St Michael's Uniting Church | |
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Collins Street Uniting Church | |
37°48′51.6″S144°58′9.1″E / 37.814333°S 144.969194°E | |
Address | Corner of 120 Collins Street and Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria |
Country | Australia |
Denomination | Uniting (since 1977) |
Website | stmichaels |
History | |
Former name(s) |
|
Founded | 1839 |
Dedication | Saint Michael |
Dedicated | 1867 |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | Joseph Reed |
Architectural type | Church |
Style | Lombardic Romanesque |
Years built | 1866–1867 |
Administration | |
Synod | Victoria and Tasmania |
Presbytery | Yarra Yarra |
Parish | St Michael's Uniting |
Clergy | |
Senior pastor(s) | Rev. Dr Margaret Mayman |
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). [1]
The first church on this site was built in 1839–41, one of the first Churches in the Port Phillip District (now the state of Victoria). That Church was demolished in 1863 to make way for the present building, completed in 1866. [2] It was designed by noted and successful architect Joseph Reed, who had also designed the Melbourne Town Hall, and later the Royal Exhibition Building. It is classified by the National Trust of Australia and listed by Heritage Victoria. In 1978 the interior underwent a major restoration, refurbishment and modification of the church was undertaken, raising the communion table, replacing the lectern, the choir and organ console moved, and the timber pews replaced with padded metal ones. Two candelabras flank the communion table representing the ‘Divine presence’ and the “Light of the World’. [3]
As part of Australia's Bicentennial in 1988, new stained glass windows by artist Klaus Zimmer were installed in the ground floor. The windows tell of the journey of humanity from the experience of aloneness and questioning towards the symbolic gateway of the New Jerusalem.
It was variously known as the Independent Church and the Congregational Church before it was given its present name in 1990. [4] In 1991, the office tower development 120 Collins Street that surrounds the church was completed, built in part on church owned land.
The building is described as Lombardic Romanesque in style, [2] and is considered the first example of polychrome brickwork in Victoria, a style that became very popular for all manner of buildings by the 1880s. It features a tall square bell tower marking the important street corner, and round Romanesque arches around doors and windows and the open cloisters in each side.
The interior was designed in the form of a theatre auditorium, in accordance with the principles of the Congregationalist Church, as a place where all members of the congregation could both hear and see the preacher. It features a sloping floor with tiered seating, and a steep gallery behind a ring of high aches on slender cast iron columns, ensuring good sight lines. [2]
Rev Dr Margaret Mayman was inducted as minister with St Michael's Uniting Church in February 2020. Margaret was born in New Zealand, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1983. She holds a PhD in Christian social ethics from Union Theological Seminary in New York, where she lived, studied and taught for 12 years. She was a parish minister in New Zealand for 18 years before moving to Sydney in December 2013 to be the minister at Pitt Street Uniting Church.
Dr Francis Macnab AM , OM was the executive minister of St Michael's from February 1971 to December 2016. In addition to his duties as a minister, Macnab was also the founder and previous executive director of The Cairnmillar Institute, a non-for-profit clinic for counselling available to the general public and a postgraduate school of psychology, counselling and psychotherapy. Dr Macnab holds a Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Aberdeen. He has honorary doctorates from the University of Melbourne and RMIT in psychology and applied science.
Through Cairnmillar and St Michael's, Macnab developed a healthy ageing program called Successful Ageing, Growth and Enjoyment (S.A.G.E.) for people aged between 55–105. He also recognised a need for The Big Tent Project, aimed at supporting kindergarten aged children suffering from mental health issues.
Since 1 January 2017 there have been supply ministers such as Reverend David Dawes, Rev Ric Holland, Reverend John Smith, and Reverend Peter Burnham and others visiting ministers.
"Mingary – the Quiet Place" is a contemplative space at St Michael's opened in 1999. Mingary-Cairnmillar Counselling Service also offers low-cost counselling. [5] Mingary is run in conjunction with the Cairnmillar Institute, founded by previous minister Francis Macnab. [5] [6]
In September 2008, Dr Francis Macnab launched what he called a "New Faith" including posters reading "The Ten Commandments, one of the most negative documents ever written." [7] [8] Macnab described Moses as a mass murderer, Abraham as concocted and Jesus as a Jewish peasant and certainly not God. [7] The then Moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, the Rev'd Jason Kioa, described Dr Macnab's comments challenging the divinity of Jesus as questioning some of the faith's most basic beliefs, turning away from 2000 years of "orthodox Christian belief". [8] [9] [10] Other members of the Synod published their concerns. [11] [12] The Synod of Victoria and Tasmania directed St Michael's Uniting Church to remove advertising for its new faith and apologise to Jews, Christians and Muslims for the comments it contained about the Ten Commandments. [8] [13] The Uniting Church did not move to discipline Macnab because no formal complaint had been received. [8] [9]
In an address on 5 October 2008, Dr Macnab defended his comments, including against suggestions they were offensive to Jews, citing his study in undergraduate and postgraduate work in Hebrew language and history, including distinctions, and saying "Some of the comments have been knee-jerk reactions, uninformed and heavily overloaded with bad manners." [14] He also stated, "While I have no intention of denigrating the Ten Commandments as a sacred symbol of the Jewish Torah and the Old Covenant, I say they are negative." [14] He gave eight reasons why he believes the Ten Commandments to be negative and outlined his alternative 10 Commandments, which he described as "positive, plausible and powerful"
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.
The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the Catholic Church. According to the 2016 census, 3.1 million Australians identify as Anglicans. As of 2016, the Anglican Church of Australia had more than 3 million nominal members and 437,880 active baptised members. For much of Australian history since the arrival of the 'First Fleet' in January 1788, the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.
The Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland is a non-creedal Christian Church, which maintains a great emphasis on individual conscience in matters of Christian faith.
Collins Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in the first survey of Melbourne, the original 1837 Hoddle Grid, and soon became the most desired address in the city. Collins Street was named after Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania David Collins who led a group of settlers in establishing a short-lived settlement at Sorrento in 1803.
The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia (PCEA) is a small Presbyterian denomination which was formed in Sydney on 10 October 1846 by three ministers and a ruling elder. As of December 2012 it consists of 13 pastoral charges with a total of 17 regular preaching points, 12 serving ministers, 1 minister without charge, 6 retired ministers and a community of about 800.
The Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA), founded in 1901, is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Australia. The larger Uniting Church in Australia incorporated about two-thirds of the PCA in 1977.
James Forbes was a Scottish-Australian Presbyterian minister and educator. He founded the Melbourne Academy, later Scotch College.
The Scots' Church is a Presbyterian church in Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was the first Presbyterian church to be built in the Port Phillip District. The church serves a congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the building was described as "an icon for well over a hundred years".
Wesley Church is a Uniting Church in the centre of Melbourne, in the State of Victoria, Australia.
The National Christian Youth Convention (NCYC) is a national conference for people aged 16–30 years held by the Uniting Church in Australia every second January. It is held in a different Australian city each time in the long summer school and university holidays. It has attracted over 3,000 delegates from around Australia plus visiting delegations from overseas countries. It is one of the biggest events for youth on the Uniting Church's calendar.
The Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria, also known as the Free Church of Australia Felix, was an Australian Presbyterian denomination founded in Melbourne, Victoria in 1846 as a result of the Disruption of 1843 in the Church of Scotland.
Francis Macnab was an Australian Christian minister. He was the executive minister of St Michael's Uniting Church, a congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia in Collins Street, Melbourne, until December 2016. He was a fellow of the Jesus Seminar.
William David Hair McCall was an Australian Anglican bishop.
Alistair Macrae is an ordained Christian minister of the Uniting Church in Australia and was formerly a moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, and President of the National Assembly.
The Council for Christian Education in Schools is an Australian religious organisation which also operates under the name of Access Ministries, as an inter-denominational body providing Christian education and chaplaincy services in state schools in Victoria.
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 New South Wales and the ACT is a regional council of the Uniting Church in Australia having responsibility for the congregations and presbyteries in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. From its creation in 1977 until 29 March 2008, the Synod had the shorter title of Synod of New South Wales.
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.
The Uniting Church is committed to an understanding of God as the Holy Trinity and to Jesus Christ as Son of God, Saviour and Lord. To describe him as 'just a Jewish peasant' falls very far short of the Church's classic statements of belief in him. Similarly, to reduce God to 'a presence beyond ourselves' is a serious under-statement of the church's belief in the God who is creator, redeemer and perfecter of all things.
Media related to St Michael's Uniting Church, Melbourne at Wikimedia Commons