Ministry Blog

As weather patterns become more extreme, we experience more and more weather events that leave communities devastated by drought, fires and floods.

If you or your Church would like to give to these crises the Moderator’s Appeal distributes funds where they are most needed.

There are a couple of ways you can give to the Moderator’s Appeal:

To give by Cheque

• To give by cheque simply mark your envelope Moderator’s Appeal, PO Box A2178, Sydney South NSW 1235.
• Please make the cheque out to “The Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of NSW and the ACT”.

To give by Bank Transfer

Our Bank Account Details:
Bank: Uniting Financial Services
Account Name: Moderators Appeal
Branch: L9 / 222 Pitt St, Sydney 2000
BSB: 634-634
Account: 100044774

Once you have made the donation, if you need a receipt, please call 02 8267 4342. If you have any questions or concerns contact us by calling 02 8267 4342 or email fmsg@nswact.uca.org.au

To give by credit card
Go to the Moderator’s Appeal page to securely pay by credit card – click here.

For more information
If you have any questions or concerns contact us by calling (02) 8267 4342 or email fmsg@nswact.uca.org.au

Please note that donations given to the Moderator’s Appeal are not tax deductible.

For more information about how the Moderator’s Appeal assists in times of crisis go to the Disaster Response page – click here

You are warmly invited to remember, reflect and rejoice with us this Easter season.

We believe that the life and death and life of Jesus Christ are the climax of the greatest story ever told, and that the events we call ‘Easter’ mark a radical turning point in the history of the world:
a victory of healing over brokenness, Life over death, and Love over all, which continues to ripple down the ages. We think that’s a hope worth celebrating and sharing.

So please, join us if you can.

If you’d like to learn more:

• Visit us any Sunday at 9:30am for Family Worship
• Browse our website for service times, activities and opportunities to connect
• Contact the church or our minister Rev. Claire Wright.

We talk a lot about community and family and relationships here at Bathurst Uniting, and it is important to our identity and mission as a church that everyone is welcomed and feels that they belong. But not everyone finds it easy to connect socially. And sometimes it’s surprising how little we really know our ’neighbours’ – even within the church – especially since we’ve been blessed to add a number of new people to our fellowship in the last year – not least, our brothers and sisters from Perthville. How do we enfold people in Christian community – at, but also beyond, our Sunday morning gatherings?

I’d like to challenge us to make this month ‘Be-friending Month’. The challenge is, sometime during June, to invite to coffee/tea, or lunch, or dinner – or otherwise to ‘get together with’ – one or two people you don’t know well, or don’t usually socialise with, from church. Perhaps someone who is new, or on the margins a bit… Share a hobby, or a group, or a meal, or a film… Perhaps you’ll encourage someone and help them feel that they belong. Perhaps you’ll make a new friend or two. And if you’re really up for a challenge, try adding to the mix a person or two from outside the church. But please start somewhere, this month. ‘By this shall all people know that you are my disciples,’ said Jesus, ‘by your love for one another.’

Rev. Claire

Ordinary objects can be transformed and transfigured by light. I pondered this, with a smile, when I caught sight of this bright flash of colour, touching some of the things at the bottom of our stairway.

In December, as one of our services in the run-up to Christmas at Bathurst Uniting, we held a Blue Christmas service. A service for people doing it tough at a time of year which is otherwise so relentlessly jolly. For people grieving the loss of a loved one; facing an empty chair at the Christmas table; stressed or distressed by having to put on a ‘happy face’ for the holidays – and frankly, just not up to singing ‘Joy to the World!’ one more time… At our Blue Christmas service, we prayed together, and sat together, and wept together. We acknowledged that the story of the birth of Christ has its dark places, as well as its light ones: places of fear and loss, disruption and danger. We acknowledged that at the heart of the Christmas story is not an escape from this world, in all its pain and struggle, its questions and cries – but God coming into it. Not a promise that all will be well, but that God will be with us in the midst.

‘They will call him Emmanuel – which means, ‘God with us.’…