‘The Melbourne UCA Justice Coalition’ needs a better name but, for the moment, this labels an informal coalition of members from several Uniting Churches in or around the Melbourne CBD. Coalition participants presently include members of the Carlton, North Melbourne, Richmond, Wesley (Lonsdale St) and St Michaels (Collins St) congregations At the moment we don’t have our own web presence, so this is a ‘borrowed’ post on the Mark the Evangelist site while we wait to see how the coalition develops.

The purpose of the coalition is for participants to think together about ‘live’ justice and peace issues in our congregations and wider society, in order to learn more about them and to begin to act to make a difference. We’re just beginning to find our feet in this intention!

Meetings of the coalition are presently held online via Zoom. If you are interested in being part of these conversations, contact Craig (MtE minister) to be added to the email group for notification of meetings and events.

Two projects are presently in place: (1) attention to issues around asylum-seeking in Australia; and (2) promoting peace through diplomacy.

• An online event around the first project – ‘Shining a light on asylum in Australia’ – was held in October 2021.

• An online gathering on peace – “Peace and diplomacy and the part we play” – will took place on November 28, 2021; the recording of John Langmore’s presentation (John’s part only, not the discussion) can be viewed/downloaded here.

The next meeting of the group will be online via Zoom, 7.30pm Tuesday Feb 1, 2022