This is your opportunity to be involved in the advocacy work of the Uniting Church and our Agencies. Next Friday 19 April there is a very exciting opportunity for you to see a demonstration of the Uniting for Change website. You will hear about the aims and objectives of the website and find out more about Social Advocacy & the resources Uniting for Change will provide, to help your congregation/organisation achieve its advocacy goals. See UnitingforChange Launch Invitation Please RSVP to Wendy Hendry on wendy.hendry@wa.uca.org.au. We would love to see you there.

An apology can go a long way. But without action, it can also sometimes not be enough. Five years ago, on February 13 2008, then Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, apologised on behalf of the nation for the hurt and damage caused to generations of  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were taken from their families by forced removal as part of what became known as the Stolen Generations.

A former Uniting Church peace advocate received one of the highest international church honours in Sydney in February.

Throughout the Pacific, talented, creative, determined women are taking the future into their own hands and creating change for themselves, their daughters and their  communities. With the support from a new project of UnitingWorld, they’re standing up to centuries-old structures of power that have created cultures of abuse and  oppression. And they’re doing it in unusual ways.

Support from churches around Australia for the Christmas Bowl is helping to rebuild the lives of people from some of the world’s most conflict-affected countries, including Sri  Lanka, Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Burma/Myanmar. The Christmas Bowl is the Christmas appeal of Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

Sir Bob Geldof, rockstar and one of the organisers of Band Aid and the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts, raising millions of dollars for aid in Africa, spoke to a room full of parents, students and guests at Wesley College, South Perth as part of their 90th anniversary celebrations in March.

The world’s first Arms Trade Treaty is “a milestone in efforts to bring commerce in deadly weapons under much-needed controls,” according to the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The Uniting Church in Australia, Western Australian synod today expressed its sincere condolence to the families and friends of those people who drowned in the waters off Christmas Island.  It is thought that they were part of a group of asylum seekers who were making their way to Australia’s Christmas Island by boat.

Uniting Church justice staff from across Australia have joined dozens of organisations and thousands of people in calling for work rights for asylum seekers living in the community.   Senior Uniting Church spokespeople said they are proud to support the Right to Work campaign.

The Uniting Church in Western Australia is calling for voters to consider their wider community this state election. The election resources, Not Just Me: Making my vote count for our community, include non-party specific information informing voters of how they can really make their vote count for a better WA.