The Transit Lounge

By Penny Mulvey

The headline of a Melbourne newspaper last month trumpeted “Men lead, women obey?” It was a feature article exploring a growing backlash against women leading in some Australian churches.

The Uniting Church in Australia has ordained women for many years. Here in the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania we have a female Moderator. Can we afford to take this for granted, or do we need to remain ever vigilant. Perhaps, even becoming outspoken advocates in the wider church community in support of women as leaders – in the church, in the secular workplace and in the home?

I write as an Anglican, accepted into the Uniting Church fold, a woman, a mother and, increasingly, a feminist, deeply concerned about gender injustice in both our own culture and the wider world.

By Ben Grundy

For some, ‘lucky’ wouldn’t be the first word to come to mind after having suffered the ravages of war-torn Iraq. Milad Yohana, an Iraqi-born Christian, knows all too well what such conditions can entail. Despite this, today, Milad and her family do indeed feel lucky.

World cup fanatics were dealt a bitter blow with the Socceroos abysmal performance against Germany. Here's hoping a lego recreation of England vs the US can soften the blow.

 

by Elle Shepherd

When my university offered me the opportunity to travel to Mexico to study for a year I was thrilled. How many people did I know who had been to Mexico to study? I was motivated by a desire to challenge my ideas about the world and experience a life very different to my own in Australia. In particular, I wanted to live the life of Mexico, a country we generally hear not much about in Australia. Previously, I had only heard stories of drug wars, gun battles and abductions filtered through news sources and friends. As a result, in the days leading up to my departure it seemed everyone thought I was heading for certain death and destruction at the hands of Mexico's crazed drug lords.

By Amy Goodhew

Last year I went to North Korea. It can take people half a moment to register exactly where I went when I tell them. ‘You went where!?’ they yelp. North Korea is considered the scariest of the so called ‘axis of evil’ nations and isn’t the usual travel destination for 25 year old Australian females.

I went with the Rev. John Barr, from UnitingWorld, the international relationships arm of the Uniting Church. Part of his portfolio is responsibility for a very unusual project – an aid project to a town in the far north east of North Korea.

The project has been set up and run by two quietly heroic and deeply kind individuals – the Hong’s. Mr & Mrs Hong originally hail from South Korea but had been living happily in Melbourne for some years. With their three sons grown and successful in their chosen fields, the Hong’s and their church, the Melbourne Korean Uniting Church, approached UnitingWorld with a daring proposal – to set up an orphanage in North Korea.

In the far north east of North Korea, the winters are bitterly cold. So cold Russia’s main port of Vladivostok freezes over. China has no access to the Sea of Japan (or as the North Koreans call it – the East Sea) so North Korea and their warm water port of Rason is left with a rare economic advantage.