SERVICE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE MISSION TEAM
“Turning good will from a spark to a flame!”
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMES
- Electricity-Supply project in Salamo, PNG
- UnitingWorld - “Connecting communities for life”
- ”Everything in Common” Gift Catalogue
- Act for Peace
- Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN)
- Australian Palestine Advocacy Network
- Kairos Palestine
Electricity-Supply project in Salamo, PNG
The community in Salamo, on Fergusson Island off the East Cape of PNG, has lost its electricity supply due to degradation of their transformer and transmission lines.
This is a community of about 3000 persons, including a hospital, primary school, high school and a number of smaller businesses of carpenters, furniture makers and boat builders.
Ross and Beth Monk have travelled to Salamo - ... read more
Contact the Church office.
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UnitingWorld - “Connecting communities for life”
UnitingWorld is an agency of the National Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia. With a shared history of nearly 200 years, our goal is to see lives changed both in Australia and internationally.
UnitingWorld connects people and church communities in Australia, the Pacific, Asia and Africa to partner in God’s mission: overcoming poverty and enabling discipleship and faith-filled action.
Programmes of Uniting World include:
- Prevention of Child Trafficking in North India,
- Transforming lives through leadership – a programme with Pacific women,
- North Korea – Never Too Far,
- North India Kangra Girls Hostel,
- North Korea: Caring for Children,
- Pacific – Climate Change Response Program,
- Lifeline to Tonga – Support those in Crisis,
- Helena Goldie College of Nursing Training – Solomon Islands,
- Here and Now – Climate Change Response in Tuvalu,
- Seghe Theological College Solomon Islands,
- Fiji squatter Settlement Education.
The parish supports Uniting World through financial contribution, education and promotion of the work.
See the Uniting World website - Contact the Church office.
”Everything in Common” Gift Catalogue
“All the believers were together and had everything in common.
Selling their possessions and goods,
they gave to anyone as they had need.” Acts 2: 44-45
“Everything in Common” is the Uniting Church in Australia’s own gift catalogue.
This is the place to buy gifts that “feed the hungry, give sight to the blind, free the captive and bring good news to the poor.”
On this site you’ll find gifts that express our connection with our partners in Asia, Africa and the Pacific in the most practical of ways - providing access to health care, education, water and nutrition. We hope you’re inspired to share and to celebrate this life with our partners as together we live out the vision of the early church.
We have been running a stall to see these gifts to promote the work of Uniting World.
Check out the Catalogue. - Contact the Church office.
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Act for Peace
Act for Peace is the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia.
Act for Peace is a member of the global ACT (Action by Churches Together) alliance, which helps communities affected by poverty and conflict in more than 150 countries. We respond to all conflicts and work long-term in many of the world’s most protracted conflicts. For example, we have worked with partners for over 20 years in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Burma, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Indonesia, as well as in the Pacific and with Indigenous and refugee communities in Australia.
In building the foundations for real and lasting peace in the places where we work, it is vital to:
- Reduce poverty through growing community food, health and education programs
- Protect refugees and displaced people by helping communities to manage safe refugee camps
- Prevent conflicts through facilitating community-driven peace, reconciliation and disarmament processes
- Empower communities by helping them to lead this work and all aspects of their own development
We will continue to ensure that our projects are targeted towards those who need help most and where the most significant results can be achieved.
The Parish supports Act for Peace through:
- The annual Christmas Bowl Appeal
- Advocacy and campaigns
- Appeals for current conflicts and emergencies, eg:
- Philippines Typhoon Emergency
- Syria Crisis
See the Act for Peace website. - Contact the Church office.
Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN)
PIEN has members across the denominational and theological spectrum, as well as Christian aid and development agencies working in Palestine and Israel.
The group is calling on Australians to respond to the plight of Palestinians living under repressive conditions in the Middle East. ‘Our Christian brothers and sisters in Palestine are crying out to us,’ says the group’s co-convenor, Rev Gregor Henderson. ‘Every month thousands of people from around the world travel to Jerusalem to remember Jesus, but Palestinians living just a few kilometres away can’t reach the site.’ PIEN has launched a website and social media sites with theological and political analysis about the situation for Palestinians - more ...
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Australian Palestine Advocacy Network
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) is a national coalition of organisations and individuals seeking to influence Australia’s public policy in regard to Palestine and Israel.
The following are APAN’s objectives:
- To advocate for peace and justice in Palestine/Israel based on UN resolutions and international and humanitarian law;
- To advocate for an end to Israeli military control and occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza;
- To advocate for the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people in a viable and democratic Palestinian state;
- To raise awareness of the Australian public, and their leaders, by providing accurate information concerning the Palestinian people and their rights;
- To support capacity-building initiatives of institutions and civil society in Palestine;
- To encourage, co-ordinate and build the capacity of organisations which pursue the above objectives in Australia;
- To foster alliances between organisations which pursue the above objectives in Australia and the international community;
- To do all things incidental to attainment of the above objectives.
APAN’s member groups include churches, unions, Palestinian advocacy groups Jewish groups, aid and development organisations, Palestinian diaspora groups and other civil society groups. APAN’s executive reflects this diversity. APAN believes that balance needs to be brought to the public debate in Australia about the issues relating to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. APAN seeks a more balanced and principled approach from the Australian government in its policies towards the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and a more active role for Australia in encouraging all interested parties to bring about a just and lasting negotiated settlement. Read more about Palestine in Australian politics. APAN’s funding and membership are entirely indigenous to Australia.
APAN offers a voice for all Australians of goodwill who wish to express their opposition to the continuation of a conflict that should have been settled decades ago. A just and lasting solution is within grasp
APAN writes to the new Prime Minister
APAN’s letter requests that the Australian Government engage positively towards a just solution that recognises the security of both Israel and Palestine. In particular it requests the Government to affirm the illegality of settlements, and that Australia’s approach must include acknowledgement that Israel’s flouting of international law in regard to the treatment of Palestinian people is a significant impediment to peace. Read the full letter by Bishop George Browning, APAN President
Our Rev. Gregor Henderson has been Acting President of APAN, and continues to be active in support of their objectives.
See the website: http://www.apan.org.au - Contact the Church office.
Letter from our Rev. Gregor Henderson, published in the Sydney Morning Herald November 29, 2012
THE Palestinian Authority will seek recognition from the UN General Assembly for Palestine to be admitted as a non-member state in the UN.
There is strong support in the General Assembly for the resolution, with at least 115 member states, representing more than 75 per cent of the world population, expected to vote yes. Sadly, Australia will not be among them.
This resolution is not a wild gesture of abandoning direct negotiations. It is recognition, through nearly 30 years of experience, that when Palestine stands alone to face the political and military strength of Israel, it knows it cannot negotiate a just solution. Palestine needs support from the international community to help broker a just solution.
The resolution brings into the light the stark reality that Israel is an occupying power that has full access to all the benefits of being part of the international community - whereas Palestine currently has a half-baked status. In the late 1940s, the international community argued for a two-state solution, but this promise has only been fulfilled for one of those states.
Australia's vote on this resolution is important. Australia's election to the UN Security Council last month is an endorsement of our profile and our commitment to UN activities. Support for UN programs relating to Palestine has been a constant theme of Australian foreign policy since 1947 - one on which we have often claimed a prominent position.
Over recent years, Australia has claimed independent middle-power status while it remains among the minuscule group of those Israel supporters ready to provide cover for Israeli action, whatever its disregard for international law. This is why the move to abstention is significant. While it is a long way from decisive support for the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people, it is a step away from being a lapdog of Israel.
It was disappointing that the Prime Minister had to be dragged away from opposing the resolution by a strong public lobbying campaign, including by elder statesman Gareth Evans. Clearly, this move will not undermine our support for Israel's security. Rather, Israel's security interests are best protected by supporting an environment whereby a just and lasting peace can be achieved. And we must always acknowledge Palestine's security interests alongside Israel's.
Israel is running out of time on a two-state solution. If Western nations are to give real content to their support for a peaceful outcome, effective pressure on Israel is essential - not token commitment to an empty ideal that effectively allows Israel to tighten its grip on Palestine even further.
The vote should be a non-controversial issue. Israel has rashly chosen to make it another test of its international support - a test it appears bound to lose. Australia's abstention is a step in the right direction, but a yes vote would have put us on the right side of history.
(Rev. Gregor Henderson was Acting President of APAN as at 29 November 2012)
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Kairos Palestine
Kairos Palestine is a group of Palestine Christians who authored "Moment of Truth" - Christian Palestinian's word to the world about the occupation of Palestine, an expression "of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering", and a call for solidarity in ending over six decades of oppression. The document was published it in December 2009.
See the website: http://www.kairospalestine.ps/
Contact the Church office.
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