Alistair Macrae

Last updated

The Reverend

Alistair Macrae

AO
Alistair Macrae.JPG
The Revd Alistair Macrae, May 2010
President of the Assembly
Church Uniting Church in Australia
Installed2009
Term ended2012
Predecessor Gregor Henderson
Successor Andrew Dutney
Moderator of Synod of Victoria and Tasmania
Church Uniting Church in Australia
Installed2000
Term ended2003
Orders
Ordination1984
Personal details
Born
Alistair James Macrae

1957 (age 65–66)
NationalityAustralian
ParentsRevd Donald and Anne Macrae
SpouseClare Boyd-Macrae
ChildrenFour

Alistair Macrae AO (born 1957) is an ordained Christian minister of the Uniting Church in Australia and was formerly a moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, [1] and President of the National Assembly. [2] [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Macrae is the son of the Reverend Donald and Anne Macrae. He was born in Melbourne and spent most of his childhood in Sale, Victoria, before moving to Melbourne for secondary education and then Melbourne University. [4]

Macrae has degrees in arts, theology and philosophy from the University of Melbourne and the Trinity College Dublin.

Ordained service

Macrae was ordained in 1984 and has served in rural, regional and inner-city congregations in Victoria, at Mt Beauty, Portland and West Brunswick. He served as Moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania (2000–2003) and as executive director of the Uniting Church Centre for Theology and Ministry (2004–2009) in that Synod. He was a member of the board of Wesley Mission Melbourne and chaired its social policy committee. He has been a Director on the Board of Uniting Vic.Tas since 2020.

Macrae was an inaugural member of the Victorian State Government's Community Support Fund and served on the advisory committee of the Community Alcohol Action network of the Australian Drug Foundation.

President of the UCA

Macrae became President of the UCA in July 2009, at the 12th Assembly. His theme for the three years of the Assembly was "Living Water, Thirsty Land".

In September 2013 Macrae commenced as Minister of Wesley Uniting Church, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

On Sunday 12 February 2023, Macrae retired from formal ministry, in a service at Wesley. [5]

Personal life

Macrae is married to Clare Boyd-Macrae, a writer, [6] and they have four children, Tess, Patrick, Hamish and Fiona. His interests include sport of most kinds, notably Australian Rules football (he played nearly 300 games of Victorian Amateur and country football) as well as cooking, reading, running, renovating, gardening and being with family and friends.

Macrae was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2017 Australia Day Honours for distinguished service to the Uniting Church in Australia through executive and ministerial roles at state and national levels, and to the promotion of ecumenism, interfaith dialogue and reconciliation. [7] [8] In 2021, he (along with several others) [9] handed back his award as a response to Margaret Court being elevated from Officer to Companion of the Order of Australia. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniting Church in Australia</span> Australian Christian denomination

The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union of Australia united under the Basis of Union. According to the church, it had 243,000 members in 2018. In the 2016 census, about 870,200 Australians identified with the church; in the 2011 census, the figure was 1,065,796. The UCA is Australia's third-largest Christian denomination, behind the Catholic and the Anglican Churches. There are around 2,000 UCA congregations, and 2001 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research indicated that average weekly attendance was about 10 per cent of census figures.

Rodney Dean Drayton is a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) and was President of the UCA Assembly from July 2003 to July 2006. He lectures on a part-time basis in missiology at Sydney's United Theological College (UTC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Michael's Uniting Church, Melbourne</span> Church in Australia

St Michael's Uniting Church is a Uniting church located on Collins Street in central Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Originally the Collins Street Independent Church, a Congregational Union of Australia church, and later Collins Street Uniting Church, St Michael's has become well known as a centre of liberal theology and political radicalism under its recent Executive Minister Dr Francis Macnab (1971–2016).

Harold D'Arcy Wood is a semi-retired minister of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) and was President of the UCA Assembly from 1991 to 1994. He has been active in ecumenism in Australia and globally.

The Reverend Professor Ian James Mitchell Haire AC KStJ is a theologian and Christian minister of religion. He is emeritus professor of Charles Sturt University, Canberra, Australia and past executive director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. He was formerly the fourth president of the National Council of Churches in Australia and the ninth president of the Uniting Church in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregor Henderson</span>

Rev. Gregor Sutherland Henderson is an ordained Christian minister of the Uniting Church in Australia. For 12 years he was the General Secretary of the UCA's National Assembly and was the President of the National Assembly for three years 2006-2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Dutney</span>

Reverend Professor Andrew Fergus Dutney is a Christian scholar, writer, and musician. He is a Professor within the College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University. He is the former principal of Uniting College for Leadership and Theology and a past President of the Assembly of the Uniting Church. He was installed in the position of president on 15 July 2012 on the first day of the Uniting Church's 13th triennial assembly meeting in Adelaide, handing over 12 July 2015 to Mr Stuart McMillan. His installation service took place before around 3000 people at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Dutney returned to his previous role as Principal of Uniting College for Leadership and Theology at the conclusion of his term as President.

Ian Bowe Tanner was an Australian Presbyterian and Uniting Church minister. He was President of the Uniting Church's Assembly between 1985 and 1988.

Rolland Busch,, also known as Rollie Busch, was an Australian theologian and Presbyterian and Uniting Church minister. He was the foundation principal of the Trinity Theological College in Brisbane from when it was formed in 1977 until 1985. He was president of the Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia from 1982 to 1985. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1978 Queens Birthday Honours and appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1984.

Stuart McMillan was the national President of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) from July 2015 to July 2018. He was installed for a three-year term on 12 July 2015 at a service at Perth's Scotch College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deidre Palmer</span> Australian theologian and social worker

Deidre Palmer was the President of the Uniting Church in Australia from 8 July 2018 until 17 July 2021. She is a counsellor, theologian, and social worker. She was the Moderator of the Uniting Church's Synod of South Australia from 2013 to 2016.

The Synod of South Australia is the entity of the Uniting Church in Australia covering most of the state of South Australia. It is one of six geographically-based Synods of the church. The leader of the Synod is the moderator elected to the position for a period of three years. The legal entity for the South Australian branch of the Uniting Church is The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (S.A.) The synod publishes a bimonthly magazine, the New Times.

The Synod of Western Australia is the entity of the Uniting Church in Australia covering most of the state of Western Australia, south of a line near Port Hedland. It is one of six geographically-based Synods of the church. The leader of the Synod is the moderator elected to the position for a period of three years.

The Synod of Queensland or Queensland Synod is a state council of the Uniting Church in Australia.

The Synod of Victoria and Tasmania is the entity of the Uniting Church in Australia covering the states of Victoria and Tasmania. It is one of six geographically-based synods of the church. When the Uniting Church was created in 1977, the Synod of Victoria and Synod of Tasmania were independent, but subsequently merged on 22 June 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beryl Grant</span>

Beryl Grant was an Australian nurse, community worker, and public servant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Skuse</span> Australian church worker


Jean Enid Skuse is an Australian Christian leader and ecumenist who served as the general secretary of the Australian Council of Churches and the Vice-Moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Denise Mary Champion is an Aboriginal Australian deacon in the Uniting Church in Australia who serves as an outreach worker. She was the first Aboriginal woman from South Australia to be ordained in any Christian denomination.

Sharon Hollis is an Australian Minister and the 16th President of the Uniting Church in Australia.

Lilian Wells (1911–2001) was an Australian church leader who served as president of the Congregational Union of Australia, and the first moderator of the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. She was the only woman to serve in the role of president for the Congregational Union. She served on the joint committee that planned the merger of the Congregationalist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches that formed the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977. She was appointed an Officer of Order of the British Empire in 1977, for her service to the church.

References

  1. ↑ "The Uniting Church accepts all people. It always has". The Age . 23 July 2003. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
  2. ↑ "About the Uniting Church in Australia". UCA National Assembly website. Archived from the original on 20 November 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
  3. ↑ "Key people at the Assembly". UCA Assembly. 2009. Archived from the original on 20 December 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
  4. ↑ Assembly leaders and staff Archived 2012-03-05 at the Wayback Machine , UCA, accessed 15 May 2010
  5. ↑ ALISTAIR HEADS INTO RETIREMENT, Crosslight magazine, 2023-02-15
  6. ↑ Boyd-Macrae, Clare, National Library of Australia catalogue, accessed 15 May 2010
  7. ↑ "Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia" (PDF). Australia Day 2017 Honours List. Governor-General of Australia. 26 January 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) entry for The Reverend Alistair James MACRAE". It's an Honour, Australian Honours Database. Canberra, Australia: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 January 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2021. For distinguished service to the Uniting Church in Australia through executive and ministerial roles at state and national levels, and to the promotion of ecumenism, interfaith dialogue and reconciliation.
  9. ↑ Eddie, Rachel (27 January 2021). "'Bad theology kills': Senior cleric returns honour over Margaret Court decision". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  10. ↑ Macrae, Alistair (27 January 2021). "Faith rattled in Australia Day honours". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 17 February 2021.
Religious titles
Preceded by President of the Assembly, Uniting Church in Australia
July 2009 - July 2012		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.