United Theological College (Sydney)

Last updated
United Theological College
TypeTheological College
EstablishedJuly 1, 1974;50 years ago (1974-07-01)
Affiliation Uniting Church in Australia
Principal Rev. Dr. Peter Walker
Location,
New South Wales
,
Australia

33°47′30″S151°01′00″E / 33.79167°S 151.01667°E / -33.79167; 151.01667
Website https://www.utc.edu.au

The United Theological College (UTC) is an Australian theological college and a founding member of Charles Sturt University's School of Theology. [1] As well as providing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in all areas of theology, [2] the UTC trains ministry candidates for the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory. [3] [4]

Contents

Background

The college describes its teaching as grounded in the evangelical and Reformed traditions of the Christian faith. [5] Since 2016, the UTC has been home to the Alan Walker Lectureship in Mission, Evangelism and Leadership. [6]

History

United Theological College came into being on 1 July 1974 by resolution of the Congregational Union, the Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales. The first courses commenced in February 1975. United Theological College is the successor to the former United Faculty of Theology which, for over 50 years, was a joint arrangement between Camden College, Leigh College and St Andrew's Theological Hall, the theological colleges of the three denominations. In 1977, when the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches united to form the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA), United Theological College became the theological college of the NSW Synod of the Uniting Church. [7] [8]

Camden Theological Library

The United Theological College is on the same site as the Camden Theological Library, the library of the New South Wales and ACT Synod of the Uniting Church.The library holds an expansive collection of theological books and resources. One of the special features of the collection is a wide-ranging collection of theological books in Korean. [9]

May MacLeod lecture series

The endowed May Macleod lecture series has taken place at UTC since 1987. [10] Some past lecturers include:

Notable former faculty

College principals

The current principal of the college is Rev'd Dr Peter Walker. [14] [15] Past principals include:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Reformed Church</span> Christian church organisation in the United Kingdom

The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregationalism</span> Religious denomination

Congregationalism is a Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs. These principles are enshrined in the Cambridge Platform (1648) and the Savoy Declaration (1658), Congregationalist confessions of faith. The Congregationalist Churches are a continuity of the theological tradition upheld by the Puritans. Their genesis was through the work of Congregationalist divines Robert Browne, Henry Barrowe, and John Greenwood.

<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, 870,183 Australians identified with the church, but that figure fell to 673,260 in the 2021 census. In the 2011 census, that figure was 1,065,796.

The Confessing Movement is a largely lay-led theologically conservative Christian movement that opposes the influence of theological liberalism and theological progressivism currently within several mainline Protestant denominations and seeks to return those denominations to its view of orthodox doctrine or to form new denominations and disfellowship (excommunicate) them if the situation becomes untenable. Those who eventually deem dealing with theological liberalism and theological progressivism within their churches and denominations as not being tenable anymore would later join or start Confessional Churches and/or Evangelical Churches that continue with the traditions of their respective denominations and maintaining orthodox doctrine while being ecclesiastically separate from the Mainline Protestant denominations.

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">United and uniting churches</span> Union of Protestant churches of different creeds

A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinct denominational orientations or traditions. Multi-denominationalism, or a multi-denominational church or organization, is a congregation or organization that is affiliated with two or more Christian denominations, whether they be part of the same tradition or from separate and distinct traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of South India</span> United Protestant church in South India

The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant Church in India. It is the result of union of a number of Protestant denominations in South India that occurred after the independence of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregational Christian Churches</span> U.S. Protestant Christian denomination

The Congregational Christian Churches was a Protestant Christian denomination that operated in the U.S. from 1931 through 1957. On the latter date, most of its churches joined the Evangelical and Reformed Church in a merger to become the United Church of Christ. Others created the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches or joined the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference that formed earlier in 1945. During the forementioned period, its churches were organized nationally into a General Council, with parallel state conferences, sectional associations, and missionary instrumentalities. Congregations, however, retained their local autonomy and these groups were legally separate from the congregations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniting College for Leadership and Theology</span>

The Uniting College for Leadership and Theology located at Brooklyn Park South Australia is a Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) theological college for the education and training of both lay people and those for specified ministries including the diaconate and youth workers. It is a member college of the University of Divinity.

<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 an Australian 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.

Camden College was an independent, Congregational Union of Australia, day and boarding school for boys from 1864 until 1877 and theological college for the training of Christian ministers from 1864 until 1974.

Winston D'Arcy O'Reilly was a Methodist and then Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) minister and the second President of the UCA Assembly.

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.

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

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

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

UnitingWorld is the international aid and partnerships agency of the Uniting Church in Australia, based in Sydney Australia.

Trinity College Queensland is a theological institution of the Queensland Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia.

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.

Coralie Ling is an Australian retired Christian minister. She was the second woman ordained in the Methodist Church of Australasia and the first Methodist woman ordained in the state of Victoria. In 1977, she became a minister in the Uniting Church in Australia when it was formed as a merger of Methodist, Congregationalist and Presbyterian churches.

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. Sandeman, John (18 September 2019). "Fewer full-timers heading to ministry". Eternity News. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  2. "Theology Courses Sydney - Undergraduate Courses - UTC College". United Theological College. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  3. "UTC". United Theological College. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  4. "Uniting Church in Australia Assembly - Theological Colleges". assembly.uca.org.au. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  5. 1 2 Barnes, Geoffrey (2000). Doing Theology in Sydney: A History of United Theological College, 1974-1999. Adelaide, South Australia: Openbook Publishers. p. 32. ISBN   0859109100.
  6. "Ian Robinson". United Theological College. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  7. 1 2 O'Brien, Glen (December 2017). "Methodist, Congregationalist and Uniting Church Theologians, 1916-2016" (PDF). St Mark's Review. 242: 108 via ATLA Religion Database.
  8. Barnes, Geoffrey (2000). Doing Theology in Sydney: A History of United Theological College. Openbook. ISBN   0859109100.
  9. "Camden Theological Library -- United Theological College".
  10. "The May Macleod Lectures". Uniting Mission and Education. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  11. "The May Macleod Lectures". Uniting Mission and Education. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  12. UserLDAP. "People". about.csu.edu.au. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  13. 1 2 O'Brien, Glen (December 2017). "Methodist, Congregationalist, and Uniting Church theologians, 1916-2016". St Mark's Review. 242: 102 via ATLA Religion.
  14. "Synod 2019 Bible Studies". Insights Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  15. "UTC Principal & Staff". United Theological College. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  16. Brown, Malcolm (2 July 2015). "Moderate voice in time of change for Uniting Church, Gordon Dicker 1930–2015". Sydney Morning Herald - Obituaries. Retrieved 2020-07-20.
  17. Bevans, Steven (2012). Contextual Theology for the 21st Century. James Clark and Co. pp. ix.