The latest Messenger is here

Joint chairpersons 
At the Elders' Meeting on Monday Sue Thomas and Jeff Kite were elected as joint Chairpersons.
John Williamson requested Leave of Absence as Chairperson of Elders for the rest of the year.  He remains an Elder.
In other church council news, the new Moderator Elect is the Rev Faaimata (Mata) Have Hiliau. 
Mata is currently Minister at the Northern Beaches UCA and she is of Tongan descent. 
She told the Synod gathering that she was a story teller and preacher.  Mata will serve as Moderator from 2023.
Mission Day meeting postponed unfortunately, but will be re-scheduled as soon as possible.
However the proposed Presbytery Retreat down for October has had to be cancelled for this year as some of the presenters are still in areas of concern in Sydney.
World Council of Churches countries.  We have moved out of the many countries in Africa to South America.
Today we pray for the lands and people of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.  Suggest looking up on Google and Wikipedia to learn more.

Support for climate change action
​Gloucester Uniting Church Elders have voted to support the climate change pledge from the School Students’ 4 Climate (SS4C)movement.
However the elders did not support the need for strike action but supported the young people’s appeal for stronger action on climate change.
The issue came to a meeting of Gloucester Uniting Church Elders  from Joint Chairman Jeff Kite on behalf of the Uniting Earth Team.
He said in 2019, the church synod resolved to develop a Synod Climate Action Strategy an as part of this they committed themselves to standing with young people in their advocacy on climate change, including through the School Students 4 Climate movement.
“Since then much has happened including the worldwide Covid 19 pandemic. Despite the resulting turmoil, the SS4C movement has remained active and adapted by holding covid safe on-line gatherings when required,” he said.
“Many hundreds of Uniting Church members and dozens of Uniting Church congregations have joined with young people invoicing their concerns by attending rallies or on-line events, displaying banners or messages on church noticeboards, posting supportive comments on social media, and taking selfies backing the CC4S in their call for FundOurFutureNotGas.
“Now the SS4C movement is planning another series of events in the lead up to the Uniting Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow in early November this year.”
Mr Kite said signing the pledge would demonstrate the congregation’s support for the students call for a post-covid 19 economic recovery based on renewable energy and not on fossil fuels such as gas and coal.
Meanwhile, the other Joint Chairmen Sue Thomas said in reference to the Climate Change message, it is interesting that 81% of Uniting Church members believe addressing climate change is an essential part of the mission of the church, according to the 1916 Census.
From the 2019 Synod, to develop a response to the issue of climate change, we need to
a)  develop a strategy to reduce carbon emission,
b)  advocacy to government and relevant bodies.
—Any comments to Jeff or Sue
 
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Mission

Our mission is to be a living presence of God in the Gloucester community and to
follow the example of Jesus Christ so God's transforming love may be experienced by all.

The Gloucester Congregation supports local, national and international groups, such as:

• SRE programme in the local high school
• Christian & Life Education in local primary schools
• Wauchope Aboriginal Youth Group
• Nungalinga College
• Broken Hill Outback Patrol
• Leprosy Australia
• Samburu Sponsorship, Kenya
• Lausanne Australia, St Andrew's School in India