The Presbyterian church of Australia is a federation of six state bodies. Functionally, this means the national body oversees areas of responsibility ceded to it by the regions, the sort of activities that make sense to have national cooperation and/or standards.
While the national church meets every three years, it charges a number of committees to carry out its responsibilities on a day to day basis. Those committees coincide one of their meetings each year to fall on this week.
Now there are lots of pastors on the eastern side of Australia who’ll never attend any of these meetings. There’s enough of them to get away with that.
In the smaller states we’ve got more spaces to fill.
This week I’ll attend meetings which will consider our relationship with an East Timorese sister church; consider policy and progress in our international outreach partnerships; deal with our ongoing relationships with other denominations; dream, vision, and plan for a national church planting strategy; report on progress made by our Outback Ministries; and, finally, administration and rules.
As our national body does meet this year we’ll also be considering progress over the last three years and formulating the directions which we believe the national church should endorse for the next three years.
It’ll be good to see lots of friends from around the nation, drink some coffee, eat some meals, enjoy a refreshing beverage (non-coffee) or two, and get and give some encouragement.
I’ll be trying to post some reports along the way, along with the usual material that appears here from day to day.
Now it’s time to board for Sydney.
mgpcpastor's blog 