Highfields Anglicans

A Prayer for Refugee Week 2026 written by Charles Louwrens

Inspired by the Prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)

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Oh, Rock of our Refuge and our Hiding Place, the God who sees the oppressed and the displaced, the One who hears the cries of refugees and those seeking safety;

Oh, that You would bless us indeed! – bless those who stand in solidarity with people fleeing persecution, violence, and danger. Bless the hands and hearts of advocates, lawyers, and supporters working for justice and protection.

Enlarge our territory – expand the reach and impact of our work, advocacy for justice and safe refuge, so that more lives may find safety and peace, more stories may be heard, and more futures restored under the shelter of Your wings.

Let Your hand be with us – guide our advocacy, strengthen the words in our public discourse, articles, submissions and hearings; sustain us through, administrative challenges, delays and bad policy; empower us to uphold the law, human dignity, and international obligations. May Your presence go before us as we seek justice for the vulnerable and work toward family reunification and permanent settlement.

Keep us from harm so that we will be free from pain – protect us from cynicism, burnout, despair, and the weight of vicarious trauma that comes from bearing witness to so much suffering. Guard our families and communities, keep our hearts tender and our integrity strong, so that we may serve as instruments of Your healing and bearers of Your light, and may we never add to the suffering of those we seek to help.

Lord, during Refugee Week, stir Your Church and our nation to see Your face in the stranger, to open our lives and borders more widely, and to pursue a more just world where all people can find a safe place to call home. May Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, where the refugee is offered safe haven, the fearful are at peace, and the weary find rest.

In the name of Jesus Christ, who Himself was a refugee, we pray. Amen.

Refugee Week 2026 Prayer Together for the common good, finding common ground and sharing in common grace.

On 21st May, church leaders from across PNG, Australian faith-based NGO leaders and delegates from the Australian High Commission visited the Anglicare PNG literacy school in Port Moresby.

Delegation Visits Anglican Literacy School in Port Moresby to Celebrate the PNG Church Partnership Program - ABM Anglican Board of Mission On 21st May, church leaders from across PNG, Australian faith-based NGO leaders and delegates from the Australian High Commission visited the Anglicare PNG literacy school in Port Moresby. The visit was part of the events surround the signing of the extension of the PNG Church Partnership Program.

🌏 International Peace Conference 2026
Shared Humanity, Shared Responsibility
📅 Saturday, 29 August 2026 | Toowoomba

Registrations are now open!

Bringing together respected academics, faith leaders, community representatives, government officials, and peace-builders, the conference will explore some of the most important questions facing our multicultural society today. Participants will enjoy keynote presentations, panel discussions, dialogue circles, networking opportunities, and practical community-building activities.

📌 Registration closes on 31 July 2026, or earlier if all places are filled.

We warmly welcome people of all backgrounds, faiths, cultures, and ages to join us for a day of meaningful conversation, learning, and connection.

To register, please use the link attached to this post:

https://events.humanitix.com/shared-humanity-shared-responsibility-international-peace-conference-2026

If there’s one thing Jesus is opposed to, it’s hoarding—and it’s not just about physical possessions. The ego is the ultimate hoarder. It hangs on to everything. We hoard our entitlements: I am rich, I am educated, I am a person of authority. We hoard our principles and ideologies; we hoard our self-justifications and our resentments. We use all these things to line the nest of our fragile sense of selfhood.
- Cynthia Bourgeault

Giving Is Receiving In CAC’s online course The Divine Exchange, Cynthia Bourgeault considers one of Jesus’s parables through the lens of interconnection and abundance. For

From the reflection on today's gospel, Matthew 9:35- 10: 8-23:

In today’s Gospel, Matthew tells us that Jesus travelled through towns and villages, teaching, proclaiming the good news, and healing those who were sick. Then Matthew pauses and tells us something remarkable. Jesus looked at the crowds and was “moved with compassion.”

What is striking is that compassion begins with seeing.
Jesus notices people.

He does not rush past them. He does not reduce them to a problem to be solved. He does not see a crowd; he sees human beings. Matthew describes them as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” They are weary, anxious, vulnerable, carrying burdens that others may not even notice.

Jesus allows himself to see their reality.
And what he sees touches him deeply.

Reflections – HeartEdge Not as an idea, but in practice. Not something we admire from a distance, but something we can recognise when we encounter it.

We are suffering from the same fate. Please bear with us.

A reminder that our Toowoomba combined Anglican Church Healing Service is on Sunday at 5 pm, at St James’. All welcome.

Combined Anglican Church Healing Service Please join us for a gentle prayer service from the Anglican prayer book, with an opportunity for private prayer with a priest.

... when asked recently why am I still a church person - I quietly answered, Because I am in need of help. Perhaps now more than ever. I need help to pray, help to forgive (mostly myself and also others), help to remember that there is a bigger, truer story than the one I am being sold every day of my life on the internet. I am, as the gospel song goes-standing in the need of prayer. And I assume I am not alone in that.
- Nadia Bolz-Weber

I am in need of help. As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.”

Our email update is at this link.

Reminders and Updates Paul’s letter to the Romans. Over the next 15 Sundays we will hear large sections of Paul’s letter to the Romans, from chapter 4 to chapter 14. Although this is a letter, it’s also framed like a major essay, outlining the summary of the theology that Paul had developed over about 20 years of m...

Our next Movies That Matter is on Thursday 18 June at 7 pm at St James in Toowoomba.

We will be watching and discussing four short films on Modern Slavery.