Assembly 2018: Making Decisions Amid God’s Abundant Grace

Uniting Church members from around Australia will come together in prayerful community at Box Hill Town Hall in July for the 15^th Assembly meeting.

On Sunday 8 July, members of the 15^th Assembly will install Dr Deidre Palmer as President, the second woman in the history of the Church to hold that leadership position.

Dr Palmer has chosen Abundant Grace Liberating Hope as the theme for the Assembly and the triennium.

“This theme Abundant Grace, Liberating Hope invites us to reflect God’s generous and overflowing love, in our relationships with one another, in our local community and in the wider world,” Dr. Palmer said.

Dr Palmer will be installed as President in a service at St Michaels Collins Street Uniting Church on the first night of the Assembly meeting.

From Monday 9 July the Assembly’s 265 members drawn from across the councils of the Church will decide the Church’s national priorities for the next three years.

The first tranche of reports and proposals were sent to members at the end of April. They cover a dauntingly diverse set of issues.

The Church’s response to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, the challenge of domestic and family violence, our continuing conversation on Indigenous sovereignty in light of the Covenant relationship between the UCA and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress.

There will be a landmark statement encouraging action and advocacy on Climate Change and a consultation process proposed regarding voluntary assisted dying.

Assembly members will also consider a report and proposals on marriage and same-gender relationships. More Reports and Proposals will be published in the weeks ahead.

All things Uniting Church

The big conversations aside, the week-long meeting is a festival of all things Uniting Church.

Assembly Agencies such as UnitingCare Australia, UnitingWorld, Frontier Services, and other Assembly groups will have a marketplace of information stalls at the venue.

There will be two public lectures. The first hosted by the Uniting Church National History Society on Sat 7 July from Prof. Stewart Gill, Master of Queen’s College, Melbourne on “No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Why We Need to Remember Our History.”

The Cato Lecture, a regular feature of every Assembly meeting, will be delivered on Weds 11 July by Bishop Ken Carter of the United Methodist Church in the US state of Florida.

Daily Bible studies will have a Pacific flavour led by Rev. Dr. Sef Carroll of UnitingWorld and Rev James Bhagwan of the Methodist Church in Fiji in line with the focus on climate justice.

The Worship program is being coordinated by Rev. Ian Ferguson of Brunswick Uniting Church.

You can follow what’s happening in the lead-up to the Assembly on the website and register for regular updates.

The 15^th Assembly will be the first to attempt to go paperless. All proposals, reports and timetables will be provided to members’ mobile devices using the Crowd Compass app used for VicTas Synod meetings.

Uniting Church members will also be invited to join in 40 days of prayer before the Assembly meeting from Tuesday 29 May.

Who are members of the Assembly?

Representation at Assembly meeting is set out in the UCA Constitution and Regulations.

• One Minister and one lay member appointed by each Presbytery
• Ministers and confirmed lay members appointed by Synods
• Ex-officio and other members
• Sixteen members of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress

In Synod and Presbytery representation and overall, the number of lay members shall not be less than the number of ministerial members.

One in 10 members must also be of a “youthful age” (under 25 at the beginning of the Assembly).

For more information see Section 40 of the UCA Constitution and UCA Regulation 3.3.8