From the 21st March to the 26th March 2006, the Scripture Union is holding its annual conference in Alexandra Park, Queensland with the theme of ‘celebrating our past and shaping our future.’
Over a span of 4 days participants are given an opportunity to celebrate a different sub theme each day where keynote speech will reflect this theme. The four themes are:
-Celebrating God through the Bible and Prayer: Reconnecting people in a fractured and diverse culture with Biblical truth. The speaker will be Deborah Storie who has served as a cross-cultural community development worker with TEAR in Afghanistan.
-Celebrating our Mission: Revisiting what it means to reach children/young people in their world. Geoff Westlake served with OAC Ministries in WA as an Outreach Specialist in Christian Education and Community Development. He is in often engaged in evangelism at schools, camps and public meetings.
-Celebrating our relationship with churches: Responding to the shape of today’s church in its mission. Cheryl Catford is the principal of Tabor College Victoria with 500 students and 20 staff. She currently serves on the national board of TEAR and the board of reference for a Christian women’s magazine.
-Celebrating voluntary involvement: Partnering together to serve freely from the heart. Peter Heyworth is the coordinator of Volunteer Services with The Royal Society for the Blind SA, a workforce of some 900 volunteers providing a range of services to about 9500 blind and vision impaired people in SA.
Each day begins with a biblical reflection by the Chairman of SU International, Colin Sinclair followed by the keynote speech. Colin Sinclair is currently the pastor of Palmerston Place Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh, the convener of the Board of National Mission's Mission and Evangelism Committee, and the vice chair of Spring Harvest Council of Management.
After the reflection a seminar will be given to address how these can be put into practice in two folds, which are individually and their respective ministry. Finally there will be a time of celebration and relaxation for all the participants.