UCA National History Society

Meet our UCNHS President

Dr Judith Raftery

Dr Judith Raftery was elected as chair of the Board of the Uniting Church History Society at the society's Annual General Meeting, held September 2023. She was an organiser of the first biennial conference of the UCNHS, held in Adelaide in June 2017, an inaugural member of the society, and served as the first secretary of its board, from 2017 to 2023. She has recently completed a lengthy term as Council member and President of the Uniting Church South Australia Historical Society. Having grown up in Churches of Christ, Judith has been a member of the Uniting Church since 1987 and is involved with Pilgrim Church, Adelaide, where she is a member of Church Council and an active contributor to worship services and social justice activities.

Judith is a graduate of the University of Adelaide and Flinders University and holds a PhD in history and a Master of Theological Studies. Her PhD investigated the role of the churches in relation to social issues in South Australia between the two world wars. The most recent of various publications emerging from this work is 'Holding the Fort: Christian churches in South Australia 1919-1939' in Caroline Adams and Brian Dickey (eds) South Australia 1919-1939  (2022). Judith has undertaken teaching and research into the impact of colonial and post-colonial history on the well-being of Aboriginal Australians. See especially Not Part of the Public: non-indigenous policies and practices and the health of indigenous South Australians 1836-1973 (2006). Her Evangelisation and Social Betterment: four decades of Churches of Christ Aborigines Missions in Western Australia (2013) raises critical questions about mission and partnership for churches in the twenty-first century,  and her interest in the history and theological significance of hymns and hymn singing is demonstrated in Singing the Faith (2011).