Rev Dr Paul Dongwon Goh elected President-elect
First Generation Korean Rev Dr Paul Dongwon Goh is the next President-elect of the Uniting Church in Australia and will serve as President from 2027-2030
July 14, 2024
The 17th Assembly has joyfully elected Rev Dr Paul Dongwon Goh as the next President-elect of the Uniting Church in Australia. Paul will be the first Korean to serve as President.
“Beloved Assembly members, this morning God has once again surprised me through your collective discernment and call to be your President-elect of the Uniting Church in Australia. I’m incredibly honoured and humbled. Thank you for putting your trust and support in me.”
"We can feel secure that God is ahead of us and inviting us to a new beginning"
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“I feel incredibly hopeful for the Uniting Church and I hope I can witness and invite people to rejoice in this sense of hope. I believe in the power of love. I love the Uniting Church deeply. I believe God will continue to renew and revive us as his church in this Kairos time and in his own strange and surprising ways.”
Paul is currently Justice & CALD Multicultural and Cross-Cultural Officer in the Mission Resourcing team of the Synod of South Australia, offering leadership across the Synod. Paul is Advocate for the Assembly’s Being a Multicultural Church Circle and has served on the Assembly Act2 Steering Committee over the past 18 months.
He brings a deep passion for and extensive experience in multicultural and cross-cultural ministry in Korea, the United States and Australia including ministry with Korean, Anglo and Fijian congregations in Melbourne.
Paul thanked the 17th Assembly in Korean, Fijian, Tongan, Samoan, Niuean, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic and Afrikaans.
“God is doing a new thing among us, through us and with us as the 17th Assembly has elected a first-generation male Korean as President-elect. I can’t wait to witness what God will be doing for the future of the Uniting Church in us, through us and with us today and in the coming days, months and years.”
“I am so grateful to have been nominated by my own Synod Standing Committee. I am enormously grateful for my ministry and gifts being affirmed by my beloved Synod.”
“I was honoured to be considered alongside two great nominees. I have admired and respected them for their outstanding leadership and wonderful gifts. I look forward to continuing learning from you.”
“Strangely enough through the process of being nominated I have felt calm. I believe I was able to feel so many people praying for me. My congregation, my friends in South Korea, my mother and father in God’s arms.”
Paul was ordained in the Presbyterian Church of Korea in 1999 and migrated to Australia in 2010.
“I’m excited that next year we will mark the 40th Anniversary of the Assembly’s declaration, ‘We are a Multicultural Church’, and in just under three years we will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the inauguration of the Uniting Church in Australia.”
“We can feel secure that God is ahead of us and inviting us to a new beginning. I feel incredibly hopeful for the Uniting Church and I hope I can witness and invite people to rejoice in this sense of hope.”
“I love each one of you, because in all your different and multicoloured faces, I am seeing the Risen and Crucified Lord Jesus Christ who is calling us to join Him in His mission of the reconciliation and renewal for the whole creation.”
“Thank you for this honour bestowed on me. Glory to the Lord.”
Paul will serve as the 18th President from 2027-2030.
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