In 1985 the Uniting Church declared itself a multicultural church, embracing the growing cultural diversity of its membership. Today in the Uniting Church we worship in 30 languages other than English (not including Indigenous languages); we have more than 195 groups who worship in a language other than English; and we have 12 national conferences which support congregations and communities of the same culture.
The Uniting Church rejoices in its diversity of races, cultures and languages as God’s gracious gift and seeks be a true multicultural church living its faith and life cross-culturally.
The Being a Multicultural Church Circle seeks to create genuine ways for diverse voices and contributions to be respectfully heard across the wider membership of the church.
This Circle is for everyone, whether you are part of a small or big community, speaking English or not, recently arrived or having lived in Australia for generations.
Circle members will be invited to share their own stories of faith, hope and love in Christ Jesus. The Circle will be a platform to learn about and contribute to cross cultural learning, ministry with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups, intentional intercultural ministry and formation for the next generation.
The Advocate for the Being a Multicultural Church Circle is Rev Dr Matagi Vilitama.
We asked Matagi to tell us about himself.
What would a multi-cross-cultural Christmas look like?
By Rev. Dr Matagi Vilitama, Being a Multicultural Church Advocate It’s mind boggling to imagine more than 2.4 billion people celebrating Christmas around the globe. Here in Australia, our First Peoples make up 3.3% of the population, there are more than 42% people of British and Irish ancestry, approximately 2.3% Kiwis, 5% of Chinese ancestry, 1.5% Indian,
Joyful begininng - UCA Ibero-Latino National Conference
By Rev. Esteban Liévano, Chair of the Ibero-Latino National Conference On 12 October 2019, representatives of Spanish and Portuguese speaking members of the Uniting Church inaugurated the Ibero-Latino Conferencia Nacional (Ibero-Latino National Conference – ILNC) of the Uniting Church in Australia. The goal of the Conference is to foster connection among Spanish and Portuguese speaking
Weaving together as UCA family
Rev. S. Juliette Maua’i reports back from the Samoan National Conference (SNC) annual gathering for Ministers, Leaders and Young People held at Inala Uniting Church, QLD, from 17-19 October 2019. SNC 2019 was a time filled with love and hope, as we gathered together weaving relationships and building up the community of Samoans who have