Annual off- versus on-campus match close

Josh Dye
Public relations editorial intern
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Watson Hall narrowly prevailed in a Twenty20 cricket match, Sunday (November 6), that pitted on-campus students against their off-campus classmates.

Watson’s tight bowling late in the game wrested back the annual trophy from the Allies’ grasp.

Batting first under sunny skies at Martinsville Oval, Watson scored 102 from their 20 overs.

The Allies, anchored by Bachelor of Theology/Bachelor of Ministry student Rick Meale, needed eight runs off the final over but could only score four to finish just short on 99.

First Women’s Forum builds community

Charnelle Mack
Public relations editorial intern
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Staff members and students raised $250 during Avondale College of Higher Education’s first Women’s Forum, October 12, to support a victim of breast cancer.

More than 150 female staff members and students—and president Dr Ray Roennfeldt in a pink shirt—attended the forum, held in a Ladies Chapel bathed in pink light and decorated with bunches of pink balloons to represent Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Assistant women’s residence director Mere Neale organised the forum. Her goal: to build community. “We not only wanted to do something for students studying on campus, but also for those studying off campus and for staff members,” she says.

The forum featured Kara Dale, an off-campus ministry and theology student, Karlie Fraser, an on-campus arts and teaching student, and Gaylene Heise, an assistant in the Distance Education Resource Centre, who revealed what they would tell their younger selves. “It was just reassuring for them to get up there and say, ‘You’re going through a storm right now but [God] is going to pull you through it,’” says Diploma of General Studies student Stephanie Donaldson.

The number of women attending and the number of positive comments will see the forum return at least once a year if not once a semester. And that is important, says psychology major and residence assistant Regina Amuimuia. “Issues that relate to girls don’t necessarily relate to guys and vice versa. Biologically, emotionally and mentally, we’re different.”

 

Mobile messages encourage students to speak freely at homosexuality forum

Nikarri Parker
Public relations editorial intern
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Anonymous text questions encouraged Avondale College of Higher Education students to speak freely during a homosexuality forum on the Lake Macquarie campus this past month (September 14).

Organiser Stephanie Bennett, a residence assistant, provided three phone numbers to which students could text questions for a panel of academics and ministers. Stephanie and two friends screened the questions before putting them to panel members Pr Mike Browning, a retired Seventh-day Adventist minister, Dr Bruce Manners, the senior minister of Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church, Dr Ray Roennfeldt, the president of Avondale, and Kristin Thompson, a lecturer in early childhood in the School of Education and a clinical member of the Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (NSW).

Among the questions: “Is homosexuality a salvation issue?”; and, “Are you born gay?” Another student asked whether prayer can help one change their sexual orientation.

While the answers from the panel members reflected the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s position statement on homosexuality—Adventists believe “sexual intimacy belongs only within the marital relationship of a man and a woman”—they also highlighted the biblical statements of homosexual sex as a sin and the biblical commands to love and accept all—as Jesus did. The theme of the discussion: grace, and that it is God, not man, who is judge.

“God’s grace is bigger than we can know,” said Bruce.

One of Stephanie’s colleagues, fellow residence assistant Hayden Ward, described the panel members as doing an “excellent” job of answering the questions. Stephanie agrees but adds “from my limited experience with these controversial issues, it seems most people just want a clear-cut answer.”

Perhaps this is why the conversation at the forum is one Ray supports. “It is absolutely essential that, on a Christian higher education campus, we should be discussing issues like this,” he says.