September 2026 News Update

Living Water for a World Out of Balance

A reflection on Season of Creation, Nepal and our call as followers of Jesus to live faithfully in a changing climate.

Spring has brought the return of warmer days, my children marvelling as the wattles burst to life, picnics at the headlands as we scan the horizon for migrating whales, and our family finding our way back to adventures in the ocean.

My parents grew up on the tropical island of Penang in Malaysia, spending their days surrounded by water, fishing, swimming, indulging in exotic fruits and char kway teow from hawker stalls by the sea.

I think it set the scene for the sea to always be woven into our family life. A place of joy, and in difficult times, a place of solace. There is something about standing beside the ocean, or beneath a sky scattered with stars, that draws me into the vastness and wonder of God, somehow drawing me both inward in reflection and outward in awe.

Spring also marks the beginning of Season of Creation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I’ve found this year’s theme, Living Water, one that I’ve enjoyed jumping into.

It comes from Ezekiel 47, where the prophet sees water flowing from the temple of God. At first it is a trickle. Then ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, until it becomes a river too deep to cross.

And everywhere the river goes, life follows.

It flows toward the Dead Sea. Years ago, visiting Jordan for work, I joined the crowds floating in its waters. It was a wonderfully novel experience, but the barrenness of the Dead Sea is a far cry from the teaming life of my local beach.

Yet it is precisely here, the prophet tells us, that the waters become fresh. Trees grow along the riverbank, fruit appears and leaves bring healing.

It is a beautiful picture of God’s purposes for creation: restoration, life and abundance. Yet it lands painfully in a world where creation itself is groaning.

This week, the latest Planetary Health Check landed - a scientific assessment tracking nine critical systems that keep the Earth able to support life: things like a stable climate, healthy biodiversity and oceans that aren’t becoming dangerously acidic. It found that humanity has now pushed beyond the safe limits of seven of them and continues to move in the wrong direction.

And on the eve of this Season of Creation, we witnessed a terrible picture of what an increasingly unstable world can mean. In Nepal, the collapse of a Himalayan glacier unleashed an immense torrent of ice, rock, mud and water through the Trishuli valley. More than 1,400 people have been confirmed dead and thousands remain missing. Communities were simply erased.

As our world warms, glacier loss and changing mountain conditions are increasingly putting communities like these at risk. We are bearing witness to how catastrophic those risks can become.

The torrent of mud, debris and ice that left devastation and death in its wake feels a stark contrast to the river spoken of in Ezekiel. There is something disturbing in the contrast that’s stuck with me.

So much of the instability and disorder we see; creation pushed beyond its boundaries, societies made more fragile, humanitarian crises left unanswered, and closer to home, children incarcerated, and women and children living in fear;  reflects our failure to live in harmony with the life-giving purposes of our good God. We fail to steward creation, to love God and to love our neighbours. And all creation groans as a result. Too often, it seems that what flows from us more resembles the life suffocating waters of the dead sea rather than the living waters in Ezekiel.

Last year, global military expenditure reached a record US$2.9 trillion, its eleventh consecutive year of growth. By comparison, official development assistance from the world’s major donor countries fell to US$174 billion, a fall of more than 23 per cent in just one year.

Among the casualties of the wider US Aid cuts was work in Nepal that had helped monitor floods, glaciers and other hazards and strengthen forecasting and early-warning capacity, precisely the kinds of systems an increasingly unstable climate will demand more of, not less.

This month, the World Council of Churches and other global Christian communions offered another vision. Their statement on an Economy of Peace begins from the conviction that peace is inseparable from justice. In the face of accelerating militarisation, climate breakdown and unmet human need, they call for our economies and our common life to be oriented instead towards the flourishing of people and creation.

This is the biblical vision of shalom: not simply the absence of conflict, but life restored to right relationship with God, with one another and with creation.

It brings me back to these two images of water.

The “Economy of Peace” statement feels like Ezekiel’s river.  Amid the barren and stagnant offerings of so much worldly power, it offers something that flows toward life, justice and the flourishing of people and creation. It is a reminder that another way is possible.

As followers of Jesus, I think our invitation is to step into that current. To discern where God’s life-giving water is flowing and throw ourselves in, and in the process resist the currents of violence, exploitation and indifference, and instead move into God’s work of renewal.

The second image of water it recalls for me, is the one I know so well. Oceans teeming with life. Whales breaking the surface. Children scrambling over rocks and discovering whole worlds in the pools beneath their feet.  The abundance, life and beauty with us right now - a gift from God - dearly worth cherishing, and protecting.

My hope for Common Grace is that we will increasingly be the kind of movement caught up in the living waters of God.  Deeply blessed by the beauty and abundance of his good creation, and part of a river - that wherever it flows, life abounds.

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September 2026 Updates

New Podcast Series As we journey through Season of Creation (1 September - 4 October), we’re reflecting on what it means to faithfully care for God’s creation in a changing climate. Our new podcast series, Faithful in a Changing Climate, explores how Christians across Australia are responding to the climate crisis and what our faith in Jesus calls us to do. Tune in as we listen, learn and consider how we can join with others in caring for our common home. Listen to Faithful in a Changing Climate

The much-anticipated Senate Inquiry into Youth Justice in Australia report was released on Friday 18 September, with findings and strong recommendations for change that confirms what communities, legal experts, medical professionals and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have told us for years: locking up children fails to make communities safer and does tremendous harm to children who need support. 

We continue to call on the Australian Government to act on this Senate Inquiry into youth justice and incarceration, and pray that this report and recommendations will lead to real change for children and young people - particularly First Nations children who continue to be heavily overrepresented in Australia’s youth justice system. 

Read more about Common Grace’s response to this Senate Inquiry report here, and explore our calls to the Federal Government for a more compassionate, evidence-based approach to youth justice.

At the end of August, we received reports that the Government was considering cutting Australia’s humanitarian intake from 20,000 to 13,750 places a year. Prime Minister Albanese subsequently stepped in to reaffirm the commitment to welcome 20,000 refugees each year. Common Grace coordinated a response from Christian leaders to thank him for this moral courage.

We’re grateful for this commitment, and we will keep advocating for a refugee system that welcomes people seeking safety. Our #EndTheWaiting campaign continues to call for generosity and compassion at this crucial time. Find out more and take action here.

Tuesday 6 October - Day of Action for the Fossil Fuel Treaty

On Tuesday 6 October, people of faith and communities across Australia will gather to stand with our Pacific neighbours and call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty.

Public gatherings will be held at the same time as the Pre-COP Summit in Fiji, where Pacific leaders will continue to push for action on the fossil fuel crisis that is already impacting their communities.

Gatherings are happening in -

• Cairns: 9:30am at Guru Nahak Sikh Temple Cairns, 289 Djarragun Way, Mount Peter
• Brisbane: 10am, St John’s Anglican Cathedral, 373 Ann St, Brisbane City
• Newcastle: 10am at Christ Church Cathedral, 52 Church St, The Hill, Newcastle
• Sydney: 10am, Leigh Memorial Uniting Church, 119 Macquarie St, Parramatta
• Melbourne: 10am at St Michael's Uniting Church, 120 Collins St, Melbourne
• Adelaide: 9:15am, Pilgrim Uniting Church, 12 Flinders St, Adelaide
• Perth: details TBC shortly

Find out more information on our website. 

In response to growing pressure on the federal government to strengthen action on domestic, family and sexual violence, we welcome the establishment of a new Advisory Council to provide independent advice on implementing the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022 - 2032. 

We’re also grateful for the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner’s latest Yearly Report to Parliament, which calls for stronger prevention and earlier intervention, as well as reform to family and legal systems that can be weaponised by people who use violence to further harm victim-survivors. Read the Commissioner’s report here.

We're grateful for the Federal Government's $308 million investment in 448 new crisis and transitional homes for over 22,000 women and children escaping family and domestic violence, announced earlier this month. Safe housing is foundational to safety and healing. For many women fleeing violence, leaving home - whether temporarily or permanently - can mean facing housing insecurity or homelessness, simply because there aren't enough housing options or the barriers to accessing support are too high. We celebrate this step and call for continued, sustained investment to meet the full scale of need. Over the coming months, we'll be sharing Common Grace's policy recommendations on domestic and family violence, along with advocacy resources you can use to help push for change. Stay tuned.