News From Around the World

• Australia Adds Manpower
• Canadian Statistics Show Growth
• British Isles Holds Annual General Meeting

Australia Adds Manpower

In addition to Grant and Kim Chick who were hired to assist in the ministry in Queensland, Australia (see "Minister Hired to Serve in Australia," January United News, page 3), a part-time associate pastor and a full-time ministerial trainee have been hired to assist Bruce Dean. Mr. Dean's area includes six congregations in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

Doug Gray has accepted a position with the United Church of God–Australia as an employed elder and will serve as the associate pastor for Bathurst.

Mr. Gray and his wife, Eve, are planning to travel to Bathurst for two Sabbaths a month to pastor the congregation and take care of the visits in that area. He will also be speaking in Sydney and other outlying areas on a regular basis.

Matthew Sieff was also hired as a full-time ministerial trainee to assist Mr. Dean. Mr. Sieff and his wife, Leah, are currently serving primarily in the Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong areas and have also visited the Canberra/Goulburn congregation. As part of his training, Mr. Sieff will take part in the ongoing education provided by the home office in the United States in the form of written materials and CDs.

"I am personally very excited about these developments and, now that we have the necessary manpower in place, we believe God will be able to add more people to our local congregations here in New South Wales," Mr. Dean said. UN

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Canadian Statistics Show Growth

by Edwin van Pelt

UCG-Canada has 16,500 subscribers to The Good News magazine on file. That is an increase of 3,875 (30.9 percent) over one year ago. Most of the increase is attributable to the two ads in the Canadian Reader's Digest, as well as Beyond Today and the Internet. This is a net increase, taking into account those who have not renewed their subscriptions or have not responded to any of the three renewal letters that were sent over a six-month period.

Our daily incoming mail from all sources is currently 14.9 percent higher than last year, averaging 68.7 items per day. That compares to 59.8 items per day last year, and it is more than double what it was in 2005. If current trends continue, we will receive more than 25,000 items this year, considerably more than the record of 21,816 items received last year.

The Internet continues to be a popular source of incoming mail. This year, about 39 percent of incoming mail in Canada is via the Internet. The vast majority of items from the Internet are subscription and literature requests from new contacts as well as those already on file. Requests received via the Internet are about 12.2 percent higher than last year on a daily basis, averaging more than one per hour.

With all the mail coming in, there's also a lot of mail going out. In the first six months of this year, the average amount of outgoing mail stood at 21,355 items per month, or 704 items per day. That is considerably higher than last year's monthly average of 17,105 items.

The most popular booklets this year are: Making Life Work (1,800 copies distributed), The Book of Revelation Unveiled (1,476 copies) and Are We Living in the Time of the End? (1,422 copies). Running a distant fourth at 890 copies is The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. Rounding out the top five at 606 copies is Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Observe?

Sabbath service attendance across Canada is 4.1 percent higher than it was last year. Holy Day attendance is up 1.7 percent over last year, with new records set for Passover and the Last Day of Unleavened Bread.

Income for the first three months of the new fiscal year is about 3.5 percent ahead of budget. Holy Day offerings, on the other hand, are slightly below budget for the year. Overall, our total income is 0.1 percent ahead of budget for the year.

We continue to receive responses from both of the recent ads in Reader's Digest. Responses from the November 2007 ad currently stand at 4,012 while the most recent ad in the May 2008 issue has drawn 1,612 responses to date. These two ads have drawn more responses than any other ad we have done in any publication in the past.

We recently surpassed the 4,000 mark for total number of responses from Beyond Today. We have now had 4,044 responses since the program began airing in Canada in May 2006. Although the number of responses has dropped a little over the past few weeks, we are still averaging 36.1 responses per week. Sixty-five percent of the responses are from people not already on file. Two thirds of the responses are by phone. The other third of the responses are via the Internet. More than 2,200 new subscribers to The Good News magazine have been added since the beginning of this effort in Canada.

There continue to be many positive signs of growth in Canada. The growth tends to slow down a little during the summer months, but it's still there. We look forward to seeing more results from our efforts in the coming months. In the meantime, we're able to catch up on some of the many projects that we're working on. If the current trends continue, we will finish the year setting a number of new records. UN

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British Isles Holds Annual General Meeting

The annual general meeting of the registered charity United Church of God–British Isles was held July 20. Members of the charity reappointed Laura Payne as a member of the National Council and ratified the budget for the financial year ending June 30, 2009.

Chairman Bryan Ellams highlighted the increasing involvement of young people in the Council's business and announced that the ministry had reappointed David Fenney as a ministerial member of the National Council.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Hawkins reported that there is increasing interest in the work of the Church, and there has been congregational growth during the past year.

This financial year UCG–British Isles distributed 40,000 copies of The Good News, about equal with last year. The resulting mail was 16,600 items of normal mail plus 7,900 Internet requests, resulting in over 27,000 items of literature being sent from the office. This excludes the 6,100 Bible Study Course lessons sent by volunteers in Warrington. The Church also sent around 380 copies of World News and Prophecy per issue, 220 of United News and 289 of Vertical Thought.

The National Council approved an advertisement in the form of an advertorial, which will probably be placed shortly after the summer break.

In March a subscriber letter sent to 4,790 on the mailing list offered The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy, receiving 528 responses, or 11 percent, with 51 donations included.

A total of 4,820 new readers received The Good News for the first time during the financial year. The average response to the renewal sent after the three issues was 20 percent, including 165 new donors and 1,124 requests for the Bible course. UN

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