International News at a Glance

• Canada Launches French Web Site
• First United Bible Study Held in Eire
• British Isles' Office Moves
• U.K. Tests Google Advertisements
• Home Office Helps With Europe and Scandinavia
• Bill Bradford Addresses Friends of the Sabbath Conference
• Canada Sees Responses to Letter and Beyond Today
• Australia Holds Leadership Training Weekend
• Australia Reports Sound Financial Position

Canada Launches French Web Site

For several years, Canada has maintained a modified French version of its Web site at www.ucg.ca. With limited resources, only a small portion of the Web site information was available to those who spoke French.

Recently Canada launched a new Web site (www.revuebn.ca) for the benefit of Francophones in Canada. This Web site has emulated the one that was produced by the home office. Having this Web site will give us the ability to add articles as our resources permit.

Some Internet ads are being composed to target specific cities in the province of Quebec and will tie into this new Web site. We eagerly anticipate an increase in subscriptions to the Bonnes Nouvelles magazine and are happy to be able to better serve this bilingual country.

Anthony Wasilkoff

[ back to top ]

First United Bible Study Held in Eire

Jan. 23 marked the first United Bible study in the Republic of Ireland. The venue was the Seven Oaks Hotel in Carlow, and nine people were in attendance. This included six baptized members, two children and one guest. John Schroeder conducted the study on "The Priorities of a Christian."

[ back to top ]

British Isles' Office Moves

Furniture, files and equipment from the British Isles' office were moved safely from Northwood to Chalfont St. Giles on Saturday evening and Sunday, Feb. 3 and 4, thanks to members and youthful volunteers who helped with the move.

Jan Schroeder and Sonja and Peter Hawkins are settling down in more space than they are used to, and John Schroeder now has an office to continue using his editorial and writing skills.

[ back to top ] 

U.K. Tests Google Advertisements

In less than two weeks a series of advertisements on the Google Internet search engine has led to more than 1,000 people in the United Kingdom clicking through to view one or more of the Church's booklets. These represent 0.22 percent of the 454,000 times that the offers appeared on a Web page that the viewer was looking at. The average cost was £0.10 per click.

Here is one of the advertisements that drew the highest number of viewings:

"Royal Family & King David

"The British Royals know they are descended from King David of Israel www.ucg.org/booklets/US/."

[ back to top ]

Home Office Helps With Europe and Scandinavia

For a number of years the British Isles' office has been sending The Good News and other publications in the English language to European and Scandinavian readers. The number of requests has dramatically increased recently as a result of Google advertising.

Due to the high cost of postage to these areas and limited U.K. staff hours, the home office staff has agreed to handle the mailings to these areas for the medium-term, perhaps three to five years. This will enable the British Isles' office to focus on growth in the British Isles.

UCG–British Isles will continue to service readers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands.

—UCG–British Isles National Announcements, Feb. 17, 2007

[ back to top ]

Bill Bradford Addresses Friends of the Sabbath Conference

On Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006, UCG pastor Bill Bradford addressed the Friends of the Sabbath conference in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, with a lecture titled "The Sabbath in the History and Experience of the United Church of God."

Sabbath-keeping groups attending the conference included the United Church of God, Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Reformed Seventh-day Adventists, Messianics, Christian Educational Fellowship, Christian Biblical Church of God, Fellowship in God, Worldwide Church of God and independent Christians. During the weekend attendance peaked at 460 on Saturday morning.

Samuele Bacchiocchi was the keynote speaker. His lectures included "My Search for the Sabbath at Vatican City," "The Sabbath and the Savior," "The Sabbath as a Time of Service" and "The Sabbath Under Crossfire: A Look at Recent Developments."

Dr. Bacchiocchi spoke very favorably of the United Church of God and the commitment of its members.

—United News Australia, Jan.-March 2007

[ back to top ]

Canada Sees Responses to Letter and Beyond Today

During the first two weeks of February, the Canadian office mailed nearly 6,600 subscriber development letters to recipients of The Good News magazine coast-to-coast. The letter offered the Bible Study Course and the Holidays or Holy Days booklet. Responses started to come in almost right away by telephone. Mail responses are beginning to come in at an encouragingly good rate.

The Beyond Today television program continues to reach Canadians across the country week by week. To date the Canadian office has received a total of 1,155 responses. We look forward to receiving many more as the program is shown to more Canadian households as the network we are on expands and reaches a greater share of the market.

Anthony Wasilkoff

[ back to top ]

Australia Holds Leadership Training Weekend

To prepare for future growth and succession of leadership in the Church, the Pastoral Committee in Australia conducted a Leadership Training Weekend Jan. 26 to 28, 2007.

The church pastors invited a total of 15 couples from their respective areas who have demonstrated leadership potential.

These Leadership Training Weekends are patterned after similar programs that have been running in the United States. Ministerial Services at the home office assisted with the development of the program in Australia by providing the material they have developed.

The Pastoral Committee is planning for this Leadership Training Weekend to become an annual event, with others participating in future years.

Bill Bradford

[ back to top ]

Australia Reports Sound Financial Position

The United Church of God – Australia finished the 2005-2006 year in a sound financial position and above budgetary expectations. The net result for the year was a surplus of $49,693 (all amounts in Australian dollars) compared to a budgeted deficit of $53,130, making us $102,823 better off for the year.

The income for the year totaled $1,100,319 compared to a budgeted amount of $994,691 producing a favorable variance of $105,628.

UCG–Australia received an unqualified opinion from the auditors this year for the first time in our history. The auditors removed their qualification over cash. The way we received some of our income was always a concern for the auditors. Those fears were allayed this year by their visit to one of our Holy Day services on Pentecost to observe the offering count. They were pleased with our procedures and also with our internal controls in the Australian National Office and hence removed the qualification.

Allan Hambleton; excerpted from United News Australia, January-March 2007.

[ back to top ]