Day 3 at Synod at Canterbury Racecourse...

So many people are telling stories that value lay education... thanks to the many people who are promoting and talking about ELM offerings! Thanks for being ambassadors...  word of mouth is always better than brochures. Keep telling those stories.

We are, of course, being asked to do more and more with less and less... our two project workers finish in 2010 and 2011 respectively and yet demand is rapidly increasing. So we will need more volunteer trainers and more helpers. Please think carefully about who you could encourage to lend their support.

Starting the year with the cricket at the SCG is always wonderful, never more so than this year with an amazing Australian win over Pakistan. The ELM office is open and work has commenced with planning for a grand year ahead. Please keep an eye on the website... lots of biblical studies,, sacraments and living values and plenty of opportunities for trainers to be briefed and accredited for these.

We are looking forward to Synod in April - for any of you who have never been to Synod... please let us know and we can arrange to meet up.  :) Amelia

The Peacemaking and Discipleship study guide and DVD 'Putting God's Peace in to Practice' is now available to purchase from Mediacom. The national Director for theolgy and Discipleship, Rev Dr Chris Walker, Ms Shannon Dillon and ELM Director, Rev Amelia Koh-Butler, co-authored this new resource which should be suitable for Lenten and Post-Easter Study Groups. (Also usable at other times).

This study book is a resource for Uniting Church congregations, study groups, and individuals who want to examine the Christian call to peacemaking and explore how each of us can practice peace in our lives.

Both DVD ad study guide are available from www.mediacom.org.au or call 1800 811 311

Study Guide, Uniting church Press, 66  pages, paperback

product code: UCP257 $12.95

DVD, Uniting Church Press, Product code UCP259 $19.95



Chris Lockley has been uploading audiovisual resources for congregations to use in worship. Check out the Resource Ministry downloads page!

(And I'm posting this from my new Squarespace iPhone app - how cool is that! Linz.)

October is holiday time... Jorge, Lindsay and Amelia will all be taking some time off, but Natasha and Chris will still be around.

We plan on coming back refreshed and ready to go!

I write from the floor of the Assembly meeting.

Great Working Groups and interesting people from all over the place...

big ticket items are:

- what do we say to the Northern Territory interventions policy?

- how should we regard and share our properties?

- should we change our constitution? > which led to a decision to talk less about the institutional structural stuff and more about the purpose of the Church and how we should be shaped by reading the Basis of Union in the current context!

- should we have a pre-amble to the constitution that acknowledges the First Peoples of this land and our heritage?

- how do we respond to the current needs of creation (incl. climate change)?

...more to come...

Last week was the 'Nurturing Growth' Lay Ministry In-service. Thanks to everyone who made it such a great success! 50 Lay Pastors, Pastors, Supporters, Lay Preachers and Children's and Families Workers made up the community. It was a time of inspiration, networking, skilling and sharing. Everyone is exhausted but delighted. What wonderful people!

Congratulations to those who have moved on to the next stage of recognition as Lay Pastors. Best wishes to those who are in the process of transitoning to Ordination.

The staff briefly touched base as they prepare to launch straight into talks with counterparts from across the country in Caloundra tomorrow. In particular, we are interested in sharing ideas about what it means to live and grow as disciples and what resources are needed to support them. We are looking forward to coming back with 'goodies' from other Synods.

I write from Tullamarine Airport after attending the Victoria-Tasmania Synod Lay Preacher Association Gathering in Melbourne at CTM (Centre for Theology and Ministry). What a wonderful group of people and so committed to great local ministry. I heard first-hand about their work post-bushfires and was inetersted in the diverse communities they serve. I will be including some of the papers and sessions I presented on the Downloads section.

I have just spoken with Lindsay, who is in a car with Darren Wright (Lay Pastor Candidate & Riverina Presbytery Youth Worker). They have just been working with Rev Anne Ryan at the Talking Faith (Intro to Theology School) in Wagga Wagga. Again, I could hear the satisfaction and excitement in their voices. Lay Preachers (and Candidates) are doing the most cutting-edge and exciting theology!

Chris has been in Parkes (Macquarie-Darling) this weekend doing a Preaching workshop - largely focussed at younger and emerging models of ministry... is there a theme emerging here?

Jorge has been emailing all and sundry this weekend with news about developments for Pastors - in particular, the first meeting of the Synod Pastor Committee, who will be dealing with appications from people offering themselves beyond their local setting for Placements as Pastors.

God is very active and we are getting glimpses of lots of activity among lay people, called to learn to serve God and te world in fresh ways.

- Amelia

Having only just finished updating the look of our website, we ran into further problems in February. Our hosting service changed their server system and suddenly all our contact forms and online registration forms stopped working! Despite working with our hosts on a number of different ways around the problem, we were unable to get things working again. This difficulty, along with the fact that we needed more room than was being offered to us (for free) by our hosts, led us to considering new alternatives.

We have now moved our site to a paid hosting service which also provides a CMS-like backend (for you techo types). Hopefully our new partnership with SQUARESPACE will be beneficial to all concerned.

If you want to give us feedback on the new site using our contact form or emailing the webmaestro, we would be very grateful.

We have also for the first time enabled commenting on this blog, so feel free to leave comments on any stories that interest you.