Uniting Church of Australia

☆ Save On Wikipedia ↗
Uniting Church in Australia
UCA logo
TypeUnited church
ClassificationMainline Protestant
OrientationMethodist and Reformed
ScriptureProtestant Bible
Politymixed Presbyterian, Connexional and Congregational
President of the AssemblyCharissa Suli
Distinct fellowshipsUniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress
AssociationsNCCA, WCC, CCA, WCRC, World Methodist Council, Pacific Conference of Churches
RegionAustralia
Origin1977 (1977)
Merger of
Congregations2,000[1]
Members243,000 (2016)[1]
Aid organizationUnitingCare UnitingWorld
Nursing homesUnitingCare

The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) is a united church in Australia. The church was founded on 22 June 1977[2] when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union of Australia united under the UCA's Basis of Union.[3] According to the church, it had 243,000 members in 2018.[1] In the 2016 census, 870,183 Australians identified with the church, but that figure fell to 673,260 in the 2021 census.[4] In the 2011 census, that figure was 1,065,796. The UCA is Australia's third-largest Christian denomination, behind the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.[5] There are around 2,000 UCA congregations,[1] and 2001 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research indicated that average weekly attendance was about 10 per cent of census figures.[6] The UCA is one of Australia's largest non-government providers of community and health services. Its service network consists of over 400 agencies, institutions, and parish missions, with its areas of service including aged care, hospitals, children, youth and family, disability, employment, emergency relief, drug and alcohol abuse, youth homelessness and suicide.[1] Affiliated agencies include UnitingWorld.

Colour-coded map of Australia
Uniting Church members as a percentage of the total population in the 2011 census, divided geographically by local area

Organisation

Downtown church at night
St Michael's Uniting Church, Melbourne (pictured) was formerly the Congregational Union Australia Church.
Landscaped, Gothic-style church
Port Adelaide Uniting Church
Another Gothic-style church
Scots Uniting Church in Albany, Western Australia

The UCA is a national, unincorporated association of councils, each of which has responsibility for functions in the church. The councils are congregations (local), presbyteries (regional), synods (state) and an assembly (national).[7]

Assembly

The UCA assembly meets every three years.[1]

President

Deidre Palmer was UCA President from 2018 to 2021.

The current president is Reverend Charissa Suli since she was installed as president in the meeting of the 17th Assembly on 11 July 2024. She replaced Reverend Sharon Hollis, who had succeeded Dr Deidre Palmer at the start of the 16th Assembly in July 2021.[8] Palmer was the second woman in the role, following Jill Tabart (1994-1997).[9] Palmer was the moderator of the Presbytery and Synod of South Australia from November 2013 to November 2016.[10] Hollis was moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania at the time of her election in 2018 as the president-elect and became president at the beginning of the sixteenth assembly, which was to be held in Queensland in 2021.[11] As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was moved to a shorter, online form.[12]

Synods

Synods are UCA councils which roughly correspond to state boundaries. Each synod meets about once per year, with a standing committee to represent it between sessions. Synod responsibilities include the promotion and encouragement of the church's mission, theological and ministerial education, and overseeing property matters.[13] There are six synods:[14]

Congregations

There are about 2,000 UCA congregations, with 243,000 members and adherents. Congregations range in size from a dozen to hundreds of members.[1]

Agencies

City house, converted into a small church
Wayside Chapel, Potts Point

UnitingCare Australia, operates shelters and emergency housing; family-relationships support; disability services, and food kitchens.

Youth

The National Christian Youth Convention is a national UCA activity during school and university holidays, every two or three years in a different city. NCYC 2007, "Agents of Change", was held in Perth.[21] The 2009 "Converge" was held in Melbourne. NCYC 2011 was held from 29 December 2010 to 4 January 2011 at the Southport School on Queensland's Gold Coast. Yuróra NCYC 2014 was held in North Parramatta, Sydney from 7 to 10 January 2014.[22] Yuróra NCYC 2017, "Uniting Culture", was also held in Sydney in January 2017.[23]

International aid

UnitingWorld is the church's international-aid agency.[24] It receives funding from the government of Australia to implement development and poverty-alleviation programs in the Pacific, Asia and Africa.[25] UnitingWorld works in partnership with 18 overseas denominations to support over 180,000 people annually through sustainable community development projects.[24]

Culture

The UCA advocates for social justice. It has taken stances on issues such as native title for indigenous people; the environment; apartheid; refugee status, and safe injection facilities for drug users. The church is similar to other united and uniting churches, which maintain a cultural identity in their own country and practise ecumenical fellowship with other Christian denominations worldwide.[26] Between 1991 and 2013, UCA attendance declined by 41 per cent. In 2013, about 97,200 people attended weekly worship services throughout Australia.[27]

Theology

Sexuality

The church permits local presbyteries to ordain gay and lesbian ministers.[28]

The fairly broad consensus has been that a person's sexual orientation should not be a bar to attendance, membership or participation in the church. More controversial has been the issue of sexual activity by gay and lesbian people and the sexual behaviour of ordination candidates. In 2003, the church voted to allow local presbyteries to decide whether to ordain gay and lesbian people as ministers.[29]

In March 2021, the UCA became the first mainstream Australian church to induct a transgender minister, when Jo Inkpin was installed at Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney.[30][31]

Marriage

Ministers were permitted to bless same-sex couples entering civil unions in 2015.[32] A 2018 resolution allows local churches to decide about blessings of same-sex marriage.[33][34]

Theologians

Assemblies

No.DatePresidentGeneral secretaryLocation
1June 1977Davis McCaugheyWinston O'ReillySydney
2May 1979Winston O'ReillyO'Reilly (until December 1979)Melbourne
3May 1982Rolland BuschDavid Gill (from January 1980)Adelaide
4May 1985Ian B. TannerDavid GillSydney
5May 1988Ronald WilsonDavid Gill (until July 1988)Melbourne
6July 1991D'Arcy WoodGregor Henderson (from January 1989)Brisbane
7July 1994Jill TabartGregor HendersonSydney
8July 1997John MavorGregor HendersonPerth
9July 2000James HaireGregor HendersonAdelaide
10July 2003Dean DraytonTerence Corkin (from January 2001)Melbourne
11July 2006Gregor HendersonTerence CorkinBrisbane
12July 2009Alistair MacraeTerence CorkinSydney
13July 2012Andrew DutneyTerence CorkinAdelaide
14July 2015Stuart McMillanColleen Geyer (from January 2016)Perth
15July 2018Deidre PalmerColleen GeyerBox Hill, Victoria (Melbourne)
16July 2021Sharon HollisColleen Geyeronline
17July 2024Charissa SuliLindsay Cullen (interim)

Andrew Johnson (from October 2024)

 Parramatta

See also

References

  1. "Submission to the Review of the ACNC Legislation" (PDF). Review of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) legislation. Uniting Church in Australia. February 2018. Archived from the original on 6 March 2018.
  2. "UCA - Our History".
  3. "Uniting Church in Australia Assembly - About the Uniting Church in Australia". assembly.uca.org.au. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  4. "Census of Population and Housing: Census article - Religious affiliation in Australia, 2021". www.abs.gov.au. 4 July 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  5. "Cultural Diversity in Australia". abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 21 June 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  6. "Census vs Attendance (2001)" National Church Life Survey
  7. "Uniting Church in Australia Assembly". Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  8. "Dr Deidre Palmer: God's abundant grace shapes and reshapes us". Insights Magazine. 9 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  9. President-Elect announced Archived 17 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Uniting Church in Australia, 16 July 2015
  10. "President-Elect announced". Uniting Church in Australia. 16 July 2015. Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  11. "Sharon Hollis named as UCA President-elect". Uniting Church in Australia. 12 July 2018. Archived from the original on 12 July 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  12. Pulford, Matt (15 July 2021). "Is the UCA ready for a President of colour?". Eternity News. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  13. "The Uniting Church in Australia Regulations" (PDF). pp. 75–78. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  14. "Uniting Church in Australia Assembly - Home". uca.org.au.
  15. "Uniting for the common good". Synod of NSW and the ACT.
  16. "The Uniting Church in Australia Queensland Synod".
  17. "Uniting Church SA - Uniting Church. Uniting People".
  18. "Uniting Church in Australia, Western Australia".
  19. "Uniting Church in Australia. Synod of Victoria and Tasmania".
  20. "Uniting Church in Australia Northern Synod".
  21. "NCYC 2007: Agents of Change". Archived from the original on 6 January 2007. Retrieved 9 January 2007.
  22. "NCYC 2014". Archived from the original on 26 February 2015.
  23. "Yurora 2017". National Christian Youth Convention. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017.
  24. "UnitingWorld Annual Report 2018" (PDF). UnitingWorld Governance and Structure.
  25. "List of Australian accredited non-government organisations (NGOs)". Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  26. Helen Richmond; Myong Duk Yang, eds. (2006). Crossing borders : shaping faith, ministry and identity in multicultural Australia. Sydney: Openbook Australia. pp. 138–146. ISBN 1864072474. OCLC 224450283.
  27. "2013 Uniting Church Census of congregations and ministers - Headline Report" (PDF). National Church Life Survey Research. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  28. "Global Trend: World's oldest Protestant churches now ordain gays and lesbians". ucc.org. United Church of Christ. Archived from the original on 10 July 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  29. O'brien, Kerry. "Nile quits church over gay ordination decision". abc.net.au. ABC. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  30. "Joesphine Inkpin to serve as new minister at Pitt Street Uniting Church". Insights Magazine. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  31. "'Tears of joy' as trans priest becomes Uniting Church minister". ABC News. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  32. Hiatt, Bethany. "Uniting Church may overhaul rules of marriage". au.news.yahoo.com. AU News. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  33. Sandeman, John (13 July 2018). "Uniting Church to hold same sex marriages". Eternity. Australia. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  34. "Uniting Church to allow same-sex marriages". SBS News. Retrieved 13 July 2018.

Official websites

Other websites