Media
The 2008 meeting of the Synod of New South Wales and the ACT, Uniting Church in Australia, will meet from Saturday, September 27 to Tuesday, September 30 at Canterbury Park Race Course, Sydney.
The synod meeting is held annually. Its 500 members include:
- ministers and lay members appointed by regional councils,
- ex-officio members and
- members appointed by Synod.
News
News about Synod regularly appears in the Synod magazine Insights and is posted at the Synod of New South Wales and the ACT website.
The Uniting Church in Australia
The Uniting Church is a large religious community, with 243,000 members and adherents across Australia. It is one of the largest deliverers of aged care and children’s services in Australia and is well known for its commitment to social justice and being willing to tackle difficult issues.
Twenty-nine years ago people from three Christian traditions — Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian — established the Uniting Church.
Now there are 2,247 local congregations where people:
- worship,
- seek to follow Jesus,
- care for each other,
- provide services in the community,
- learn about God, and
- seek to live faithfully and with real joy.
These churches may have hundreds of members, or be tiny communities of a dozen people; found deep in the hearts of our cities, and in most isolated and outback towns.
The Uniting Church is organised not by a hierarchy with bishops on top, nor by a hierarchy of church courts, but by groups of women and men, lay and ordained, consulting together, usually making decisions by consensus, in each area of the church’s life.
The church is committed to being a series of inter-related councils made up of:
- local churches,
- regional presbyteries,
- state synods, and
- the national Assembly.
Each council has its distinct tasks, and each council recognises the limits of its responsibilities in relation to other councils.
Locally, regionally and nationally, Uniting Church government is entrusted to representatives, men and women, bearing the gifts and graces with which God has endowed them.
The Synod
A synod is the state council of the Uniting Church. Synod generally meets annually when Uniting Church representatives state-wide gather to consider the work of the church.
The elected head of each synod is the Moderator, and the General Secretary oversees the day-to-day affairs of the Synod.
The Synod of New South Wales and the ACT is responsible for overall support and resourcing of the church in their area — especially in:
- community services,
- mission planning,
- theological education and other educational services, and
- administration relating to ministers, property and financial services.
The Synod gathers presbyteries and congregations in New South Wales and the ACT where, according to the 1996 Census there were 377,805 Uniting Church adherents. In 1999 there were around 30,000 regular Uniting Church attendees.
The Synod of New South Wales and the ACT offices are in Pitt Street, Sydney.
Contact
Media Officer: Stephen Webb, 8267 4308, 0423 259 945, stephenw@nsw.uca.org.au
Church officers
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