Easter Message 2023

“In the death and resurrection of Jesus is a call from God to new life in Christ. It is a call from despair to hope, from evil to goodness, from sorrow to joy.”

This is the reflection of Uniting Church in Australia President Rev Sharon Hollis in her 2023 Easter message.

In this year’s video message, Rev Sharon Hollis has invited three Uniting Church women ministers to reflect on what it means to have new life in Christ, sharing in their own languages.

Rev Heeyoung Lim from Leighmoor Uniting Church reflects in Korean on the Easter journey moving from the empty tomb to receiving the risen Christ with hope in the new life God has promised.

“It also means a daily commitment to following Jesus, seeking and enlarging the kingdom of God in my life, being a Jesus’ disciple and making His disciples.”

Speaking in Indonesian, Rev Kharis Abadani, Mulgrave Uniting Church, says living in Christ means living with the transforming power of Christ and to see God’s work in us.

“Living in Christ means living in the power of Christ’s resurrection in our lives. It means that we can also experience resurrection in our own lives.”

Rev Juliette Maua’i, St Stephen's Uniting Church Williamstown, recalls a famous Samoan saying, “O Uo i aso uma, ae Uso i aso vale”, which means “there will be friends for each day, but it will be siblings (or kinsfolk) in days of adversity”.

Speaking in Samoan, she says, “For me then, when I ponder in terms of the way of Christ, life in Christ, this Samoan proverb assures us that it is Christ with us in each day, and it is Christ assuredly in our days of adversity!”

The President’s message is a reminder that the gift of resurrection life is the hope that we have in the transforming power of Christ and the assurance of new life in our own lives and in our world.

Thank you to Springvale Uniting Church for hosting the location for this message. 

The Uniting Church celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity as God’s gracious gift to the human family. On any Sunday, around 45 languages, 15 of which are languages of our First Peoples, are used across our congregations.  We continue on our journey to fully realise what it means to be a multicultural church, living faith and life cross-culturally.

The video is available below and to download here, please do not share on social media until Easter Sunday.

DOWNLOAD A TRANSCRIPT OF THE MESSAGE AS A PDF

See the Uniting Church Moderator's below.