encouragement from her group, Sohadi began to raise and breed goats. One became two, then three, and before long, she had a small herd.

Over time, Sohadi sold goats to pay off her family’s debts and even buy back land that had been mortgaged. The income helped her invest in cows and a threshing machine for her crops. Today, she provides for her grandchildren, pays for their schooling, and helps others in her village do the same.

“With that one goat I was able to change my family’s life,” Sohadi said. “I wish more people could have the same opportunity.”

Her story is just one example of how practical gifts—simple as a goat, a water pump, or a handful of seeds—can grow into lasting hope.

Through Everything in Common, UnitingWorld’s annual gift catalogue, every card and donation represents love in action. Goats that become herds. Seeds that become gardens. Clean water, education, small business support and more — all helping families overcome poverty and build brighter futures.

This Christmas, you can help more families like Sohadi’s turn small gifts into life-changing opportunities.

Choose  that fight poverty and build hope
www.everythingincommon.com.au

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by
Blogs
March 11, 2025

More than two thirds of Australians in a recent survey conducted by The Conversation admitted they avoid news at least some of the time, with news about climate change ranking third highest on the topics we scroll past.

Why? Does it feel too big to fight? Too overwhelming and negative?

Probably.

But for men, women and children who are already in the fight of their lives, small things can make a big difference. And you can help make those small things happen.

What can a seed provide?

Imagine you’re a family in Timor-Leste, living in an area prone to land slides and soil erosion, making it hard to grow food and leaving you constantly anxious about your house and family being swallowed by mud during the next storm – which are coming more and more often.

UnitingWorld partners are helping people plant out these areas to stabilise the land, absorb carbon, re-vitalise the soil for crop growth and provide protection from disaster.

Just $25 can provide seeds for the project.

 

 

Do kitchen gardens make a difference?

Imagine you’re a mum in Maluku. You worry constantly about the high price of food right across your region, forcing you to choose imported, low nutrition food. Food supply is difficult because of conflict over land and water and less predictable patterns of rainfall. Your youngest child is showing worrying signs of malnutrition.

UnitingWorld partners are helping people start their own productive kitchen garden to grow their own healthy, nutritious food – they’re supported with drought resistant seeds, irrigation techniques and training to improve the soil.

$90 from a donor in Australia this Lent can provide a place for you in the program.

 

Could a school be part of the solution?

Imagine you’re a child in rural Zimbabwe, watching the anxiety grow in your parents as your family crops fail once again. The rains won’t fall, or they fall too fast. Your parents give up their own meals to make sure you don’t go to bed hungry.

UnitingWorld partners are using schools as a hub where kids have reliable access to clean water, disaster risk reduction training and gardens to grow their own food – building the whole family’s resilience to climate shocks.

$250 can help support the program in a school – reaching hundreds of kids and families. 

 

If you think climate change is too big to fight, ask the families, mums and children of the world’s hardest hit regions. They’ll tell you the smallest things can have a big impact. And they’ll tell you your contribution matters.

In 2025, UnitingWorld’s Lent Event is focusing on 40 days of action for God’s creation.

Why? 

1. Our partners tell us climate change is the most critical issue facing their communities. Worldwide, changing climate and more disasters mean the poorest in our midst are going backwards in the challenge to grow food, find clean water, make a living and prevent death from disease.

2. We know that what we do together *actually* *genuinely* works. We meet people and hear stories of the way that our partners are saving lives and bringing hope person by person, in some of the world’s most vulnerable places.

Please GIVE today

 

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by
Blogs, Campaigns
February 14, 2025

In a fast-paced world dominated by 24-hour news cycles, consumer culture and the dizzying expansion of technology, the season of Lent can feel like a relic of the past. One more tradition squeezed out by our busyness and distractions. As Ecclesiastes 7:12 reminds us,

“God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.”

But perhaps now, more than ever, Lent is a rare invitation to pause. To follow Jesus into the stillness of creation. It’s a time to give our full attention to God, to live more simply and to act generously out of love for our neighbours and this beautiful, fragile world.

Climate change is undoing decades of progress, driving poverty, food insecurity and forced migration across our world. There’s profound injustice at its heart: those who’ve contributed the least to this crisis are suffering the most, while those who’ve burned the most fossil fuels have largely insulated themselves from its effects.

What can we do? We can follow Jesus.

Our world urgently needs a movement of attentive and generous discipleship.

Lent can be that annual ‘spark’ that reminds us of who we are in Christ, and all the love and hope we have to offer a hurting world.

We’ve heard our church partners’ call for solidarity and support to help vulnerable communities build resilience to climate impacts. We invite you to join us in answering their call:

“We hope and pray the world will join us.”

Below, members of our partner churches from across the Pacific share about their experiences of climate change and environmental degradation.

“In Kiribati, we are experiencing coastal erosion, and we believe that increasing sea level rise contributes to the losing of some of our lands.”
Teraoi, Kiribati Uniting Church
“Climate change is severely impacting our land [West Papua]. In the highlands it is becoming harder to grow potatoes and catch animals. Without our staple foods it affects our health and nutrition.”
Ekyen, Evangelical Christian Church in Tanah Papua
“Here in Tuvalu, young people have anxiety about sea-level rise, droughts and migration. I fear for the loss of our culture and traditions, but I tell myself: “God has given us this land, and we must hold onto it for future generations to enjoy.”
Tetavaa, Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu
“Across our communities in Kiribati, climate change is causing reduced rainfall, droughts and lack of accessible clean water.”
Bubutei, Kiribati Uniting Church
“The dry season [in Solomon Islands] feels hotter and longer. Mass logging has removed so many trees, king tides wash the fertile soil away and it doesn’t come back. I’ve seen small islands that now look like deserts.”
Caleb, United Church in the Solomon Islands
“In Fiji, we feel the rising sea levels. There are burial sites that are now underwater and villages that are being forced to relocate. We all think it is a serious issue that needs to be tackled, and we pray the world will join us.”
Rev. Asinate, Methodist Church in Fiji

 

Lent Event offers a way to step into action, faithfully and meaningfully.

Commit to 40 days of faithful action for God’s creation. Fundraise or donate for communities on the frontlines of climate change. Speak out for justice.

Throughout Lent, we’ll share stories from our partner, the Free Wesleyan Church in Tonga, showing how your actions will help transform lives across the Pacific, Asia and Africa.

Will you join us? By acting together, we can challenge the status quo of a distracted and disconnected world, make a real difference in the lives of our neighbours, and inspire vital hope and courage for the future.

Sign up, get ideas for action and connect with a community of like-minded people at www.lentevent.com.au.

 

First published in UnitingWorld Update 2025-01 – download the full magazine PDF here.

by
Blogs
February 13, 2025

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead

We’re a small team here at UnitingWorld, but it never feels small. Every day, I am reminded of the extraordinary network of people and communities across our world who make change possible. You, our faithful supporters here in Australia, working together with our church partners overseas, turn love and generosity into precious resources, opportunities and improved quality of life for people who need it.

It’s God’s love in action.

Thank you for making 2024 another year of remarkable impact. Together we helped transform lives and communities in the face of a changing and uncertain world. I hope you take the time to read our Annual Report for FY2024 (see it here) and feel the full scope of all you are a part of.

As we begin another year, we must acknowledge the huge challenges before us.

Global inflation, stalling progress on poverty and extreme weather are making life harder and leaving millions behind. At the same time, authoritarianism and unjust wars are adding fuel to the fire when what we really need is all hands on deck to end poverty and address the climate crisis.

We can’t solve it all, not by a long shot. But what we must do is play our part, faithfully and ambitiously, as part of a global network empowered by God to make a big difference.

In that light, the UnitingWorld team and our partners are looking to the future with hope and possibility. We have a ten-year plan to do all we can to help vulnerable people and communities in the Pacific, Asia and Africa overcome poverty, adapt to climate change and tackle injustice together.

We need your help to do it. If you share our vision and want to be part of making it a reality, your support will enable our partners to scale up life-changing projects providing reliable food and water supplies, income and education opportunities, and life-saving projects to mitigate the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

It can’t be overstated how much our world needs thoughtful and committed people working together to bring hope, justice and lasting change for people in poverty.

Sureka

Dr Sureka Goringe
National Director, UnitingWorld

P.S. I hope you’ll join us. Donate now  or  become a monthly giver.

First published in UnitingWorld Update 2025-01 – download the full magazine PDF here.

 

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Blogs
November 21, 2024

Christmas brings out our best selves. We love to give and be generous to our loved ones, our neighbours and even strangers too. The holiday season carves out precious time to spend with family and friends and, when times are good, there’s extra food and presents to share. 

But there’s another side to the season. One that fuels our anxieties rather than the sense of peace and gratitude we’re supposed to feel. 

We stress about all the family and friends we need to buy gifts for. 

We’re annoyed by the consumerist culture that pressures us to buy more and more ‘stuff’ (especially in a highly inflated economy).  

We feel nauseous about the amount of unwanted and excess gifts cast aside (an estimated $921 million-worth in Australia each year!* Imagine the good that money could do?) 

And then there’s the anxiety about climate change. Christmas spending and consumption triggers increased production the world over, leading to more plastic and landfill, more deforestation and biodiversity loss, and more greenhouse gas emissions that are driving the climate crisis. 

And for us Christians, aren’t we supposed to be remembering Christ is born, a host of angels are singing, magi are giving gifts to honour a king, and God is love and the world is renewed? 

Surely, we don’t need to destroy the world while we celebrate our story. 

Wider society is on the same page. 

Polling by the Australia Institute showed that last Christmas more than 6 million Australians expect to receive presents that they will never use or wear, and nearly half of Australian adults (48%) would prefer it if people did not buy them Christmas presents. 

It’s a telling sign about the culture we’re in. While Christmas gift giving has become an uneasy standoff of buying stuff for each other just because its expected, it seems that nearly half the population would, just quietly, rather not.   

So, what’s the solution? Surely, we shouldn’t stop giving. 

Christmas has become synonymous with extravagant generosity for a reason. Theologian Ben Myers once mused that our urge to give at Christmas arises from the “abounding grace” that Christ brings into the world. Just like the best gifts, God’s grace completely surpasses our needs, so much so that it overflows. 

Myers explains: 

Gifts are a release valve for the human spirit. The special thing about Christmas isn’t just the use of gifts – that happens on all special days – but the profligate scale of gift-giving. On nearly every other occasion, the gifts are received by one individual. But the joy of Christmas is so high and so deep that we can only express what it means by giving gifts in every direction… we need to give something to someone: otherwise our hearts would burst. 

It’s a compelling idea: feeling a joy so high and deep that we’re driven to give to anybody and everybody, lest our hearts explode…  

It seems to be something most grandparents have come to know and understand through decades of experience. There’s pure joy to be found in giving – and giving extravagantly. 

What if the same idea could be leveraged to fix that other side of the Christmas season, the worry and waste and hyper-consumerism?  

What if we let our joy and generosity go in every direction, including to where it’s most needed in our world, and in ways that protect God’s creation? 

UnitingWorld’s Everything in Common Gift Catalogue is a way to do just that.  

It’s filled with Christmas gifts for all budgets that help local communities in the Pacific, Asia and Africa to fight poverty in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. 

There are gifts to help families start their own backyard chicken coops, gifts that provide school books for children in rural India whose families can’t afford to pay for them, gifts of seeds and kitchen gardens for families in Timor-Leste and Maluku to start growing their own fresh, nutritious food and tackle the malnutrition crisis, and so much more. 

When you give an Everything in Common gift card to a loved one it honours your spirit of generosity and theirs too.  

Not only that, it will overflow to people, communities, creatures and creation that you’ll likely never see or meet.   

But you’ll feel them. 

Visit www.everythingincommon.com.au to shop online for gifts that fight poverty and build hope through Uniting Church partners in the Pacific, Asia and Africa. 

Through your gifts, people get opportunities to grow their incomes, improve their health, send their children to school and take collective action on poverty, climate change and gender-based violence.  

 

UnitingWorld is the international aid and partnerships agency of the Uniting Church in Australia. 

by
Blogs
November 19, 2024

The message of Christ’s birth is as radical today as it was more than two thousand years ago.

Born in humble circumstances, the Son of God came to embody hope for the poor, the oppressed and the forgotten. As I reflect on this journey, having just returned from Indonesia where I witnessed the harsh realities of climate change, poverty and inequality, I was reminded that the birth of Christ is not just a past event but an ongoing story—a living invitation to all of us to join in God’s mission of transformation.

During my recent trip, I met with church leaders from West Papua, Bali, and West Timor. Together, we wrestled with how climate change is impacting the poorest and most vulnerable. Rising sea levels, deforestation and natural disasters are not just statistics—they are the lived reality of many communities. Yet, amidst this, the church stands as a beacon of hope. I saw firsthand how local wisdom and theological reflection converge in the church’s response to these crises.

Local wisdom has always been the foundation of how communities respond to challenges. In Minahasa, a tradition of togetherness and mutual cooperation known as Mapalus came from small farming cooperatives who understood that collaboration and teamwork is vital to sustaining the community and environment around it. In Bali, the Subak philosophy arose as a system of equitably sharing water across separate but interconnected rice farms. In Sentani, West Papua, the Fira Wali encourages the responsible use of natural resources like the sago tree, reminding the people to live in harmony with creation.

Each of these ideas began as an agricultural technique and then expanded to become a greater understanding of the interconnectedness between humans, the land and the spiritual world. A way of life that honours God’s creation and cares for the community.

It made me consider: is there a way of life that flows from the nativity story?

The nativity is a story of God’s solidarity with the marginalised. When we look at the manger, we see the Son of God who does not remain distant but enters the world in vulnerability. The shepherds, considered outsiders, were invited to be among the first to hear the good news. Wise magi, strangers to the people of Bethlehem, travelled from far away to show honour and offer extravagant gifts.

Christ’s birth and the life he went on to live should challenge our understanding of power and vulnerability. In following Christ, we come alongside the lives of others exactly where they are—equal in vulnerability—and we offer love, hope and renewal.

That is our story. And it is one that Christ is always calling us to join.

During my time in Indonesia, I saw so many of our inspiring and formidable church partners answering Christ’s call and working for justice, inclusion and care for the most vulnerable in their communities. I saw communities that are completely exposed to the next extreme weather event, the next economic shock, the next food security crisis. As climate change, deforestation and other environmental injustices make life harder for the poor, communities are crying out for justice.

Here in Australia, we can help. This Christmas, as we gather in churches and homes, let us remember that the nativity is not a static story. It is an active call to love, serve and transform. The child born in a manger invites us into a life of compassion, urging us to take part in God’s mission for the world.

UnitingWorld’s Everything in Common Gift Catalogue gives us a tangible way to participate in this ongoing story. Everything in Common invites us to give each other gifts that are expressions of God’s love for our neighbours—clean water, education, sustainable agriculture, leadership opportunities for women in the church, and more.

It’s named after the Christian community described in Acts 22: 44-45 who responded to the message of Christ with lives of radical generosity:

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”

Giving gifts in solidarity with our global neighbours is a continuation of the nativity, where God’s love broke into the world through humble and transformative means.

For Christians the nativity is more than a story. It’s a way of life.

– Apwee Ting

(Article originally published in Revive)

Header photo of rice fields in Bali by Marcus Campbell

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