May 2007
Issue 26, Number 4
PP 565 001/00190 ISSN 0726-2612
‘Work for reconciliation’ Nicholas Kerr
AUSTRALIAN churches – including the Uniting Church – are renewing their commitment to work with and for Aboriginal people. Uniting Church President, Rev Gregor Henderson, said this in Adelaide last month. “We need to recommit ourselves to reconciliation,” he said. He also recalled the 40th anniversary of the May 27, 1967 Aboriginal Rights Referendum. The referendum gave citizenship rights to Aboriginal people. It required them to be included in the national census and gave the Commonwealth Government the power to make laws for Aboriginal people. “In the last decade or so, and particularly the last five or six years, Aboriginal needs and aspirations have dropped off the national agenda,” Gregor said. Gregor led a delegation of Uniting Church and Congress (Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress) leaders to Port Augusta late last year. “The Port Augusta visit brought home to us the fact that there are things happening in Aboriginal communities at the moment with relation to government policy that really need to be changed,” he said. “Our UC Assembly Standing Committee resolved to work, alongside Congress, to bring Aboriginal agendas back onto the national agenda this year. “Obviously the federal election this year is one opportunity to highlight some Aboriginal issues. “Much more importantly, we need Australian communities to recommit themselves to self-determination for Aboriginal people. “Current Australian Federal Government policy seems to be to talk only with those they want to talk to, rather than to people across the spectrum of Aboriginal people in Australia. Continued on page 11.
Uniting Church Assembly President, Rev Gregor Henderson, was in Adelaide to speak on the possibilities of ecumenism at celebrations marking 60 years of the SA Council of Churches and other ecumenical initiatives in SA.
New focus on Indigenous issues
Some of the tent accommodation at Lakeview Transient Accommodation Centre, Port Augusta.
THE UNITING Church is calling for a renewed focus on Indigenous issues. It says Indigenous disempowerment is a national problem that must be addressed. The call has come from the Assembly Standing Committee following the visit of church leaders to Port Augusta in November at the request of the UAICC (Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress). A delegation lead by Uniting Church President Rev Gregor Henderson visited the Lakeview Transient Accommodation Centre. They found conditions that would not be tolerated by the majority of Australians. Continued on page 11.
inside… International partnerships $10m for church Walking a sacred path
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Eastern youth
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Iona visitor
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New head at UCWPA
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Caring during drought
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Thai visitors
Please hand out at your church door