Weaving Faith, Stewardship, and Belonging Across Cultures Together
Rev Duncan Turuva reflects on sacred gathering, shared stories, and weaving faith, stewardship and justice at the President’s Conference 2025
January 28, 2026
by Rev Duncan Turuva, Minister at Mount Waverley Uniting Church, Member of the UAICC National Executive, and Vice Chair of the UAICC Victoria Regional Committee
As we came together for the President’s Conference, there was a quiet awareness that something sacred was already at work among us. For First Nations peoples, gathering is never merely logistical. It is relational, spiritual, and grounded in accountability. It is a space where truth can be spoken with care, wisdom honoured, and relationships held gently – mindful of those who have gone before us and those yet to come. To gather is to remember that we are alive to one another, and attentive to the presence of God in our midst.
I arrived alongside members of the UAICC Executive Committee aware that we carried more than ourselves. We carried stories from Country and ocean, from island and diaspora – stories shaped by faith, survival and quiet resistance. These were not stories offered to impress, but stories entrusted to the circle.
The Conference theme of weaving became a generous theological bridge across cultures. The image of the Tongan fala spoke deeply to me. Like Aboriginal weaving, the fala is made slowly and with care. Each strand carries memory. Each placement is intentional. Nothing is hurried; every detail is honoured.
As the Conference unfolded, its moments felt less like formal presentations and more like acts of weaving. Pacific Island brothers and sisters shared testimonies of faith carried across oceans, shaped by migration, colonisation, and cultural endurance. Their stories resonated deeply with First Nations experience – different histories, yet shared wounds; different lands, yet a common longing for identity, dignity, and faith to be honoured rather than managed.
"As the Conference drew to a close, a quieter, deeper spirituality began to surface. We sensed God gently inviting us into a faith patient enough to keep weaving, even when the pattern remains unfinished..."
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One moment that gently yet powerfully gathered these threads was the words of Rev ’Alifeleti ’Atiola, Acting President of the Free Wesleyan Church in Tonga. Speaking with clarity and humility, he invited the church in Australia to move from an attitude of ownership to one of stewardship. For many of us as First Nations peoples, his words did not arrive as a challenge but settled as truth long known.
This call echoes a long-standing cry. Ownership has too often been the language of dispossession – land taken, voices silenced, culture controlled and dignity denied. Stewardship, by contrast, speaks of shared responsibility, humility, and care for what does not ultimately belong to us. Theologically, it reminds us that the earth is the Lord’s, and so too is the Church. We do not own God’s mission; we are entrusted with its care.
This wisdom was reflected in the leadership of Rev Charissa Suli, whose presence embodied a deeply relational and Christ-shaped theology. Her leadership did not seek to control, but to make space – space for Aboriginal and Pasifika voices, for Second Peoples to this land, space for listening and for truth-telling.
As the Conference drew to a close, a quieter, deeper spirituality began to surface. We sensed God gently inviting us into a faith patient enough to keep weaving, even when the pattern remains unfinished – the kind of faith long held by our ancestors, woven through story, land, memory and hope, and carried with grace amid ongoing injustice.
Alongside this, we carried a quiet sense of gratitude and trust – gratitude for the ways God continues to gather us, and trust that the Spirit is patiently at work, weaving us together.
The fala we weave together now must be strong and true, shaped by repentance and justice – xnot just for this moment, but for all who will gather after us.
Esso, Vinaka, Malo ’Aupito.
Rev Duncan Turuva
Minister, Mount Waverley Uniting Church
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