The Toukley Uniting Church is set in the midst of poverty, hunger, homelessness, social disadvantage and social injustice.  We are a hands-on church with many active community programs providing food, shelter and self-esteem to vulnerable people in need.

 

The centre of religion is to love God and to love your neighbour – ‘there is no greater commandment than these’.

 

The needs are great and we need to do more to play our part in making a difference.

Our programs are COMMUNITY programs

“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

 

Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

 

Karen Armstrong, Founder, International Charter for Compassion

Making Kids Smile – Christmas Present Program

The gift of a Christmas present is the gift that we are valued.

 

Children living in poverty have a bundle of problems. One is income poverty, not having enough food to eat or clothes the wear. Another is marginalization, the social disadvantage of not being part of normal society that leads to loss of self-esteem and self-worth.

 

For children birthdays and Christmas add to this burden as the well-off kids display their wondrous toys that poor children can never have. They find themselves on the outside of society looking in.

 

Our program addresses social deprivation by giving kids the new toys so they can be normal like other kids.

365 Project

Too many people in our community are homeless.

 

It’s late in the day, too late to find help. You’re tired, hungry and scared. Tomorrow you can get help but you have to get through tonight. As a community working together we can provide a sanctuary; shelter and a meal for somebody in need 365 days a year.

 

Coming soon.

Cleaning Kits Project – 2014

When homeless people finally find a place to live they get four walls and a roof.

 

Their new home may or may not be furnished, but it is certain there will be no brooms, mops, buckets or cleaning materials. Cleaning items cost a lot of money and these people don’t have much money, and there are no government funds to cover these costs.

 

We responded to this gap and gave 50 cleaning kits to UnitingCare Burnside Doorways. Each kit contained over $160 of essential items.

 

It’s late in the day, too late to find help. You’re tired, hungry and scared. Tomorrow you can get help but you have to get through tonight. As a community working together we can provide a sanctuary; shelter and a meal for somebody in need 365 days a year.