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Blogs
March 24, 2023

This week we said a very grateful and fond farewell to Jane Kennedy, who has been serving with us in various roles for a decade. We asked her to share a reflection on her time at UnitingWorld, which you can read below.

She also spoke about her time at UnitingWorld to UCA President Rev Sharon Hollis on her podcast. You can listen to it here.

I started at UnitingWorld in 2013 working with our Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu partners and recently counted 25 and 14 trips respectively over 5 years! I loved getting to know the partners so well during these trips and supporting their work, marveling at their resilience and their joy, seeing places many Australians have never heard of or only aware if they were birdwatchers or jungle trekkers! We ate meals together, I witnessed community life lived as it would have been hundreds of years ago, perhaps took too many risks traveling through conflict areas and into remote villages to better understand the context. I visited 11 provinces of PNG and three islands of Vanuatu, the beauty and the challenge often visible in equal measure. I loved it all.

My next role was as Associate Director of our Asia and Africa projects and I led a team of program managers working closely with our partners across South East Asia and South Asia as well as Zimbabwe and South Sudan. Some of the most incredible travel experiences of my life were in these regions and the warmth and hospitality of our partners and their communities was life giving. Not to mention the incredible food!

For the last 18 months I have been the Head of Programs working with all our partners. Our team of program managers is so committed and connected to the work our global partners are doing across the world and it’s been wonderful to witness the breadth of it. I will miss the warmth and passion of our partner teams and the ways in which they serve without question within their churches and regions, often, in fact usually, in the face of impossibility difficult circumstances.

It’s easy to see ourselves in a wealthy country like Australia as the ones doing the giving, of coming to support those less fortunate. But I’ve learnt that I am the one less fortunate when it comes to the richness of relationships and community our partners have invited me into over the years. They process poverty and disasters and heal in community, they understand their true wealth is in their interdependence with each other and their sense of land and place. They place value on celebratory meals and henna, flower arrangements, locally made fabrics, song and dance. It’s our role to transfer the wealth and shift the power however we can. As our strategic documents say, giving money in this way is not largesse, but justice.

The UnitingWorld team and the Uniting Church is better for being in relationship with our global partners, both in listening when they ask us to hold our own government to account and learning how to face our own hardship. I am better for knowing them and their generosity.

I will miss our Australian team also but am grateful for lifelong friends, some funny and beautiful memories and the opportunity to be a part of something so transformational in the world.

-Jane

 

What’s next?

Jane will be completing her studies in counselling and psychotherapy and plans to focus on trauma-informed programming in the aid sector and freedom from religious trauma. We wish her all the best on her next adventure!

by
Blogs, News
March 8, 2023

From Dr Sureka Goringe, National Director, UnitingWorld

There’s change in the air. Maybe you feel it. For the longest time, an elephant in the room of Australia’s contributions to end world poverty has been the question: what about the struggles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here at home?

This was a challenge and reminder posed to the whole UnitingWorld team by Professor Anne Pattel-Gray, UCA theologian and Aboriginal leader, who was a special guest presenter at our annual team week in February.

Her words were not bitter or angry, they were deeply introspective, herself having travelled to do mission and community development work among Dalit peoples in India. While there, she was struck by her relative privilege, and realised how difficult it can be when you are well-meaning, but ultimately have little connection to people’s unique experiences of poverty, racism and injustice.

It led her to focus on what Christianity has to say about the value and dignity of all life, and the call on Christians to be a “transforming presence” from inside the dominant system – to turn oppression and domination into  justice.

It’s a calling to work that has no borders or postcodes because it’s about who we are.

Her words made me think of you, and the thousands of people touched by this mission we do in partnership with the global church. In our constantly changing world, we can’t pit local and global issues against each other – we need to address suffering and injustice wherever we can, with whatever skills we can bring.

The young leaders who attended the Pacific Australian Emerging Leaders Summit understand this, and their commitment to embedding justice for First Peoples within their vision of our region is truly inspiring.

Our international partners understand it too, always eager to meet, honour and gain the wisdom of the First Peoples who cared for this land for millennia.

We’ve started a conversation within UnitingWorld about how to strengthen links between our partners and Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) and embed a First Nations perspective into our work.

Change is happening in our government too, with the search for an Ambassador for First Nations People going on as I write.

As the national conversation about Voice, Treaty and Truth goes forward, I hope and pray that whatever happens, we Christians would strive to be that “transforming presence” alongside First Peoples that Professor Pattel‑Gray described.

When I asked her what gives her hope for the change she works for, she gave my whole team this encouragement: “my hope comes from the Creator, who has the power to transform people and communities.”

Amen

by
Blogs, Campaigns, News
January 24, 2023

With everything going on in the world, it’s easy to feel powerless. The challenges are huge.  

But here’s the thing: by supporting UnitingWorld, you’re part of a global movement working together to change lives – including yours! Because when we work for change, we ourselves are changes. 

Lent is coming. It’s a 40-day season to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, seeking to practice a life focused on prayer, simplicity and generosity. It’s a precious opportunity to step back from the noise, take some intentional time to fix our hearts on what we can do to love our neighbours and heal our hurting world. 

Join us for Lent Event 2023

Pray – Use our prayer guide to pray alongside our partners as they address the challenges facing their communities. 

Live simply - Give up something in solidarity with people who have less. 

Give - Donate or fundraise to help our partners fighting poverty and injustice.   

This is the difference you can make

$25 can provide nutritious food to kids in Timor-Leste.  
$50 can help a family start pig breeding in Indonesia.  
$100 can provide job opportunities and education for a person with a disability in Sri Lanka.  
$500 can send a girl to school in India.  
$1,000 can supply clean water for a village in Papua New Guinea.

Join Lent Event

 

Kim’s Story

Kim is a youth leader and champion of bringing clean water and sanitation education to where it’s most needed in remote Papua New Guinea. 

“When we build clean water infrastructure on our church or school properties, we always try to put it in the middle of the island so people can stop by on their way to town to get water,” Kim told us.   

“We try to do things in ways that ensure everyone in the community benefits.”  

Kim is making waves in his community with the support of people like you. Read his full story here. 

This is what happens when we choose to walk hand in hand with our neighbours. Together, we can change lives. 

Will you join us?

Make a difference

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Blogs, Campaigns
January 23, 2023

“When I was a child, I would sit on my mother’s lap and she would tell me the stories of our people. It meant that my whole life I’ve known who I am because I know my story. 

“I’m so grateful for it because today it’s fading away. It’s harder for young people because of the noise of modern life.” 

Ever since I heard this from Kim Allen (pictured), a youth leader with our partner, the United Church in Papua New Guinea, I can’t get it out of my mind. I think it’s because his words transcend his culture and speak into our current moment in time.   

At just 28 years old, Kim is responsible for around five thousand youth across almost ten remote islands. He acts as a facilitator to connect youth to the work of the church.  

“The challenges we’re facing are school dropouts, unemployment, early marriage and the impacts of climate change,” he told me.  But the underlying problem affecting young people today is what he describes as ‘noise’.  

“Young people are exposed to so much noise, with the internet, mobile phones, drugs, peer pressure, music. They can’t focus.”  

I asked Kim how he and his church are addressing it: 

“The first step is to help them be aware of themselves and their lives as children of God,” Kim said. “With that awareness we can then meet them at a practical level, training them to be good citizens, to work against violence, to build up their communities. The church gives them hope and a solid foundation to be human. We see that as intrinsic to spiritual development.”  

I think we can all relate to that feeling of too much noise in our busy, modern world. I love that Kim’s antidote is having greater awareness of who we are as children of God as a first step to refocusing our lives.   

I know I don’t have to tell you how powerful that idea is, but I always find the reminder encouraging. When we see ourselves and others as created children of God, infinitely loved and valuable, our hearts are changed. We can’t ignore the cries of people suffering in poverty and injustice. We long to make a difference, and through God and God’s people, we find the power to do it.  

I hope, like me, you find strength and encouragement in that thought, because it’s a critical time to play your part, however you can. Here at UnitingWorld and across our church, we do that together during Lent with Lent Event. We reach out to others through prayer, living more simply and practising generosity.  

It’s such a powerful time! 

Pray – Use our prayer guide to pray alongside our partners as they address the challenges facing their communities. 

Live simply - Give up something in solidarity with people who have less. 

Give - Donate or fundraise to help our partners fighting poverty and injustice.   

Every prayer, action and gift make a difference, and not just for people overcoming poverty. Because when we work for change, we too are changed.  

I hope you’ll join us for Lent Event this year as we seek to refocus our lives through prayer, simplicity and generosity.  In 2023, Lent is from 22 February to 6 April.

Head to www.lentevent.com.au today to get started.  

In hope and gratitude,  

Dr Sureka Goringe
National Director, UnitingWorld 

by
Blogs, News
December 5, 2022

We know that the power to drive development belongs in the hands of the local communities, and that churches are powerful partners in the delivery of effective and sustainable development led from the grass-roots.

As a Board member of ACFID*, I was able to carry this message into consultations with the Foreign and International Development ministers of the new government, to briefings with the new Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and even to a briefing with US government officials as USAID plans to reengage in our region. The USAID Pacific strategy paper now identifies churches as key parties.

As members of Micah Australia, I accompanied South Sudanese/Australian UCA minister Rev Amel Manyon with other prominent UCA leaders to Canberra in a delegation to meet with members of the new government and advocate for international aid. Amel spoke powerfully about the famine affecting her homeland:

“I’m asking the government in Australia, please do something now. People are dying because of hunger and it’s not good for us to sit and listen to their  stories and not do something.”

$15 million was provided to urgently assist the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa and Yemen. The Australian Government’s commitment in October to increase life-changing Australian Aid by $1.4 billion over the next four years was a really encouraging shift in government policy. And the energy in Australia’s leaders for fostering genuine and stronger relationships in our region goes beyond just funding. We’ve also been able to connect DFAT more closely with our Pacific partners.

We supported the Pacific Conference of Churches to become accredited to receive DFAT grants, and helped DFAT set up a Pacific Church Partnership Advisory Network – a group representing churches across the Pacific and Australia raising issues of shared concern to the Australian Government. Development aid and Pacific migrant labour have been subjects of fruitful discussion between churches and DFAT in this forum.

Our partners are formidable leaders, changemakers, teachers, scholars, peacebuilders, advocates. But more than that, they are disciples of the one who calls us all to this life of love, compassion, and generosity for all creation.

Thank you so much for helping us to bring their voices to the tables of power, and holding them in your prayers.

Dr Sureka Goringe
National Director
UnitingWorld

by
Blogs
October 26, 2022

With the right support, girls in vulnerable communities can go on to have higher incomes, healthier families and become leaders in their communities.

That’s why with your help, we’re working with partners to help more girls access the education, shelter, food, clean water and emotional support they need to set them up for life!

Girls like 13-year-old Jaya.

With her family struggling to support her studies and provide her with the healthcare she needed, Jaya struggled to keep up with her peers and often fell sick.

But after she connected with local UCA partner the Church of North India (CNI), everything changed.

With the support of her family, Jaya was moved to new accommodation to help her reach better education and healthcare. More than that, she could now be immersed in a caring community, supporting her studies and providing her with the emotional support she was missing.

“(Jaya’s) health has also improved due to the monthly medical check-ups and regular health education sessions at the hostel,” one of the project managers said. “She now dreams of becoming a policewoman when she grows up and is working towards it in her studies.”

All of this was made possible with the support of supporters like you.

This Christmas, you can give a gift on behalf of your loved ones to help more girls like Jaya.

Click here to order online

or call 1800 998 122 (9am-5pm, Mon-Fri)

✅ Christmas greetings to your loved ones

✅ Send joy to the world

✅ Fight poverty!

Christmas card sales represent a donation to UnitingWorld and are tax deductible in Australia.

 

New Everything in Common Catalogue 2022

The new Everything in Common gift guide is here!

Give your loved ones a meaningful gift that stands out from the rest.

These are gifts that won’t be left collecting dust but will transform the lives of those who need it most.

 

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Blogs, News
August 17, 2022

“When a tree falls in the forest, you hear the sound. When a tree is growing, you hear nothing.”

This wisdom was shared at the Pacific Church Partnership Advisory Network (PCPAN) meeting in Canberra recently, where I had the great pleasure of listening to Christian leaders from across the Pacific region as they expressed their hopes, joys, struggles and dreams for the future. It was the first meeting of its type in-person, where the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) facilitated the gathering but allowed the agenda and conversation to be guided by the participants, particularly Pasifika and First Peoples.

Naturally, it followed a “talanoa” and “yarning” process of dialogue, which meant deep listening, reflection and then speaking. The government representatives mostly listened in from the sidelines. The conversations were rich and comprehensive, expressing the need for the sector to move away from paternalistic interventions based only on human needs and towards partnerships that allow families and people groups to determine their own futures.

There was an outpouring of compassion about the injustices suffered by Australia’s First Peoples after reflections from Rev. Mark Kickett and Alison Overeem from the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) and ‘Aunty’ Pat Anderson, co-Chair of the Uluru Statement. I looked around and there was barely a dry eye in the room. It reinforced the desires of Pasifika church leaders to centre the voices of First Peoples in all their engagements with Australia. We can each learn from that approach as our nation continues to grapple with issues of justice and reconciliation.

I also recently made a visit to meet three groups of amazing UnitingWorld supporters in Queensland. Meeting face to face for the first time in years, it struck me anew that the Uniting Church is filled with people whose lives seem ordinary, yet are utterly extraordinary.

It brings me back to the quote I picked up at the PCPAN meeting. The dozens of people I met on my trip are not public or loud. They dodge acclaim and recognition, but the depth of their commitment to leaving our world in a better place than they found it is truly inspiring.

Quietly but surely, people are making positive change, big and small, local and global, through community outreach and supporting our international partners. Though we may not hear it or perceive it, the tree is growing. It is a hopeful and motivating thought.

With thanks for all you do with us.

Dr Sureka Goringe
National Director
UnitingWorld

 

by
Blogs
May 11, 2022

The last pieces of corn from a family’s harvest, laid out on a table set with love: that’s what I see when I think of people I’ve visited over the past ten years with UnitingWorld.

Gifted by a family fighting tuberculosis and hunger in Timor-Leste, the cobs are a sweet yellow symbol of the generosity and faith I’ve felt at so many tables around the world. Fresh coffee brewed for us in the highlands of Bali, simple prayers, mud crabs dug from the river and offered up on an island in Papua New Guinea, hymns in many languages, hot sweet tea in India. Always, the smile that says: “We have enough to share, and even if today is hard, tomorrow will be better.”

These are the people I think of when global news rests an icy finger of fear against my ribs. I remember communities that lay bare their grief together and then get up, hands and hearts steadied by a faith that calls them to pray and work in equal measure. They believe in the mystery of God, yes, but they live out love and sacrifice in ways that are sweat, flesh and muscle.

They are truly ‘the salt of the earth’ – ordinary and everywhere, unspeakably valuable: preserving life, adding flavour, fertilising the soil for new things to grow.

For ten years, it’s been my privilege to introduce these people to you in stories, pictures and video. And it’s been a joy to see you light up in response. Time and again, you’ve stepped up to help build things both physical and less tangible – toilets and water tanks; faith, hope, wisdom and knowledge. I’ve seen our friends take hold of what you’ve offered with both hands and work tirelessly to make life better for themselves and their communities.

Collectively, it’s your stories and those of our partners that I summon when life feels dark. Over the past ten years, you’ve worked with
us and our team of smart, creative partners to confront poverty, respond to the changing climate, elevate women and girls, open minds and fight hunger.

Thank you for trusting us and our partners with your vision of a better world. From our joined hands, scattered salt works its simple magic across the globe.

It can’t always be seen, but its impact is unmistakable. Stay salty.

– Cath Taylor

*Cath has been writing for us and shaping campaigns like Everything in Common, Lent Event and Seven Days of Solidarity since 2011. Last month she moved on to another role with a Christian organisation and offers her heartfelt thanks for your love, prayer and giving. 

by
Blogs
December 17, 2021

Our partner staff from the protestant Christian church in Bali send you their love for Christmas!

To be Balinese is to be Hindu: more than 90% of the population practise a uniquely Balinese form of the religion. For those who’ve chosen to become Christian, the decision jeopardises family relationships and land ownership. But in spite of the cost, Christianity in Bali is growing, and this Christmas the message of God born into the world feels more real than ever.

“We can’t wait to celebrate this year- Christmas to me is all about God coming to us to share our lives in human form, and I think we’ve seen that strongly through the pandemic,” says Irene, Project Officer with our partner, the Protestant Christian Church in BaIi. “Last year it was just me alone in my house watching the Christmas service on line, but this year we’re hoping to be able to return to our family villages to go to church together and visit our ancestors in the graveyard before lunch with our families.”

Bali’s vaccination rate is now higher than anywhere else in Indonesia and the province is set to re-open to tourists. The economy is on track for recovery over the new year, and this will relieve some of the strain on families who’ve found it hard to put food on their tables for much of the past two years. 60 to 80% of the local workforce have traditionally relied heavily on tourism, and since borders closed in March 2020, the number of visitors has dropped from six million down to one. As part of Bali’s recovery, our church partners have spoken out about the importance of vaccination, shared health information, provided hope and innovated barter services and links between rural and urban communities to trade essential items. The church has punched well above its weight supporting people throughout the pandemic and are looking forward to going into the new year stronger and more resilient than ever.

Thanks for praying for our friends across Indonesia and Southeast Asia this year, and from the whole team, Happy Christmas to you all!

Make God’s love for the world known this Christmas and give a gift to bring hope and beat poverty:

www.unitingworld.org.au/sharelove

by
Blogs
December 17, 2021

“Star of wonder, star of night.”

As we draw nearer to Christmas, I find myself reflecting upon the rich metaphor of light and dark within the story of Jesus’ birth. The first century, of course, was a place only sporadically lit by fire and torchlight, so stars were a source of intense interest. Matthew’s tale of an unusual celestial light in the night sky not only heralds the birth of a king, but the inbreaking of a new way of seeing and being in the world.

For so many people, the last two years have been dark. In the midst of this black night, our partner churches have been torchbearers, providing moral, spiritual and practical leadership in their communities. They’ve communicated vital information about hygiene and physical distancing; preached against fear, misinformation, and domestic violence; reinforced medical and public health messages; delivered soap, masks, and food to those left jobless and isolated; sourced oxygen tanks for hospitals; and set up livelihoods projects and barter systems to help people survive lockdown.

As a global church, we are responding in a powerful way to the call for love and justice, even in the face of a pandemic, and with war, cyclones, and climate change ever in the background. Thank you for being with us every step of the way.

In July 2020, I was preparing for a loss of half our income. But we thank God that through our faithful supporters’ unstinting generosity; our government stepping up to support our region; and a welcome investment return, we didn’t have to cut back support to our partners.

In 2022, we look forward to sharing with you our new strategic plan. We know that we face serious global uncertainty, but we remain firmly rooted in our identity, with you at our backs and our partner churches calling us to exciting new work. We will adapt and respond to this evolving context, but the light we share in God’s service will not change.

My best wishes to you and your family for Christmas,

Sureka

Dr Sureka Goringe
National Director
UnitingWorld

P.S. We’ve just finished preparing our Annual Report for the 2021 financial year. It shows what we and our partners achieved together with your generous support. Thank you so much for making it possible!

Click here to read the Annual Report 2021

With your help, we shared hope and dignity with 464 495 people, including:

229,310 Women

134,026 Children

6,783 People with Disability

What we achieved together:

Ending poverty and fighting for justice: 383,847 accessing poverty alleviation & social empowerment programs

Critical support during emergencies: 44,957 received care and health education during the pandemic and other disasters

Local leadership and capacity strengthened: 13,803 people participated in training to take control of their own futures

Equality for women and men; lifting up women and girls: 23,109 men and women engaged with our gender equality program

It couldn’t have happened without you.

We received 11,212 gifts from donors

15 people chose to leave a legacy for life through a bequest

We visited 39 churches to pray and encourage congregations

God’s love for the world began with one life, born in the most humble of places among the most ordinary of people. This is how it continues: one person at a time; one life lifting up another.

Thank you!