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UCA Response
The Moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania responds to the bushfires:
The Moderator, the Rev Jason Kioa, has issued a pastoral letter in response to the tragic bushfires that has consumed Victoria:
Members and friends of the Uniting Church,
We are all deeply saddened and grieve the tragic events that have unfolded, and are still unfolding, across Victoria due to the bushfires.
Alongside acts of untold bravery and great generosity we have witnessed the horror and pain of death, injury, loss of homes and cherished items. Tragically the death toll will continue to rise.
If you are in contact with people directly affected by the fires please pass on the love, support and prayers of the Uniting Church. Even at this early stage we are aware of some Uniting Church people caught up in this tragedy in the worst possible way.
Our prayers go out to the bereaved, those who feel all kinds of loss so keenly and who cannot image what their futures might bring. I ask you to join a prayer chain across our Synod to support, care and contribute to their recovery.
Read the entire letter at the Uniting Church Media Room.
President's letter to Congregations: Retiring Offering for those affected by bushfires:
The President of the Uniting Church, the Rev. Gregor Henderson has again written to churches, requesting that every congregation of the Uniting Church throughout the country to hold a retiring offering for the appeal in the next few weeks. Read the full letter here.
The President of the Uniting Church in Australia responds to the bushfires:
President of the Uniting Church, the Rev. Gregor Henderson expressing his profound sorrow:
The Uniting Church joins with all Australians in mourning the terrible loss of life from the Victorian bushfires.
The horror of scores of lives lost, hundreds of homes destroyed and communities devastated, touches all of us very deeply. We thought it was impossible for the disasters of Ash Wednesday 1983 and Black Friday 1939 to be outstripped, but these 2009 fires, dreadfully, have done so.
To read the President of the Uniting Church in Australia's full statement, please refer to the Media Room.
Local Support:
On Tuesday 9 February, The Match Factory, the Outreach Arm of the Uniting Church in Busselton, loaded 400 kilograms of sorted clothing onto a TOLL truck for transport direct to the victims of the Victorian Bush Fires.
TOLL Transport are freighting these urgent items free-of-charge as part of the co-ordinated relief program Australia-wide and specifically in this case, through the special relationship between The Match Factory and Food Bank Bunbury.
The policy of “Give Local – It Stays Local” has taken on a special meaning in the present tragic environment affecting our nation’s life.
Worldwide support:
- In addition to emails from friends around the world, prayers and
support has come in unexpected places -- including the Methodist Church
of North Africa. The following email was received from Bishop Paul
Verryn.
To read Bishop Verryn's full statement, please refer to the Media Room.
- President of the Methodist Church of New Zealand, Rev Jill Van de Geer, is
launching an appeal throughout the New Zealand church for donations to be made to our
Uniting Church appeal. They will collect the NZ donations centrally, and forward
them to the VicTas Synod over the next weeks.
New Zealand Presbyterians have also been taking collections for our appeal.
- Board Executive Rev Dr Xiaoling Zhu for the East Asia and the
Pacific Common Global Ministries Board of Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) and United Church of Christ in Cleveland have donated $5000 to the Bushfire Disaster Appeal.
