To members of the Uniting Church

As you may be aware, the 11th Assembly in Brisbane closed on Tuesday. It was an amazing experience to know that the whole Assembly was being borne up with tens of thousands of prayers.

• The business we discussed will have some exciting and significant impacts on the shape and life of the Uniting Church.  These included:

• The adoption of a new approach to sharing faith, including guidelines to encourage faith communities and spiritual formation in non-traditional settings such as schools, community service agencies and work places;

• The decisions around the Specified Ministries Report and particularly the decision to establish a ministry of Pastor;

• The adoption of a historic statement on human rights: Dignity in Humanity: Recognising Christ in Every Person; and

• The Assembly resolution on Sexuality and Leadership. (Copy attached )  I believe it would be both difficult, and unjust to the parties, to try and paraphrase the decisions made and so I encourage you to read the whole document and make it widely available because it truly presents our current reality. 

Information about these discussions is included in the PDF document, Assembly Word – which you can download here.

You will note that the back page of Assembly Word includes a pastoral letter from our new President, the Rev. Gregor Henderson. This letter forms part of a package agreed to at Assembly, along with resolution 108, which can be viewed here. The Assembly was deeply moved by a statement in which the Congress committed itself to remaining in the Uniting Church while reiterating their opposition to the ordination of people in same-gender relationships. A full copy can be viewed here.

I encourage you to read the President’s letter and the statement by Congress to your congregation(s) this Sunday and make copies of the Assembly Word Newsletter available for your members.

Grace and Peace

Rev. Terence Corkin
Uniting Church National Assembly General Secretary