1.1 Uniting Education (UniEd) serves the Church in the context of immense social, economic and cultural change. The traditions and learning of the past are mostly inadequate for the experiences of living in today’s world, let alone imaging the world to come. UniEd’s role in such times is to help people of all ages both draw from the experience, knowledge and meaning of the past as well as that of the present, and to imagine the church into the future.

1.2 Over the past three years (1997 – 2000) UniEd has experienced an Assembly review and restructure, adding to that conducted in 1996-97 by the former Board and National Director of the Joint Board of Christian education (JBCE). UniEd has applied the principles of the Assembly’s 1998 restructure, emerging from three years of considerable turmoil as a national agency of the UCA, with a definite contribution to make to the future of the Church, and more significantly to the faith of Christ’s disciples.

1.3 The staff and Reference Committee of Uniting Education agree from experience that,

and

2.1.1 To establish and sustain lifelong learning communities

2.1.2 To provide frameworks and approaches to make meaning of life experiences in the light of Christ, the Bible’s messages, the Church’s teachings and God’s call to mission in a contemporary world

2.1.3 To create and sustain hope for personal and social transformation

2.1.4 To develop viable alternative education for the Australian community as a primary mission of the Church.

2.2 The fourth goal was modified in 1999 following the UCA Schools consultation and the ASC’s adoption of a modified Interim Mandate:

2.3 The role of UniEd is summarised in the ASC’s Interim Mandate as "strengthening the teaching ministry of the Church."

3.1.1 The most important issue for the Assembly is the adequacy of Uniting Education as the education agency of the Uniting Church.

3.1.2 The issue is simply put. Is Christian education a core function of the Assembly or a non core function? Is Christian education at the heart of the Assembly’s responsibilities as set out in the Constitution of the Uniting Church in Australia, para 38a, or it is peripheral? If Christian education is a core function of the Assembly for the whole of the Uniting Church, what are the implications?

3.1.3 The context of this discussion is critical because recent research undertaken by Uniting Education and the Christian Research Association has demonstrated the extent of the collapse of Christian education within the Uniting Church.

3.1.4 The 1997 Assembly Structures Review Group stated that:

3.1.5 Christian education is clearly essential to the faith and meaning systems of the UCA. The role of educational ministry concerns both the message and the methods of its communication. While the message is at the heart of the Church’s teaching ministry, education is one of the critical means by which that message can be explored and transmitted. So the method can not be separated from the message even though they are different. Christian education is, therefore, a core function of the Assembly.

3.1.6 The Restructures Report also stated:

3.1.7 It could be argued that some aspects of Christian education are core (doctrine, worship); others may be core (mission); others are non core (provision of specific programs and curricula) for, according to the Constitution (clause 38) and Regulations 3.6.5c, these are clearly the function of Synods.

3.1.8 Yet even the very use of language such as core and non-core is not always helpful. The distinction can be helpful if it allows discussion about roles and functions that are proper to various councils within the overall structure of the church. However, it can be unhelpful when it leads to a perception that it is ‘someone else’s responsibility’ with the worst possible outcome where nothing happens because it is no longer any particular agency’s job to make it happen. The language itself is that of rationalisation; of downsizing and diminishment; the establishing of a hierarchy of priority, which in turn determines access, resourcing and significance. What is the theology that supports the application of such language to the ministries of the church? How is the gospel advanced by such language and the ideas it carries?

3.1.9 The Assembly Review Report stated that as a matter of principle, the restructure of the Assembly would…

3.1.10 The concept of ‘core’ and ‘non core’ functions is counter productive to this principle.

3.1.11 If Christian education is "core" to the Assembly’s function, then the role of Uniting Education, as its Christian education agency, will be characterised by the following:

3.3.4 Publications are a major means of sharing ideas, passing on knowledge and inviting dialogue. They draw together the traditions and learning of the past. They provide a real link between the past, the present and the future. They resource both thinking and activity aspects of the Church’s life. Publications help to shape the distinctive identity of the Uniting Church in Australia. Publications are a necessary tool for ministry and mission across generations.

3.3.5 The inability of the Uniting Church to develop and produce resources and ministry programs that relate explicitly and directly to its assessed Christian education needs means that that its ability to shape ministry and capacity to meet known needs is blunted. The denomination as a whole becomes reliant on commercially available products, or those of other denominations, mostly from the USA and UK. It risks losing the strength of its own convictions, history, tradition and distinctives to the diluting effects of other influences at critical points.

3.3.6 It should also be recognised that essential publications, (Church publications for a wide variety of ministries needs), are not necessarily commercially viable. Commercial viability is an insufficient criterion in determining the impact or the worth of a publication to the Church’s worship, witness and service.

3.3.7 In the past, JBCE and UniEd have actively sought donations and subsidies from various sources to enable many (commercially non-viable) publications – especially Christian Education publications - necessary to the life of the UCA, because their potential for positive impact was considered significant. The Belonging Kit was partly funded in this manner by a Victorian congregation.

3.3.8 There is a place for the selection and use of commercially available programs and resources, and many congregations reflect the positives of that experience. The Whole People of God program, Alpha, Kerygma, Disciple and many others have made a significant contribution to the transformation of individuals and communities. Such resources will continue to provide the majority of resources for the Church’s teaching and learning ministry. However, if the only resources for Christian education come from outside the denomination, the Church is in danger of losing that which makes it precisely the Uniting Church in Australia.

3.3.9 The Assembly is responsible for ensuring that the denomination as a whole has access to the publications needed to sustain, develop and promote its identity as the Uniting Church in Australia. It is also responsible for ensuring that what is needful for the Christian education of its members is made accessible. Policies are needed that will protect the Christian education publishing function of the Assembly. Such policies will also encourage strategies to foster publication activity across the Church, providing for a fair exchange of ideas and resources.

3.4 Working together: Ensuring that all Christian Education agencies within the Uniting Church work together to assist congregations to understand and work with changes that are necessary to Christian education.

3.4.1 There have been major changes in people’s understanding of Christian education over the past twenty years. One of the most significant changes focuses on the difference between a theological understanding of Christian education and people’s common perceptions of it. Recent research shows that in peoples’ understanding of Christian education, the community of faith – the congregation - is perceived as the setting for Christian education. Individuals are the subject of that ministry. Theologically, on the other hand, it is the whole of life that is the setting for Christian education, and the congregation that is the subject of that ministry.

3.4.2 One significant implication is that the transforming of a congregation and by a congregation is denied in favour of the learning choices of an individual. Another is that the Christian vocation of the congregation is reduced to the faith lifestyle choices of its individuals. Another implication is that a congregation’s function as an educating community is reduced to individuals learning the faith and practices of a particular congregation. Yet another important implication is that the setting for living faith-full Christian lives is reduced to the congregation. Education becomes the interpretive tool of the congregation, rather than of life. Thus, the privatised piety and religiosity of a by-gone age is sustained into the future. The catholicity of the Church is reduced to the particularity of the congregation.

3.4.3 Another significant change concerns the ways in which congregations are assisted by the denomination as a whole. The possibility of access to full-time paid / ordained and commissioned ministry is rapidly receding for many congregations, especially those in rural areas. But the issue is not limited to the rural sector. Research shows that in the next decade many urban presbyteries will be engaging with the same issue (CRA, Revd. Dr Philip Hughes, 1999). For some presbyteries, the reality is that more than one half of their congregations will face the issue of not having ordained people placed with them as Minister of the Word or Deacon.

3.4.4 There is a need to begin now to consider ways in which the Christian education ministry of congregations and those councils close to them can be strengthened so that congregations will be prepared and resourced to cope creatively and positively with radically different scenarios. There is a need for an open sharing of information; for a positive disposition towards collaborative projects, and for putting aside regional preferences in favour of an Australia wide approach. We must find ways to foster the sharing of creativity and insight, learning from each other rather than struggling in isolation.

3.4.5 One vision Uniting Education has is of regional groupings of congregations having access to regional ministry and mission development personnel. Some of these people will have skills and knowledge in Christian education, to which congregations might avail themselves for their faith formation and equipping for ministry and mission. Some will be in paid employment as lay persons, others in ministry placements. Perhaps the majority will be lay people operating largely as volunteers on a small honorarium.

3.4.6 This is the vision behind Uniting Education’s exciting "100 by 5" program. It is a program to identify and equip 100 key Christian education personnel in the next 5 years. It is also an important factor in the series of Preaching and Teaching conferences UniEd is promoting. Here, lay people can participate alongside ordained people in the preparation of the preaching and teaching ministries of the Church.

3.4.7 National conferences, which address a range of Christian education topics and themes with the shape and roles of the future Church in mind, help too. These provide more and important opportunities for congregations to gain knowledge, skills and resources to assist their preparation for the future as well as their ministries in the present. The 2000 Learning by Learning – Best Practice Christian Education conference signalled a new direction for UniEd in this regard.

3.4.8 Another strategy the Assembly might consider developing concerns a future shift of resources for Christian education – away from institution-alised and centralised courses which serve individuals, towards congregations and communities, provided in-situ and to the benefit of the congregation rather than individuals.

3.4.9 Christian education ought to be a major factor in the shaping of the future Uniting Church. UniEd’s goal of nurturing a learning community focuses the tasks of equipping people – lay and ordained – for the future shaping of the Church.

See the proposals in section D.

5.2 Following this consultation, UniEd’s Reference Committee joined with staff to develop a revised mandate proposal for consideration by the ASC. Subsequently, the ASC adopted this proposal. UniEd’s current interim mandate, then, has restricted UniEd’s role and functions to those reflecting the UCA Constitution and Regulations. (NOTE: The 1999 work done by UniEd in relation to UCA schools and federal education matters can be valued at around $60,000. The Assembly allocation funded $10,000; the remainder came from UniEd’s own sources. This does not include conference costs. Prior to 1999, the Assembly allocated $2000 each year to the previous National Education Committee.)

5.3 There is a significant need for the Church to speak both with Federal Government and publicly about Federal Government education policy. (NOTE: UCA schools as members of Independent Schools associations, as well as State schools, do have a variety of organisations to lobby Federal Government on education policy. The core issue is that the Church’s voice be heard as a Church in debates about education policy. Essentially, this is an advocacy and social responsibility and justice role with regard to education.) This field is enormously broad, and can not possibly be interacted with at every point by an Assembly agency! As one Synods’ Commission remarked, the area for consideration would occupy a whole department of a University, and then some.

5.4 UniEd is setting up a Working Group attached to its Reference Committee and serviced by staff to work to a limited Terms of Reference on selected federal education policy matters. This Working Group will also need to liaise with other Assembly agencies from time to time, such as SR and J, Frontier Services and Uniting in Care Australia.

5.5 UniEd has also pursued three potential projects arising from the 1999 UCA Schools Consultation on a national scale through the Synods’ Schools and education network.

5.6 The Assembly ought to recognise the need for resources to be allocated to enable its agency to pursue the role mandated to its agency with regard to education, or failing allocation of funds, withdraw the mandated role. Without funding assistance, UniEd can not exercise the functions necessary to engage the role. This is not a role for UCA schools to fund, and indeed schools have made it abundantly clear that they are not of a disposition to fund what is perceived as the Church’s work in relation to education. If funding is not available, then the Christian education roles and functions of UniEd are further restricted by the need to divert funds into the education role.

6.2 Location:

Suite 4, 65 Oxford Street, (P. O. Box 1245) Collingwood, Victoria 3066

Ph (03) 9416 4262, Fax (03) 9416 4264, e-mail contact@unitinged.org.au

Internet www.unitinged.org.au

6.3 Reference Committee:

Chair - Rev Dr Philip Creed, Helen Rodd (VIC), Rev Dr Denham Grierson (VIC), John Ingram (NT), Dr Peter Harris (VIC), Revd Joyce Marcon (NZ Christian educators network), Bruce Mullan (QLD, Specified Youth Worker), Rev Dr Rob Bos (Coolamon), Revd Dr Elizabeth Nolan (TAS), Dr Deidre Palmer (SA), Lionel Parrott (VIC), Revd Wendi Sargeant (QLD), Rev Andrew Syme (WA, schools), Dr Rosemary Johnston (NSW)

Meets – four times per year – 3 tele-conferences, 1 face-to-face meeting.

6.4 Staff: Current

John Emmett - National Director (1999-2001)

Hugh McGinlay – Christian Education Associate

Sonia Ellis – Administration Associate

Sarah Clarke – Education Associate

6.5 Budget:

ca $550,000 per year – approx 35.5% from Assembly allocation

6.6 Services include:

Leadership development for educational ministry

Research into Christian Education and Christian Religious Education

Consultation with synods and presbyteries about Christian education ministries

Essential publications for the UCA

Assistance with access to relevant Christian education resources

Oversight of national events – NCYC, AboutFACE

National conferences, colloquia, symposia

6.7 You might have met UniEd through:

Marketing materials about UCA publications

Reading JBCE and /or UniEd publications

Using specialist publications such as A Safe Place for Children

Using UCA worship resources, such as Uniting in Worship

National events – conferences, consultations, summits

Regional events where UniEd staff have participated as key leaders or facilitators

Church newspaper articles about UniEd projects – such as the National Youth Reconciliation Convention, National Christian Youth Convention, the National Children’s Ministry Summit, Preaching and Teachings conferences, etc.

During 1998,Uniting Education developed a Strategic Ministry Plan for its ministry of 1998 through 2000. The Strategic Ministry Plan has guided the development and delivery of UniEd’s activities. The Strategic Ministry Plan identified four goals, specific objectives for each goal and strategies by which those objectives and goals might be fulfilled. Synods’ agency staff and associated organisations were invited to comment and contribute to the development of the Plan. The UniEd Reference Committee ratified the Strategic Ministry Plan and the ASC received copies for perusal and comment.

The Strategic Ministry Plan is a living document, and has been updated twice in the past two years. As objectives are met, new objectives and strategies are formed to take their place, ensuring the adequacy of the document. The Strategic Ministry Plan is informed by regular consultations with the Uniting Education Reference Committee, various Christian education, children’s and youth ministry, and synod schools and education networks. The budget and business plan of Uniting Education is developed from the Strategic Ministry Plan.

A new Strategic Ministry Plan will be needed for 2001 to 2003. Work for this document will begin during the second half of 2000.

7.2 Range of activities

To give expression to the ASC’s Interim Mandate and the Strategic Plan, UniEd has engaged in the following activities since 1997.