Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of speaking on behalf of my side of politics at the 22nd annual national prayer service, which was held in the Great Hall at Parliament House, and of attending the breakfast on the following Monday. This event led me to think about matters of faith and politics. I want to mention and thank four churches, in particular, from my area of Blair which I have visited since the election and which do great work.

Firstly, I want to congratulate the Ipswich Region Community Church for taking the initiative of having a day of honour every year, which I have attended. This year, the day of honour was on 2 November. On this day of honour, they recognise leaders in the community—not just political leaders but firefighters, police officers and other people involved in the emergency services. The senior pastor is Mark Edwards, the son of the former Liberal Deputy Premier of Queensland Llew Edwards. He is a personal friend of mine. It is a great church of about 500 people who do great work.

The second church I want to recognise is Whitehill Church of Christ. Pastor Darryl Seip is the senior minister of that church. They have taken the initiative of employing a full-time social worker, Wendy Turnour, the sister-in-law of the member for Leichhardt, Jim Turnour. Wendy is a pastor in the congregation, and she uses her social work skills in a tremendous way to help women, particularly in disadvantaged circumstance. The Whitehill community church has taken upon itself the idea of presenting Bibles to people who become citizens of Australia. Pastor Darryl Seip always leads in prayer at the start of citizenship ceremonies. Both Whitehill and Ipswich Region Community Church do a tremendous amount of good work in the local area.

My own church, Ipswich Baptist Church—it is really in need of a senior pastor at the moment—does a lot of great work in vacation care, men’s groups and women’s groups. It is also involved in children’s ministry, with a full-time children’s pastor, June Lambourne. She does a lot of great work, particularly amongst disadvantaged children and also with RE. Pastor Tim Everett does great chaplaincy work.

There is another church I want to mention; I think it is the most extraordinary church. Pastor Fred Muys is from Harvest Rain Christian Care and the Rivers of Life Christian Church. This is a congregation of about 65 people. They run literacy programs and numeracy programs. They have converted an old drive-in theatre into a church complex for the local community. They do wonderful work in terms of providing food parcels to the disadvantaged and those in need.

The four churches I have mentioned make a huge communitarian contribution to my area. I commend all of them and congratulate the pastors of the congregations.