The Uniting Church in Australia Assembly is led by the President, General Secretary and Associate General Secretary. The Assembly also employs around 50 staff to run its agencies and carry out its administration.
Leaders
Rev. Alistair Macrae: President
Alistair Macrae was born in 1957 and spent most of his childhood in Sale in rural Victoria. He has degrees in Arts, Theology and Philosophy from Melbourne and Dublin.
Since ordination 25 years ago he has served in rural, regional and inner city congregations (Mt Beauty, Portland and West Brunswick). He served as Moderator of the VicTas Synod (2000-2003) and is currently Executive Director of the Uniting Church Centre for Theology and Ministry in the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. He is on the Board of Wesley Mission Melbourne and chairs its Social Policy Committee. Read more
His interests include sport of most kinds (he played nearly 300 games of Aussie Rules football), cooking, reading, running, renovating, gardening and hanging out with family and friends.
His faith passions include the call to discipleship and sustaining that journey, authentic forms of Christian community and exploring how to confidently share the Christian faith in non imperialistic ways.
He believes that the current challenges facing the church also provide the most exciting opportunities for faithful Christian response in many centuries; and that if the Uniting Church can focus on core issues of mission, we are well placed to respond creatively, compassionately and contextually to our culture’s desperate need for the hope, challenge and beauty of the gospel.
Alistair is committed to building creative bridges between prayer and activism, religion and politics, respect for the individual and the importance of community. He is married to Clare, a writer, and they have four children, three of whom live at home in West Brunswick.
Rev.Terence Corkin: General Secretary
Born in England in 1956, Terence came to Australia at the age of two and grew up in Sydney. Terence studied Arts and Law as well as his course in Theology in preparation for ordination.Terence became connected to the Christian Church in his high school years. Making his links with the Church in this way has made him very sensitive to the ways in which congregational life can help and hinder people connecting with the church, and coming to faith. After ordination Terence served as a Minister in rural NSW for twenty years- twice in congregational ministry and finally as a Presbytery Minister. Read more
His rural experience has provided him with a strong conviction about the place of the local congregation, in particular the life of its members, in the proclamation of the gospel. The local congregation is pivotal in Terence's understanding of the mission of the Church
Apart from ministry within the life of the church Terence has always seen it as essential to express his discipleship in the life of the community. He advocates that the Gospel is about the renewal of the whole of creation and that Christians should strive to give expression to this renewal in the world today.Exercising ministry as Assembly General Secretary allows Terence to be involved in supporting the church in a very broad way.
His main hopes for his time as General Secretary are to strengthen the sense of common purpose across all parts of the church's life; and to help the Uniting Church to understand what it means to live the radical model of a church of inter related councils.
Rev. Glenda Blakefield: Associate General Secretary
Glenda began her five-year term as Associate General Secretary in March 2005. She has previously been a Presbytery Minister in the Illawarra region of NSW; Canberra Parish Minister, where she spent time as a minister in an Anglican/Uniting Church Congregation; Chairperson of the National Assembly’s Gospel and Gender Committee for five years and a member of various Assembly task groups including membership of the Executive of the Ministerial Education Commission. Glenda has a Bachelor of Theology from Sydney College of Divinity; Diploma of Welfare Work; and a Master of Theology from Sydney College of Divinity (1999).
Rev. Dr Chris Walker: National Consultant for Theology and Discipleship:
Chris is currently serving the Assembly of the Uniting Church as the National Consultant for Theology and Discipleship.
He has served in a range of positions and places in the Uniting Church including local church ministry in three congregations in NSW, as a regional education and mission officer, and consultant for evangelism and discipleship, in Queensland, as principal of Parkin-Wesley College in SA, and as a mission resource officer for Parramatta-Nepean Presbytery. Read more
Rev. Elenie Poulos: National Director UnitingJustice
Reverend Elenie Poulos is a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia. She was appointed National Director in 2002. She attends Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney. Elenie represented the Uniting Church at the World Council of Churches General Assembly in Port Alegre, Brazil in 2006 and is a member of the World Council of Churches' Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA). Elenie is also actively engaged with the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) as Chair of the Commission responsible for Act for Peace, the NCCA's international aid and development agency, and a member of the Social Justice Network. Read more
Prior to her current position with the National Assembly, Elenie was School Chaplain at MLC School Burwood, NSW, for six years. She has a professional background in book publishing and an academic background in linguistics (BA Hons), language in education (MA), and theology (BTh). She is currently a doctoral student at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney.
Rev. Dr Tony Floyd: National Director – Multicultural and Cross-cultural Ministry
Tony Floyd is a Minister of the word in the Uniting Church in Australia has been National Director for Multicultural and Cross-cultural ministry in the Assembly since March 2007.
Multicultural and Cross-cultural Ministry is charged to assist the UCA nationally to acknowledge, embrace, and live out diversity as God’s gift and calling. Central to and key in all of this are relationships that are built on respect, collaboration, consultation and mutual recognition of gifts and calling.
Other Senior Leaders of the Assembly include:
Rev. Dr Kerry Enright: National Director UnitingWorld
Lin Hatfield-Dodds: National Director UnitingCare Australia
Rosemary Young AM: National Director Frontier Services
Rev. Dr Sandy Yule: National Secretary Christian Unity Working Group
Staff
The Assembly employs around 50 staff to run its agencies and carry out its administration. The majority of the staff are based in Sydney. However, there is also staff in Townsville, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra, and some agencies have field workers throughout Australia and internationally.
The Assembly also functions through the generous time and energy of elected reference committees, working groups and volunteer workers.
