How can the church speak about peace this Christmas?
As we prepare to celebrate the 76th Christmas Bowl, Act for Peace invites you to join us online to share peace as a faith community.
This November, we’re gathering church members for a pastoral, hopeful conversation: how can we speak about peace at Christmas amid the heartbreak of Gaza?
Join Act for Peace for a free 60-minute webinar exploring how we, as the Church, can speak about peace at Christmas.
The session also includes a thoughtful reflection from Rev John Gilmore, President of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), an update from the field by Act for Peace staff, and an exclusive preview of the Christmas Bowl in 2025.
You’ll gain practical language, tools and hope-filled next steps to guide your church this Advent season.
You are invited to join us online as we learn together how the church can speak about peace this Christmas.
When: Thursday, November 13, 6.30-7.30 pm AEDT (Sydney/Melbourne/Canberra/Hobart)
The session will conclude with an exclusive preview of Christmas Bowl 2025, introducing the new church toolkit and pathways for churches to respond in hope and action.
We look forward to sharing in this conversation of faith and peace with you.
Find out more and register online.
The Christmas Bowl is a call to action with deep history.
It began with one table, one meal, and one question. In 1949, Rev. Frank Byatt sat with his family before a Christmas dinner heavy with food. Outside their home, the world was still scarred by war. Millions of refugees in Europe were hungry, cold, and displaced. The contrast was impossible to ignore.
Frank asked his congregation to place a simple bowl on their own Christmas tables, a “Bowl of Remembrance,” and to fill it with gifts for those who had none. That first offering sparked a tradition of generosity that has endured for generations.
From the beginning, the Christmas Bowl was not just about raising money, it was about embodying the Gospel in action. As Frank wrote nearly a decade later, “The evangel is complete only when the action of the Gospel matches the message of the Gospel.” His vision was for Christians of every tradition to set aside differences and stand together in love for their neighbours.
For 76 years, churches across Australia have answered that call. Each Advent, congregations gather around the Christmas Bowl to share what they have, however small or great, so that families displaced by conflict and disaster might find safety and hope.
Together, we have supported refugees from war-ravaged Europe, famine-stricken Ethiopia, communities recovering from the Boxing Day tsunami in Sri Lanka, families fleeing violence in Myanmar, and people affected by conflict in Gaza. We have also helped countless others seeking a safe place to belong.
What began as one bowl on one table has become a nationwide act of witness. The Christmas Bowl is a reminder that Christ’s love does not stop at the edge of our comfort but stretches across borders and generations, binding us to those in need. When we give through the Bowl, we are not only sharing food or shelter, we are sharing hope.