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News
August 31, 2026
UnitingWorld Launches Nepal Emergency Appeal
Flash floods struck the Nepal–Tibet border region on 26 August 2026, killing more than 460 people, with 1,400 still missing.
Donations received through UnitingWorld will be directed to the work of United Mission to Nepal (UNM), to provide:
  • Immediate relief: Working in the Dhading and Nuwakot Districts, United Mision to Nepal are supporting approximately 1,000 affected families with essential food and non-food relief items, based on needs identified through rapid assessment.
  • Response and recovery: as communities move into recovery, they will focus on education, including rebuilding damaged schools and establishing temporary learning centres, so that children can resume their education as soon as possible. The scale and scope of this recovery work will depend on the needs identified and the funding available.
You can help bring immediate aid and long-term support for people affected by the flash floods in Nepal.
Donate now! Make an online donation here or call 1800 998 122 (9am – 5pm) 

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News
August 17, 2026

Rev Cyrus Kung, Church Engagement Manager (SA & WA) at UnitingWorld reflects on his recent visit to Tacloban:
“I sat in a humid room in Tacloban City, Philippines, listening to Filipino theologians speak about what it means to follow Jesus in their context.”

I was there with Rev Philip Gardner, General Secretary, SA Synod, and Dr Sureka Goringe, UnitingWorld National Director, representing the Uniting Church in Australia at the 13th Quadrennial General Assembly of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP).

Tacloban knows something about resilience. Many will remember its name spoken in the same breath as the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013*. To sit there, more than a decade later, among Christians full of faith and fire, was itself a kind of sermon.

The Assembly gathered under a theme simple and demanding in equal measure: “Walking with Jesus: Journeying with the Anawim”.

Anawim is a Hebrew word referring to the bowed-down ones, the poor, those who have nothing left to lean on except God.In Mary’s Magnificat, the Anawim are the ones God lifts while the proud are scattered. And in Jesus, God doesn’t send the Anawim a message from a safe distance – God becomes one of them, entering the story from the bottom.

I had read of this theology before, but I was struck when I heard it spoken by people for whom it isn’t academic.They weren’t reflecting on poverty from a comfortable distance. They were reflecting on it from within and finding, in Jesus, a living reason to keep going. I thought of the communities we walk alongside in Australia: the newly arrived, the isolated, the ones for whom Sunday morning is the one place they feel truly seen. Different context, same gospel. The same Jesus who moved toward the least and the lost calls us to do the same.

This is what partnership through UnitingWorld means. We may be far away, but we are walking the same road. When we support our UCCP sisters and brothers, through prayer, through giving, through showing up, we are not offering charity from above.

We are joining a journey already underway, toward a world where the hungry are filled, the bowed-down are lifted, and no one is left behind.

* In 2013 Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Super Typhoon Yolanda in Philippines, caused over 6000 deaths in Philippines. Because the Tacloban area has a high population in low-lying areas, it was a major centre of devastation and loss of life.

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News, Pray
August 17, 2026

A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of near Flores island in Indonesia on Saturday. Authorities report more than 1,500 aftershocks and a briefly lifted tsunami warning.

  • Tragically, at least 68 people have been killed and more than 200 people injured as the quake damaged houses, hospitals, clinics and places of worship across East Nusa Tenggara province.
  • More than 19,000 residents are sleeping in makeshift shelters.  

Our partner, the Protestant Evangelical Church in Timor (GMIT) is leading a humanitarian response and we are releasing $5,000 from our emergency fund to help them provide rapid support to people impacted.

Please join us in prayer for the thousands of people impacted and our Indonesian church partners providing urgent aid.

International Partnerships Manager Rev Dr Apwee Ting has drafted a prayer for the people impacted below.

 

𝐀 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐍𝐮𝐬𝐚 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐚

Lord, we bow before You,

with broken hearts,

with our prayers and tears,

we come before You to pray for our brothers and sisters

in Flores and East Nusa Tenggara.

 

This morning, the earth shook with great force.

We do not know everything that is happening there,

but we trust that You see every home that has been damaged,

every frightened family,

every child who is crying,

and every heart that is grieving.

 

Lord, stretch out Your loving hands.

Protect and keep every community,

every family, every brother and sister,

and every friend who is in the affected areas.

 

With tears we plead with You:

be present in the midst of their fear and distress.

Give strength to those who have lost so much,

comfort to those who grieve,

and hope to those who feel helpless.

 

Loving God,

use human hands to become Your hands:

the volunteers, humanitarian workers,

government authorities, emergency responders,

humanitarian organisations,

and churches throughout Indonesia.

 

Unite us in love and compassion.

Keep us from turning inward,

and guide us to be present,

to help, to listen, to embrace,

and to walk alongside our brothers and sisters

through the journey of rescue and recovery.

 

Heal Flores.

Heal East Nusa Tenggara.

Heal every life that has been wounded.

 

And when the earth has shaken,

may their faith not be shaken.

When there is destruction,

may hope continue to shine.

 

And through our solidarity and love,

may they know that they do not walk alone.

 

Lord, we place Flores and East Nusa Tenggara

into Your loving hands.

 

“The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.”

Psalm 9:9

 

In the name of Jesus Christ,

we pray and entrust all things to You.

 

amen

apwee

15 august 2026

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News
August 14, 2026

When Antony McMullen, Church Engagement Manager for Vic/Tas, visited Bacchus Marsh Uniting Church, the congregation experienced a shared act of learning, listening and reflection, exploring climate justice from the perspective of communities across the Pacific.

Antony facilitated a simulation game that invited people to think about unequal power relationships and the very different impacts of climate change.

The room was divided into two teams: one representing Pacific Island communities and one representing Australia. A children’s colouring activity brought brightness and creativity into the room. The simulation helped show, in a clear and practical way, that those who have contributed least to climate change are often among those who face its sharpest effects.

This is not an abstract issue. For UnitingWorld’s partner churches across Asia, Africa and the Pacific, climate change affects homes, livelihoods, food security, safety and the future of whole communities.

Our partner churches are at the heart of local responses, walking alongside people through change, loss and hope. The activity did not try to offer easy answers. Instead, it opened space for deeper awareness and care, using gentle humour to help the congregation engage with a serious topic.

The visit reflected something central to UnitingWorld’s work: partnership begins with listening. It grows through mutual respect, prayer, learning and shared responsibility.

Australian congregations have a role to play by standing with our partner churches, supporting locally-led work, and keeping climate justice before our communities.

It reminded us that our relationships across the Pacific are not distant or symbolic. They are part of who we are as a church.

UnitingWorld gives thanks for congregations who continue to learn, pray, give and act in support of partner churches across Asia, Africa and the Pacific.

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News
August 14, 2026

We recently hosted our Annual Pacific Partners Forum in Nadi, Fiji, bringing together delegates from ten Pacific church partners from across the region with a focus on climate resilience and ending gender-based violence.

We asked delegates about the challenges they’re facing, what “abundant life” looks like in their communities and what partnership means to them.

Below are some of their answers and messages to you!


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News
August 10, 2026

About the role

This is a 12-month flexible/hybrid part-time (19h per week) parental leave cover position in Sydney CBD.

UnitingWorld is committed to working with local partners to support the development of effective Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plans and approaches that are locally-led and owned, demonstrate impact, enable learning and improvement, and ensure accountability.

The role sits within UnitingWorld’s dynamic international programs team, which is responsible for stewarding relationships with church partners internationally, and for ensuring that our program portfolio and budget is delivered effectively, accountably and in line with compliance requirements.

As International Programs Advisor – MEL you will lead our work around annual program performance and impact reporting; facilitate and accompany new project design and evaluation processes; and enable continuous improvement in team and partner MEL capacity and practices.

You will develop and maintain strong working relationships with the UnitingWorld International Programs team, Fundraising and Communication team, and with local partner organisations.

For more information, please email Stephanie Dalton: stephanied@unitingworld.org.au using the subject line: International Programs Advisor- MEL 

Position Description

About UnitingWorld

 

 

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News
August 6, 2026

Our church partners across Asia, Africa and the Pacific are working together to rebuild and protect lives. All possible through your support – read about your impact in our latest newsletter issue.

In the Solomon Islands, our partner the United Church in the Solomon Islands (UCSI), continues to build climate resilience, prepare communities for disasters and promote healthy, safe relationships. A team from UnitingWorld visited Solomon Islands in the aftermath of Severe Tropical Cyclone Maila and saw first-hand the impact of your support.

Along the India-Pakistan border, UnitingWorld and the Diocese of Amritsar are transforming entire Dalit communities — empowering children to pursue education, and creating lasting change. In 2008, just 38 per cent of children were enrolled in school. Today, that number is 100 per cent, across a project that has grown from 10 villages to 20, now reaching 9,678 people.

In Timor-Leste, UnitingWorld supporters continue to help our partner FUSONA to bring food security and health improvements. They delivered health assessments for over 120 toddlers and taught families to make nutritious meals. Child malnutrition has been reduced in the communities served.

In Eastern Indonesia, the Healthy Kitchen program initiative carried out by our partner, the Christian Evangelical Church in Timor, continues to provide sustainable solutions that strengthen household food security and improve family nutrition.

In Zimbabwe, UnitingWorld through partnership with the Methodist Development and Relief Agency of the Methodist Church of Zimbabwe has been supporting improved access to drinking water and nutritious food at schools.

In Fiji, we hosted our Annual Pacific Partners Forum in Nadi, bringing together delegates from ten Pacific church partners from across the region with a focus on climate resilience and ending gender-based violence.

National Director Dr Sureka Goringe also reflects on the two days spent with church leaders at the Christian Conference of Asia. She concludes:

We who follow Christ are called to rollup our sleeves and step into a suffering world with good news for the poor, healing for the sick, and freedom for the oppressed. We are called for such a time as this.

Are we ready?

Thank you for journeying with UnitingWorld and our partners to support the Anawim*. Your prayers and generosity are creating a world where the hungry are filled, the bowed-down are lifted, and no one is left behind.

*Anawim is a Hebrew word referring to the bowed-down ones, the poor, those who have nothing left to lean on except God.

Originally published in UnitingWorld Update Issue 2 2026

Download a newsletter copy here.

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Disaster Preparation and Climate Change (Pacific Region), News, Project Updates
August 6, 2026

A small team from UnitingWorld visited Solomon Islands in the aftermath of Severe Tropical Cyclone Maila and saw first-hand the impact of your support.

Our partner, the United Church in the Solomon Islands (UCSI), continues to build climate resilience, prepare communities for disasters and promote healthy, safe relationships. Rev Siera Bird, UnitingWorld’s International Program Manager for the Pacific and a Solomon Islander, shares what she saw:

How is disaster preparedness making a difference?

UCSI has been training Community-Based Disaster Risk Management Committees village by village. The communities I visited were full of gratitude, because the training meant they knew exactly what to do when the cyclone Maila hit. The UCSI team are really excited to see the community disaster committees activating early, just as they were trained, and showing people what to do and getting them to safety. It was remarkable to hear that no lives were lost in such a severe cyclone.

What changes have you seen on gender equality?

In Vanua village, one of the first communities to take part in the UnitingWorld-supported Gender Equality Theology training back in 2019, I saw real change. One woman, Lovelyn, told me her husband, who once argued about women’s roles and work, now cooks and helps at home. Rev Wilson Agiri, who hosted us in his church, spent much of his time cooking for us and caring for the sick in his community, work that was traditionally left to women. It felt to me like a whole community shift is slowly happening through God’s grace.

What’s next: clean energy for Solomon Islands

We’re thrilled to be starting a new project to bring solar power to ten remote communities in Choiseul and Malaita Provinces, replacing costly diesel generators with reliable sustainable electricity for schools, health centres and churches that are used as evacuation centres. More than 8,600 people will benefit from safer nights, better healthcare, refrigeration for fishing families and stronger disaster response. To deliver this project, we will need your donations to co-invest with funding from the Australian Government’s REnew Pacific initiative. We are working in collaboration with Caritas Australia and Baptist World Aid Australia, in partnership with several Solomon Islands churches including UCSI.

What do you hope for the future of this partnership?

I pray my people can enjoy the abundance and fullness of life God intends. Gender-based violence is still at crisis levels and that weighs heavily on my heart. People are very vulnerable to disasters, but there are many things we can do to help. I hope and pray we will have a closer partnership built on shared wisdom between people in the Solomon Islands and Australia.

There’s so much we can learn from each other.

Thank you for making this transformative partnership in Solomon Islands possible through your support.

 

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News, Project Updates, Remote Area Education (India), Social Empowerment for Excluded Castes (India)
August 6, 2026

In 2008, just 38 per cent of children in targeted Dalit* communities along the India-Pakistan border were enrolled in school. Today, that number is 100 per cent, across a project that has grown from 10 villages to 20, now reaching 9,678 people. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or joined more recently, this is what your support has built.

*Dalit is a term derived from Sanskrit meaning “broken,” “oppressed,” or “downtrodden”.
It is a self-designation used by social groups across South Asia who were historically marginalized in Hindu caste society.

This year, we commissioned an independent evaluation of the project, confirming what these numbers already show: real, sustained change.

Your support helped deaf children like Dalen to continue his education and support his learning. He is progressing very well, now studying in Grade 10 and playing the sport of Kabaddi at a high level.

Back then, literacy across these communities sat at just 40 per cent. Today, the project runs 23 study centres across those 20 villages, reaching families in 2,700 households, and more than 90 students have gone on to graduate university or pursue postgraduate study, the first in their communities’ history to do so.

“Together, UnitingWorld and the Diocese of Amritsar have transformed entire Dalit communities — empowering children to pursue education, and creating lasting change,” says Om Prakash, former Project Coordinator.

 

Power is shifting hands too. Since leadership training began, 1,665 people have taken part, and Dalit communities who were once completely excluded from decision-making now hold leadership positions on village councils.
Self-help groups are turning small loans into real businesses: Jaspal Singh, from Dyal Bhatti village, bought a jute bagmaking machine with hers.

“Starting my own business has been the biggest change in my life,” she says.

But of course, so much remains unfinished. Families raising children with disabilities still struggle to access entitlements they’re owed. Financial pressures bear down on families, forcing teenagers to take up daily wage work, and adolescent girls remain at high risk for dropping out of school. Border tensions bring school closures and movement restrictions that interrupt everything.

The former Bishop of Amritsar, Rev Bishop P.K. Samantaroy told us, “Getting to all of them and doing all the good we can is what the next chapter requires.”

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News
August 6, 2026

It’s often said there aren’t as many young people in our churches today, but the UCA has an impressive network of schools across the country, helping shape and inspire students to make a difference in the world.

UnitingWorld engages with schools in a number of ways, including running in-class activities, providing chapel resources and supporting students to fundraise for other young people around the world.
For the first time in 17 years, a formal gathering of educators, principals, board members and chaplains took place in June. Hosted by The Queensland Synod and The Lakes College in Queensland, the Uniting Connections Conference gathered around 70 people from 17 schools, colleges and other groups from across four Synods.

UnitingWorld’s Mardi Lumsden was there to connect and raise the profile of UnitingWorld as part of the extended Uniting Church family.

“It was great to hear that service and caring for others are really important for helping young people understand themselves and the world,” she said.

 

If you are interested in how UnitingWorld can connect with your school, please contact Mardi on mardil@unitingworld.org.au.