Seeds of Hope

Faith Communities - the church you have when you’re not having an ‘official congregation’. The Uniting Church in Australia has found a way to encourage new initiatives without saddling them with rules and regulations.

On this site you can find resources prepared by New South Wales Synod for the Assembly as it prepared regulations for faith communities

Session 1: Congregations and New Faith Communities

Reading 1: Assembly Regulations on Faith Communities

Reading 2: A Range of Christian Communities, by Christopher Walker, in Establishing New Congregations, edited by Peter Bentley and John Mavor, 1993

Reading 3: Discovering the Social Form of the Congregation, by Dean Drayton, from a paper given at the National Mission and Evangelism Conference on Establishing New Congregations, Sydney, 1993

Reading 4: A report on Guidelines and Regulations for New Congregations, NSW Synod, September 1996

Reading 5: Establishing Congregations Today, by Lyle Schaller, Place or People: Changing Assumptions in New Church Development in Net Results, August 1995

Session 2: Growing the Vision of New Faith Communities

Reading 1: The Glebe Cafe Church, from GNOME Newsletter, NSW Synod Board of Mission, November 1996.

Reading 2: Lanyon Valley Community Church, by Bernie Hughes

Session 3: Laughing with Abraham and Sarah

Reading 1: Carapook Story

Reading 2: Mennonite Statement on Laughing with Abraham and Sarah