Jenan Taylor
11 April 2024
Australian Christian leaders hope to discuss church unity amid a fractured global community with World Council of Churches general secretary the Reverend Professor Dr Jerry Pillay.
Dr Pillay will visit Australia as a guest of the National Council of Churches in Australia when it marks the 30th anniversary of its formation in June.
He will be key speaker at the NCCA national forum, and present at state ecumenical gatherings in South Australia, Victoria and NSW.
The NCCA said it anticipated Dr Pillay would shed new insights about ecumenism including deep consideration of what church unity meant today amid fragmented communities and growing conflict.
General secretary Elizabeth Stone said council members could also expect to consider what faith communities might look like in future.
Ms Stone said it was important churches questioned the opportunities and challenges they faced if they were going to serve a humanity which had become very divided.
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She said the NCCA would also take the opportunity during the forum to lament what has happened in Australian churches in the last 30 years.
This included their responses to child sexual abuse and reconciliation with Indigenous communities.
Ms Stone said she believed Dr Pillay would have insights on truth and reconciliation issues and the church, given his South African background, and that nation’s experience with them.
Leaders of Christian Churches South Australia Lutheran representative Andrew Brook said it was a good opportunity to gain the wisdom of a leader from a different context.
Bishop Brook said Australian churches would benefit from someone who had a lifelong commitment to bringing churches together for the sake of common witness and service in the world.
“We need to sit and listen with humility. We tend to think as Western Christians we have all the answers but there are many questions facing us we don’t have easy answers to,” Bishop Brook said.
Dr Pillay will present at public events on 22, 24 and 25 June. For more details, please see here.
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