Articles reflecting on how Christians might understand the pandemic.
An American Jesuit priest reflects on where God is in the pandemic and concludes that Jesus is a model for how we are to care during this crisis: with hearts moved by pity.
Tom Wright, a British biblical scholar, reflects on the corona virus and concludes that Christianity offers no answer to it, because it’s not supposed to.
Another reflection on how we might understand this Easter. The author says, “there is nothing good about this virus, but that does not mean that good cannot come out of it.
Links for online worship, guides for daily prayer and Bible readings and worship activities ot try at home
The Uniting Church's national Assembly has lots of resources including links to quite a number of congregations Australia-wide that are offering either recorded services or live-streamed services that others can watch. See below for a list of more specific links.
The Synod of Victoria and Tasmania has a range of resources including both livestreamed and recorded church services, together with prayers and reflections. ‘Live-streamed’ refers to being able to watch the service as it happens. You need to check the church’s website beforehand to find out how to get in.
Some extra information about the Vic-Tas website for those who don’t often use the internet except to send and receive emails:
- You will see that there are headings in bold with a plus sign (+) beside them. If you click on the + it will expand to provide a range of links. Any text that is a different colour is a click-able link.
- If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will see a section called “Related documents”. All the red ones are actual documents. The green one is an audio-file.
- If you click on the “download” button next to the file name, it will offer you a format that you can save on your computer. The audio file is an MP3 and the others are PDFs. You should have a little window open which tells you the name of the file and asks if you want to open it or save it. DO NOT select ‘save’ because that will save it in your downloads folder, and it will be difficult for you to find. Instead, click on ‘open’ and you can then read it on the screen, save it somewhere where you can find it or print a copy.
- Underneath the red download button you will see the word “Preview”. If you click this instead, the files will open as a webpage on your computer and you can read the text files directly or click on the audio file to get it to play.
Worship from our Presbytery
Waranga Uniting Churches is a congregation in our Presbytery – there is also a link to this from the Vic-Tas site.
Wangaratta Uniting Church another congregation in our Presbytery
Other places around the Uniting Church
(In alphabetical order)
Brunswick Uniting Church in Melbourne in Melbourne
Glen Waverley Uniting Church Vic
Hope Uniting Church Maroubra NSW
Redcliffe Uniting Church in Perth, WA home page. Follow the link to online worship.
St Mark’s Uniting Church Mornington’s weekly service on Youtube
St Leonards' Uniting Church Brighton Vic
Saltbush Sunday’s @9! (contact saltbush@nswactg.uca.org.au) Saltbush on Facebook or https://nswact.uca.org.au/saltbush/
Uniting By the Bay Chelsea-Carrum Vic
Western Heights Uniting Church in Geelong
And other resources
The United Methodist Church in the UK has a website with services and resources. It includes an at-home service that you can use if you can’t get to a funeral. Remember if you are keen to try one of their services that we are currently 9 hours ahead of them, so their morning services happen quite late at night our time!!
At home worship resources from the Presbytery of Gippsland - a range of options from a number of congregations
An article in Insights by Rev Elizabeth Raine, minister of Tuggeranong Uniting Church in Canberra about creating a sacred space in your home.
While you are on the site, you might like to browse the other articles. You can go back at any time by visiting the home page: https://www.insights.uca.org.au/ Crosslight, the Vic-Tas Synod magazine is also available online at https://crosslight.org.au/. Those who attended the first livestream service from the Assembly Facebook page might find the interview with Rev Alex Sangster particularly interesting and if you have time on your hands, Journey is the Queensland Syond’s magazine https://journeyonline.com.au/ New Times comes from South Australia https://sa.uca.org.au/new-times/ and Revive is from Western Australia https://revivemagazine.org.au/.