November 2025 News Update

When Kings Build Ballrooms

You may have seen the news this month that in the United States, President Trump has demolished the White House’s East Wing to make way for a $300 million gilded ballroom, constructed at the very moment the U.S. government was shut down and millions of America’s poorest families were missing meals because food aid had stalled.

I also came across reporting in The New Yorker about the humanitarian fallout from the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID, America’s overseas development program. The shutdown was undertaken at the urging of Elon Musk,  the world’s richest man, who may become the world’s first trillionaire. According to modelling, it has already resulted in the likely deaths of around 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children.

It is outrageous that those with almost unimaginable wealth and power, driven by the pursuit of ever more, can so recklessly disregard the lives of the poorest. Their actions brought to my mind one of the Old Testament’s sharpest prophetic critiques. In Jeremiah 22:13-17 (worth reading in full), the prophet rebukes King Shallum for building palaces “with unrighteousness”; spacious upper rooms, large windows, lavish timber panelling and ostentatious decoration, while injustice thrived, and the poor were neglected and exploited. Jeremiah unequivocally condemns those in positions of power that use it for self gain, insisting that the point of power is to  “do what is right and just” and “defend the cause of the poor and needy.” Going so far to remind us that wielding power this way is what it means to know the Lord.

In stark contrast to those that use power in ways that wound the poor and enriches the powerful, I’ve seen our movement seek to live out a different vision, one that reflects what it truly means to know the Lord.

This was evident at this month’s Let Justice Flow conference, where hundreds of Christians gathered in Canberra, not for their own interest, but to use their voice and their influence for the sake of others. They came from across the country and across the breadth of our denominational landscape. They gave of their time, their money, and their energy to listen at the feet of First Nation leaders and climate experts. They prayed, learnt, and lamented together, and then met with MPs across the political spectrum. They called for justice for the most vulnerable and protection of the planet. 

Thank you for being part of this movement; a people who yearn to know the Lord, who bend their lives toward what is right and just, and who use their power on behalf of the poor and the vulnerable. Your courage and compassion are a defiant protest against the world’s false uses of power, and a witness to the new world God is bringing.

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November 2025 Updates

Starting this coming Monday, December 1, Common Grace is excited to share a special daily email devotional for Advent 2025. Join us as we reflect on love breaking through in the birth of Jesus - a love that challenges injustice, lifts the weary, and turns the world upside down with grace and mercy. Sign up to receive the series from 1–25 December. As this is our final eNews for the year, we want to say a heartfelt thank you for pursuing Jesus and justice with us in 2025. We can’t wait to continue walking alongside you in 2026.

Aboriginal Sunday, held the Sunday before January 26, invites churches to reclaim William Cooper’s call to stand in solidarity and pray for justice and the flourishing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Sign up for our 2026 Aboriginal Sunday Church Resources, created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Leaders, to help your church learn, pray, and act together. Learn more and sign up here.

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We invite you to join us in prayer for all who live with conflict and persecution. In Gaza, even a fragile ceasefire has not meant safety - aid remains restricted and families survive in fear amid the rubble. In Sudan, violence is escalating as international actors plunder the country’s gold. And eight years after the Rohingya were ethnically cleansed from Myanmar, nearly a million people remain in the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh. 

As we look toward 2026, our commitment deepens. We will continue to call for Australia to shoulder its fair share of global responsibility by increasing our humanitarian intake to 27,000 places. 

Common Grace is proud to release the first report in our two-part climate series with NCLS Research. The findings show encouraging progress - more church leaders and congregations recognising creation care as integral to faith and taking practical steps like integrating environmental concerns into worship and installing solar. Yet many remain unsure or inactive. We pray this sparks renewed action. 

Thank you to all who completed our recent climate survey - your insights will shape the second report in early 2026.

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Last month, Ellaina Welsman, Common Grace's Domestic and Family Violence Justice Coordinator, joined with Domestic and Family Violence experts to facilitate Active Bystander training at Contend Conference, hosted by Coast Community Church on the Central Coast, NSW. In 2026 Common Grace will join with The Cottage Counselling Centre to provide Bystander training in and around Sydney. Contact Ellaina to find out more information. 

We are currently journeying together through 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence - it’s not too late to sign up here.

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Thank you for joining us throughout the year as we have sought to live out justice, grace, and goodness together.

With deep gratitude,
Gershon Nimbalker

Common Grace National Director