Uniting Church in Australia
The Uniting Church in Australia is a united church in Australia. The church was founded on 22 June 1977 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. According to the church, it had 243,000 members in 2018. In the, 870,183 Australians identified with the church, but that figure fell to 673,260 in the. In the, that figure was 1,065,796. The UCA is Australia's third-largest Christian denomination, behind the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. There are around 2,000 UCA congregations, and 2001 National Church Life Survey research indicated that average weekly attendance was about 10 per cent of census figures. 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. Affiliated agencies include UCA's community and health-service provider network, affiliated schools, the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, Frontier Services and UnitingWorld.
Organisation
The UCA is a national, unincorporated association of councils, each of which has responsibility for functions in the church. The councils are congregations, presbyteries, synods and an assembly. The membership of each council is established by the constitution. Each council includes Women and Men, lay and ordained. The offices of president of assembly, moderator of synod and other offices are open to all UCA members. The UCA is a non-episcopal church, with no bishops. Leadership and pastoral roles are nominally performed by presbyteries, but in reality by individuals.Assembly
The UCA assembly meets every three years, and is chaired by the president. The 14th Assembly met in Perth from 12 to 18 July 2015. The 15th Assembly, hosted by the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania in Box Hill, met in July 2018. Assembly business between meetings is conducted by the Assembly Standing Committee, which meets three times per year. Membership is drawn from throughout Australia, with 18 members elected at each assembly.President
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. Palmer was the second woman in the role, following Jill Tabart. Palmer was the moderator of the Presbytery and Synod of South Australia from November 2013 to November 2016. 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. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was moved to a shorter, online form.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. There are six synods:- Synod of New South Wales and the ACT
- Synod of Queensland
- Synod of South Australia
- Synod of Western Australia
- Synod of Victoria and Tasmania
- The Northern Synod, which includes the Northern Territory, north-west Western Australia and northern South Australia.
Presbyteries
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. They are the local church, the setting for regular worship. Many churches also conduct worship services at other times, such as a monthly weekday service, a late-night service for day-shift workers, a "cafe church", or Friday- or Saturday-evening services.A Meeting of the Congregation must be held at least twice each year. The meetings typically consider and approve the budget, local policy matters, property matters and the "call" of a new minister or other staff.
Congregations manage themselves through a council. All elders are members, as are ministers with pastoral responsibility for the congregation; there may also be other members. The council meets regularly, and is responsible for approving worship times and other matters.
File:NaroomaUnitingChurch.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|alt=White clapboard church behind a white picket fence|Narooma Uniting Church, a 1914 example of Federation Carpenter Gothic architecture
Some united congregations exist. The UCA has joined with other churches, such as the Baptist Union and the Churches of Christ, in some locations. There are also cooperative arrangements where supplying ministry to congregations is impossible, particularly in remote areas. This includes arrangements with the Anglican Church, where ministry and property resources are shared.
Faith communities are less structured than congregations. They are groups of people who gather together for worship, witness or service and choose to be recognised by the presbytery. Local churches are sometimes also used by congregations of other denominations; for example, a Tongan Seventh-day Adventist congregation may make arrangements to meet in the building on a Saturday. The UCA is committed to inclusivity, and there are a number of multicultural ministry arrangements in which Korean, Tongan and other groups form congregations of the church.
Co-operating congregations
Co-operating congregations, typically in rural areas, have several denominations worshiping as one congregation and rotate the denomination appointing its next minister. They are known as union churches in some places, with several denominations using the building at different times.Frontier Services
A Frontier Services ministry is available to residents of the outback, with ministers and pastors visiting families by air or four-wheel drive vehicles. Visits are normally arranged in advance so adjacent families can travel for significant events, such as baptisms. These "padres" are based in a major town or city, and the local synod is normally their organisational and funding body.Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress
The Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, is constitutionally recognised as having responsibility for oversight of church ministry to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:A Synod may at the request of a Regional Committee of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress prescribe that the Regional Committee may have and exercise all or specific rights, powers, duties and responsibilities of a Presbytery under this Constitution and the Regulations for the purpose of fulfilling any responsibility of the Regional Committee for Uniting Church work with Aboriginal and Islander people
within the bounds of the Synod.
Agencies
, one of the country's largest providers of social care, is its largest operator of aged-care facilities. Other activities include shelters and emergency housing for men, women and children; family-relationships support; disability services, and food kitchens.Education
The UCA provides theological training through a number of theological colleges:- New South Wales: United Theological College, Parramatta a member of the School of Theology at Charles Sturt University.
- Queensland: Trinity College
- South Australia: Uniting College for Leadership and Theology, University of Divinity
- Victoria and Tasmania: Pilgrim Theological College, part of the University of Divinity
- Western Australia: Perth Theological Hall
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. 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. Yuróra NCYC 2017, "Uniting Culture", was also held in Sydney in January 2017.International aid
is the church's international-aid agency. It receives funding from the government of Australia to implement development and poverty-alleviation programs in the Pacific, Asia and Africa. UnitingWorld works in partnership with 18 overseas denominations to support over 180,000 people annually through sustainable community development projects.Uniting Vic.Tas
Uniting Vic.Tas is the community services organisation of the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, delivering programs and services across both states. It provides community and social services in areas including homelessness and housing assistance, family and domestic violence support, alcohol and other drug treatment, mental health, carer support, and emergency relief.The organisation was created in July 2017 when 21 UnitingCare agencies, Wesley Mission Victoria and two Uniting Church business units were brought together as a single entity, Uniting Victoria and Tasmania. The merger created one of the largest providers of community services in Victoria and Tasmania, with annual revenue of around A$250 million at the time.
Uniting Vic.Tas and its related entities employ more than 3,500 staff and engage over 2,000 volunteers who deliver in excess of 650 programs and services across Victoria and Tasmania, including community housing and tenancy support. A subsidiary, Uniting Housing, manages around 900 social and affordable housing tenancies across Victoria.