Assembly Working Group Relations with Other Faiths
The Relations with Other Faiths Working Group does its work within the mandate of Uniting Faith and Discipleship.
What we do
- Provide information, policy and resources on appropriate positive relationships with other faiths to the Assembly.
- Raise awareness within the church of the presence of other faiths in the community, and of their particular needs and place in Australian society.
- Develop resources that may be appropriate for congregations and other bodies to use in multi-faith discussions and occasions of worship.
- Maintain contact with people of other living world faiths.
- Provide advice and assistance to all councils of the church as requested.
- Collaborate where possible with other agencies and groups interested in multi-faith relationships.
- Reflect on the theological basis on which inter-faith dialogue should occur and develop statements and resources for use by the church when working with people of other faiths.
How we work
- Focus the activities of the agency on the vision of the Assembly as a whole;
- Advice to the Assembly and/or the Standing Committee, President and the General Secretary on policy matters within their area of responsibility;
- Make policy decisions where the Assembly or the Standing Committee has delegated authority for certain policy areas, either through the operational guidelines or by Assembly or standing committee resolution;
- Participate in cross-agency projects and teams established from time to time by the Assembly or the Standing Committee
- Establish task groups for special tasks related specifically to the operational guidelines
- Make recommendations to the Standing Committee to establish other working groups for special tasks related to but not part of the mandate.
- Regularly receive reports from the Uniting Church Assembly's Christian-Jewish Dialogue Group
Membership of the Working Group
- Chairperson appointed by the Assembly
- Up to seven additional persons appointed by the Assembly Standing Committee
- Synod representation as appropriate
- Power to co-opt up to three additional persons to ensure appropriate competencies, representation and development of new leadership.