Humans of the Uniting Church

What’s your Uniting Church story?

My “Uniting Church story” began shortly before Church union took place officially. I was beginning my teaching career in a country town east of Geraldton. I attended the local church which had become part of the Geraldton United Parish and subsequently was recognised as a Confirmed Member there – based on my previous baptism as a young adult in the Baptist Church.

Then, as the Uniting Church in Australia was getting underway I was excited by its commitment to social action within the wider context as explained in the Basis of Union. I offered myself for ministry, was accepted, and in time became one of the first people ordained to the ministry of the Word in WA who had been fully ‘trained’ in the UCA.

Looking further back for a moment, I had always been actively involved in the church. My great grandparents were involved in ministry with the Baptist Church and Christian Endeavour. My four grandparents were similarly involved – one as a builder who built churches, and two who were missionaries in India for many years. My parents were actively involved in Perth Baptist Church, where I was baptised while at Uni.

Then fast forwarding, I have served as a minister in numerous congregations in WA – rural and metropolitan – before spending 8 years as an ecumenical hospital chaplain.

What enlivens your faith in Jesus? 

Family influences I’ve mentioned above, as well as people like Ron Wilson, Dorothy McRae-McMahon, Congress leaders and Desmond Tutu have all inspired me through the ways they’ve integrated their inner faith with outward Christian servanthood.

A verse from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy expresses this well and continues to encourage me always: “…I remind you to keep alive the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love and self-control.” (2 Tim 1:6-7 GNB).

How do you live out your passion for ecotheology?

I began my working life as a Social Studies teacher. This was an expression of my conviction that the world we live in is precious and worth protecting as well as worth encouraging other people to treat respectfully as we live together in community, conscious of our inter-dependence on the natural world around us.

The Biblical prophets as well as Jesus the teacher have always drawn me to value the importance of justice, peace and harmony with God and creation. Now that I have ‘retired’ from full-time ministry, I have enjoyed the opportunity to get more involved with an inter-faith association, the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (‘ARRCC’).

There have been challenges working alongside people from very widely different theological or spiritual backgrounds. We each come with our different personalities, heritages and perspectives. Yet, it has been an inspiring privilege to recognise our mutual interests in caring for the sacred earth and promoting positive actions to counter the threats of accelerating climate change.

I’m continually encouraged by David Attenborough, Al Gore and Peter Stott among many other nature enthusiasts - the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Green Bible and numerous examples of people getting involved to challenge the big vested interests in keeping the current damaging fossil-fuel oriented capitalist society going. Tim Winton’s mini-series about Ningaloo on ABC TV was a beautiful and inspiring exploration of this precious coastal area in north-western WA as well as an incentive to pursue climate justice through changing public and corporate assumptions.

What’s one thing you love telling people about the UCA?

I love telling people about the DNA of the UCA that is actively living out a contemporary Biblically-based discipleship that has a vision of hope for a better world today, tomorrow and beyond. The gift of faith enables us to accept blunt realities about our individual and collective failures and destructive pathways, while also drawing on God’s forgiveness and mercy to step out with renewed purposefulness in spite of the apparent powers of evil and darkness around us.

What’s one thing you’d like to change, or something you hope for?

I’d like to change the recurring feelings of despondency and hopelessness that can drain people’s energy and purposefulness.

I hope for the hearts and minds of the warmongering leaders and the climate change sceptics to be touched by the Holy Spirit in ways that open cracks that let in fresh insights of the avoidable suffering and destruction that their behaviours are unleashing. May compassion for humanity and solidarity with all living things lead us closer to God’s new creation.

What's one thing you would like the rest of the Uniting Church to pray for?

Pray for the day when the dominant desire of humanity will be “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.”