July 2026 News Update

Faith When Creation Groans

There are times in our work at Common Grace when I feel like I can compartmentalise the different areas we campaign on into separate rooms. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice. Domestic and Family Violence. Creation and Climate Justice. Justice for People Seeking Asylum. 

This month has been a reminder that if they were ever actually separate rooms, the walls between them are very thin.

On Wednesday night, the latest Closing the Gap data was released, showing us again how much work remains on the path towards justice and reconciliation. There are encouraging signs that coordinated action and sustained attention can make a difference, including progress in employment, preschool enrolment, and life expectancy. Yet in some of the areas where harm is most severe, including adult imprisonment, children in out-of-home care and suicide, outcomes are getting worse.

At the beginning of the month, Australia mourned four women and girls allegedly killed by males known to them over the space of just four days. Two were teenage girls. Lives, families, and communities have been heartrendingly changed forever. Their deaths confront us again with the persistence of gendered violence and the urgent need to invest in prevention, reduce the barriers that prevent people from leaving violence, build stronger and more resilient communities, and change the attitudes and behaviours that allow violence to grow.

Across Europe, enormous and unprecedented wildfires have forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Firefighters have died trying to contain blazes intensified by extreme heat, drought and dry vegetation. The images are dramatic, but the underlying story is increasingly familiar: a warming climate is multiplying danger, destroying homes and livelihoods, and forcing people into displacement.

Meanwhile, the wars being waged by the United States and Israel have dominated international news.  Violence is spreading across the region, killing thousands and displacing millions, while conflict and displacement continue in Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the end of last year, more than 117 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced by persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations.

These are not the same crises. Each has its own history and causes, and we should resist collapsing them into one vague story of suffering.

But our faith also calls us not to separate them so completely that we fail to recognise what they share.

Christian faith gives us language for what connects these issues - sin. Sin is more than individual wrongdoing. Sin is the distortion of our relationships with one another and with creation, and when it hardens into systems, cultures and institutions it manifests as injustice. We see it in greed that pursues and hoards well beyond need, fear that turns fellow human beings into threats, control that seeks to dominate, and indifference that fails to show love as our neighbours suffer.

The apostle Paul writes in Romans 8 that the whole creation is groaning. This month, we have heard that groaning in scorched forests, grieving families, prison cells, bombed cities and crowded places of refuge.

Yet Paul does not describe this groaning as the final or inevitable shape of the world. Creation is waiting, he says, for the children of God to be revealed. It is waiting for humanity to become what we were created to be, conformed to the likeness of Christ and freed from the fear, greed and domination that bring suffering to our neighbours and harm to the earth. To be people that love God with all our hearts, and our neighbours as ourselves.

As followers of Jesus, this is what we aspire to; to become the first fruits of that hope. A people grounded in what God is already doing in the world, bearing witness to the promise that sin and death will not have the final word. We help one another imagine the shape of a different world, and then use the power, resources and influence entrusted to us to move our communities, systems and structures towards justice – towards a world that looks more like the one God intends it to be.

I know I can’t respond to every crisis or carry the weight of the world alone. But I can resist the temptation to look away. I can pray, speak, give, welcome, advocate and organise.  And most importantly, I can join with others - join with you - in the long, faithful and sacred work of renewal.

This is why we come together as Common Grace. Not because we believe we can fix everything, but because we trust that God is at work renewing all things, and invites us to participate.

May we become more fully the people creation is waiting for.

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July 2026 Updates

Our annual Let Justice Flow Conference, held on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, Canberra, is just under two weeks away. We would love you to join us in prayer - for our Common Grace team, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Leaders who will be joining us, conference attendees, and the Parliamentarians we'll meet. Please pray that our time together would be filled with wisdom, courage, and grace, and that every conversation would help build momentum for a fairer and more compassionate youth justice system. Sign up for our prayer network to receive updates and pray with us as we enter the halls of Parliament House on Monday 17 August.

At the beginning of this month, we had the joy of celebrating NAIDOC Week by sharing a special video featuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and community members reflecting on what makes their Mob so deadly. If you haven't had a chance to watch the video yet, we'd love you to take a few moments to watch it here. A huge thank you to CityLife Church for partnering with us to bring these deadly stories to life.

In the video, Safina Stewart leaves us with a challenging question to consider: What if the Australian Church intentionally looked for the gifts, wisdom and strengths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultures and communities? What might God teach us?

It's a question we'll continue exploring at our Let Justice Flow Conference next month, alongside our call for national youth justice reform. We'd love you to join us in praying for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders as they prepare to travel, teach, and share their wisdom, stories, and vision for a more just future where every child has the opportunity to flourish.

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During Refugee Week last month, we celebrated Australia's long history of welcoming people seeking safety, marking the milestone of one million refugees welcomed over the past 75 years. Now, we're inviting you to join us as we help shape the next chapter. Through our renewed #EndTheWaiting campaign, you can meet with your local MP and call for a more compassionate refugee system. Whether you've met with an MP before or this will be your first time, we've created resources to equip you to advocate with confidence. Sign up to meet your MP here.

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Season of Creation (1 September - 4 October) is almost here! Join Christians across Australia and around the world as we celebrate God's beautiful creation through prayer, worship and action. This year, Common Grace invites you to explore what it means to faithfully follow Jesus in a changing climate. Through our podcast, devotional, online events, and practical resources, we'll ask: As Christians, what kind of people are we called to be? What kind of Church do we need to become? And how can we embody God's love and hope in communities experiencing the impacts of climate change? Sign up to receive Common Grace's free resources on our website today. 

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This month, Australia has been shaken by the alleged murders of two women and two girls in just four days - Lavanya Chappa, Jana Armstrong, Layla Jeffery and a 17 year old Yolŋu girl from Galiwin’ku were all killed by men known to them. We mourn the lives that have been lost, hold their loved ones and communities in our prayers, and stand with all those impacted by domestic and family violence. These devastating deaths are a heartbreaking reminder that domestic and family violence is a national crisis, and one our nation must urgently reckon with. As we lament this ongoing injustice, we also pray for a future where every woman and child can live free from violence. We invite you to join us in prayer using this collection of prayers written by Common Grace staff and supporters.

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This month, we invite you to join us in prayer for our friends at Kairos Prison Ministry Australia.

Throughout August, Kairos Prison Ministry Australia will be hosting a number of events across the country, creating opportunities for people in prison and their families to experience hope, healing and God's love. Please pray for everyone involved - especially the volunteers serving at each event - for safe travel, smooth logistics, and strength and wisdom as they minister to others.

You can also support this ministry by signing up for a prayer vigil to cover these events in prayer on the Kairos website.

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We pray these stories, opportunities, and prayers encourage you in the weeks ahead. Thank you for continuing to stand alongside this community as we seek justice, deepen our discipleship and join in God's grand work of renewal in this world.

Grace and peace,

Gershon Nimbalker

Common Grace National Director