News from Uniting Church SA
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Tuesday 12 August 2025
Renew 2025 – Resources now available
With Renew 2025 only 9 weeks away, we've created a range of resources to help you spread the word in your congregations. These include:
- A PowerPoint slide – for you to display during your services
- A poster – for you to print or email to friends and members of your congregation
- A logo – for anywhere else you can think of!
You can download these resources right now from the link below. And look out for more resources coming soon.
Don't forget to register for the event as soon as possible to assist us with planning.
Renew Grant
We're excited to announce that, with the support of UC Invest, the Synod is launching a new one-off grant for innovative projects flowing from the Renew event. This grant is available exclusively to attendees at Renew!
Iksan Presbytery youth visit
The Uniting Church in SA has had a long and fruitful partnership with the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of South Korea for more than 30 years. In the last week we have continued that tradition by hosting a visit from the Iksan Presbytery. The touring group consisted of 12 students from Year 7 to university age and their three leaders, Rev Lee, Rev Choi and Mr Seo.
The group was accommodated at Uniting Communities and in homestays, and had a whirlwind tour through many aspects of Adelaide life, history and culture. This included a wet and windy trip to Grange Beach, visits to Adelaide Zoo, Westminster School and the SA Museum, and learning a little about our First Peoples on a tour of Colebrook Reconciliation Park in Eden Hills. Culinary delights included the Pancake Kitchen, an Aussie BBQ and Tim Tams!
A huge thankyou to all those who made the trip so successful, including coordinators Rev Sue Ellis, Rev Kim Do Young, Rev Lawrie and Cathy Linggood, Rev Naomi Duke and Bev Tredrea; homestay hosts; staff at Uniting Communities and Westminster School; the congregations of Athelstone and Adelaide West Uniting Churches; the Blackwood Reconciliation Group; and everyone else who contributed to make this visit such an outstanding experience.
We wish our Korean friends an enjoyable next leg of their journey in Sydney, and a safe trip home to South Korea. We were blessed to have you here.
Online Morning Tea with Anna Wilson
Anna Wilson, our Graduate Disability and Advocacy Officer, will be hosting an online morning tea to share a bit about herself and her hopes for the role. If you are someone living with disability, know someone living with disability, want to help make your churches and facilities more accessible to everyone, or just want to find out more about Anna’s role, come along!
Anna says, “I am passionate about making sure that people with disability are involved and included in churches, and that churches are accessible for people with disability. I want to work with people with disability, and with congregation leaders, to find the best ways for everyone to be included and be able to participate in and contribute to congregational life”.
The online morning tea will be held on Monday August 25th at 11:30 am. Make yourself a cuppa, then join the Zoom meeting.
Meeting ID: 851 8043 2901
Passcode: 558413
Red Dove Cafe – it's not too late!
There are only a couple of weeks till the Red Dove Cafe is fully operational! We would like to invite you to sign up now and come and join the fun and fabulous opportunity to work with others and serve the community.
All welcome email volunteers.rdc@gmail.com to sign up and we will contact you about available shifts.
A new way of enjoying the Show
Come and experience a whole new way of enjoying the Royal Adelaide Show – combining volunteering at the Red Dove Café with a deeper experience of reflecting missionally on your observations during the day. This exciting initiative, offered for the first time this year, will be led by Rev Scott Litchfield from Mission Resourcing.
The whole-day event will begin with coffee or breakfast, followed by orientation and a time spent walking around the Show in ‘observation mode’. After doing a shift at the Red Dove Café, you’ll have another period of focused observation in one of the ‘worlds’ at the show, then regather as a group to share your reflections.
The program is entirely FREE, and is being offered on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th of September. Spaces are limited, so book early on the link below
UPDATE: The September 2 session is now booked out!
Suicide Awareness Banners available – Scots Church Adelaide
Scots Church Adelaide have two complete banner sets (Banner, roll of ribbons and ribbon box), available for free to a congregation who would be willing to hang the banner and associated ribbons between 10 September and 10 October 2025 and in coming years. If you would like to take this opportunity, please call Jill on 0409 178 465. Transport can be arranged.
Events
Weaving Lives Together
On Saturday 23 August, come and be part of an interactive day of learning and discovery focused on how God is working in our communities – and how we can join in! The event will feature small groups, electives, a marketplace of ideas, a ‘clearinghouse’ of community connections theology, sacred space for quiet reflection, and more.
Video from Rev Charissa Suli
Watch this short video in which Uniting Church President, Rev Charissa Suli, invites you to the Weaving Lives Together event.
Embodying God’s mission in a multicultural neighbourhood – an Awaken Adelaide Learning Plenary
The next Awaken Adelaide Learning Plenary for Missional Leadership is coming up on August 21.
Rev. Dr Karina Kreminski, Mission Catalyst from NSW & ACT Synod, will be speaking on the subject of Embodying God’s mission in a multicultural neighbourhood.
When: Thursday, 21 August, 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Where: Yarthu-Apinthi / Uniting College for Leadership and Theology, 312 Sir Donald Bradman Dr, Brooklyn Park SA.
RSVP: Please RSVP to mr@sa.uca.org.au for catering purposes.
160th Anniversary Service – Wesley Uniting Church Kent Town
Wesley Uniting Church Kent Town will celebrate its 160th Anniversary on Sunday 17 August 2025 at 10 am. Established in 1865 as the Jubilee Wesleyan Methodist Church, it became part of the Uniting Church in 1977 and has long served as a place of worship and community gathering. The heritage-listed site is recognised by the National Trust for its historical significance. The service will be led by Rev Dr Jonathan Barker, with the Moderator, Rev Peter Morel as guest preacher. A celebratory morning tea will follow.
All are warmly invited. For enquiries, contact Jenny Stewart at doug-jenny-stewart@bigpond.com or 0400 279 684.
Truth Telling and Listening
Glenise Coulthard, an Adnyamathanha woman, shares the story of her people, while Mike Brown reflects on his pastoralist forebears' deadly encounter with First Peoples in the Flinders Ranges.
This is a free event co-hosted by Pilgrim Uniting Church and Unley Allies with First Nations Peoples.
Date: Sunday 24 August 2025
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Unley Uniting Church, 187 Unley Road, Unley
20th Anniversary – Western Link Uniting Church
Western Link Uniting Church, formed through the union of five churches from the former West Hindmarsh Parish, will celebrate 20 years of worship at its renovated and refurbished premises at 93 Crittenden Road, Findon, on Sunday 31 August at 10 am. The Moderator, Rev Peter Morel, will be the guest speaker, and lunch will be served following the service. An open invitation is extended to all past and present members, their families, and former ministers.
For enquiries, please contact Marion on 0437 128 365.
Upcoming events
August
16 – Through their Eyes: Safe Environments for C&YP (Reporting) Refresher
17 – KickStart for Kids Fundraising Concert at Trinity Sessions
17 – An afternoon with Henry Olonga at Newland-Victor Harbor
17 – 160th Anniversary Service – Wesley Uniting Church Kent Town
23 – Community Connections – Weaving Lives Together at UCLT
24 – Sunday Evenings – Worship through Discussion August
News from the Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia this week includes:
Reflection of the week
Wisdom in Action
To get a real grasp of the gospel’s truth, we have to cross over and enter into solidarity with at least one person who’s different from us. For example, if we’re afraid of a different culture or religion, then we’d best head in that direction. If a certain set of people scare us, then we have to get to know them. For a while, we have to endure being with people who live or think differently and learn to view reality from their standpoint. Jesus says we have to love our enemies, because doing so is the only way to grasp the whole picture. It’s the only way to learn to love the other side of our own soul.
Father Richard Rohr
Prayer points
Jesus, you came to cast fire upon the earth, not to destroy, but to refine.
You call us to read the signs of the times, to see where injustice smoulders, where peace is mistaken for silence.
Give us eyes to see and hearts to respond. Awaken us to your movement in the world, in the cries of the oppressed, in the courage of the faithful, in the fire of your love that purifies and renews.
And when the vineyard seems barren,
when the race grows long,
remind us that you are with us still,
calling us to faith, love and justice.
May God’s Spirit refine us, awaken us, and send us forth; faithful, discerning, and aflame with love.
Resources to help people worship and pray together as a gathered community or at home. These resources are generously prepared by Rev Cheryl Wilson.
Positions and placements
Activity Facilitator – Beyond Limits Outdoor Education – Open now
First Third of Life Ministry Leader – Keiraview Uniting Church, Wollongong, NSW – Closes by 8 September
Centre Manager, Adare – Victor Harbor – Closes by 30 September
UC eNews is the weekly email newsletter of the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of South Australia. If you’d like to include content in UC eNews or on the Synod of South Australia website, please submit it by COB Mondays.
