Victorian Council of Churches - recognition of 75 years

This day conference is one of three events to recognise 75 years of the Victorian Council of Churches on 9th and 10th August 2024.

It features a keynote address by Victoria Turner, and papers responding to the theme 'Ecumenism-in-Migration: Movement in the Ecumenical Movement'.

Co-ordinated by the Victorian Council of Churches

Venue: 130 Lonsdale St, Melbourne (Wesley Place) - Uniting Church

The cost is $20 and includes morning tea and afternoon tea provided, and a light lunch.

This day conference engages with movement within the ecumenical movement, exploring dynamics of migration, understood broadly. Important questions to explore include: What happens to ecclesial and ecumenical scenes when people and traditions migrate over oceans and borders? How is the struggle for a more intercultural church shifting ecumenical conversation? What happens as ecumenical commitments and concerns are passed from one generation to the next? What is the ecumenical situation between First and Second peoples? These and other questions explore challenges and opportunities raised by ecumenism in various kinds of migration and examine inherited discourses and practices for their adequacy through the lens of migration.

Papers and presentations may cover migration patterns and its impact on the ecumenical movement in Australia. Papers might explore the migration of ideas on ecumenism. It might explore the paradigmatic changes in ecumenism. It is a very broad theme and we welcome a wide range of papers and presenters, and anticipate some papers may be published in journals. E:vcc@vcc.org.au 

(Note: some presentations may be done via Zoom).

Dr Victoria Turner
Victoria has a PhD in World Christianity from University of Edinburgh, where her thesis research examined how missional theology, impacted by the Global South, influenced the practice of Reformed mission in the UK by focusing on the Iona Community and the Council for World Mission. This also involved engaging with liberation theology as the Iona Community was trying to overcome class divides and the Council for World Mission coloniality. Previously, Victoria earned an MTh with Merit in World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh and a BA (Hons) in Religion and Theology at the University of Bristol. Victoria is co-editor of the International Journal of the Study of the Christian Church with Professor Stephen Burns, and is book reviews editor for the journal Modern Believing.

Victoria’s research interests include World Christianity, ecumenism, youth studies, decolonial and liberation theology, interfaith, mission history and theology, and political and practical theology. She is the editor of Young, Woke and Christian: Words from a Mission (London: SCM Press, 2022) and Emerging, Awake and Connected: Meditations on Justice from a Missing Generation, (SCM Press: 2024) and has co-edited with Ben Adlous, Peniel Rajkumar and Harvey Kwiyani Lived Mission in 21st Century Britain (London: SCM Press, forthcoming October 2024). She has also published peer-reviewed articles in Practical Theology, The Journal of Youth and Theology and Reformed World. Her forthcoming book chapters include ‘Strapping in For the Long Haul: Exploring Youth Work in Working Class Areas Through the Mission of the Iona Community’ in Luke Larner ed., Confounding the Mighty: Stories of Church, Social Class, and Solidarity (London: SCM Press, 2023); ‘A Happy Ecumenical Legacy for the London Missionary Society? Exposing the Coloniality Between Churches Engaged in Mission,’ in Anthony Reddie & Carol Troupe ed., Deconstructing Whiteness, Empire and Mission (London: SCM Press, 2023); and ‘Poverty in Working Classes and Christian Social Movements in Britain’ in D. Hiebert ed., Routledge International Handbook of Sociology and Christianity (Abingdon: Routledge, 2023) and 'Loyalty or Solidarity? Being a Friend to the Church,' in Mona Siddiqui and Nathanel Vette ed, Loyalty (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

Victoria tutored at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling whilst studying for her PhD and is an Associate Fellowship of Advance HE. She also won the World Communion of Reformed Churches Lombard Prize in 2022 for her essay that explored Receptive Ecumenism and its scope for achieving life flourishing. Victoria is a Trustee for Churches Together in England and has spoken at events such as Greenbelt and the World Council of Churches, BBC Scotland and for radio and other forms of media.
Dr VictoriaTurner's keynote #1
Victoria's first keynote will map out the ecumenical movement from a global and generational perspective. Who took the reins and whose voices were elevated? Who took the mic themselves and stirred the pot? How did we end up where we are now? Has movement in the ecumenical movement stagnated, or is it still possible today?  
We explore how the centre of gravity shifting in Christianity affected the missionary and ecumenical movement and their self-understanding(s). The talk ends by thinking about where justice is today in the ecumenical movement and juxtaposing the origins of the movement to the institutional basis today. Our context of neoliberalism and neo-capitalism is profoundly shaping the ecumenical movement today. This talk questions whether the relationships enacted between churches through the ecumenical movement are what was desired by the early ecumenical pioneers.  

Keynote #2 will be on Zoom on Saturday 10th August at 10am. Keynote #3 will be at the celebratory dinner on Saturday 10th August.

Other presenters on the day include:

Dr Antonia Pizzey
Antonia completed her Ph.D. in Theology at ACU in 2016. Her dissertation focused on the emerging method of Receptive Ecumenism and its connection to Spiritual Ecumenism. Her current research explores the history, meaning and reception of Vatican II’s metaphor of the Church as “pilgrim”. She is a postdoctoral researcher for the five-year ACURF funded project: “The Vision of Vatican II on Revelation, Church, Ecumenism, and Education”, which is housed in the Research Centre for Studies of the Second Vatican Council. She is also a Lecturer in ACU’s School of Theology. Her research interests include ecumenism, ecclesiology, Vatican II studies, eschatology, and theological virtues, especially humility and hope. Read more here.
Keep Moving: Re-Imagining Church and Unity
How do we imagine unity? Ecumenism has been one of the most significant and successful forces of the twentieth century. 1944, Paul Couturier, considered the father of spiritual ecumenism, wrote that Christians need to face the “burning question” of unity, for “unless it succeeds in gripping, even torturing the Christian conscience, what hope is there of its resolution?” The desire for Christian unity should “torture” our consciences, and therefore impel us into action. 80 years later, we are called to participate in a new stage in the ecumenical movement, for a new generation. In this paper, I will argue that imagination is vital to re-developing the desire for Christian unity; however, this sense of unity depends on our imagination of the church. In order for ecumenism to keep moving, a rich ecclesial imagination is necessary, from which the desire for full unity can develop.

Rev Dr Katalina Tahaafe-Williams (PhD, University of Birmingham, UK)
Katalina is a Pacific-Oceanian Womanist Theologian, a committed ally of First Peoples walking alongside them in their fight for justice, formerly an Executive for Mission and Evangelism with the World Council of Churches, co-editor of the recently published Edinburgh Companion to Global Christianity: Christianity in Oceania and of Contextual Theology for the Twenty-First Century. She has published several essays in International Review of Mission, is currently writing the chapter on Contextual Theology for the University of St Andrew’s 2023 Encyclopedia of Theology and is an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Indigenous Studies, University of Divinity. She is a globally respected ecumenical missiologist and public contextual theologian with extensive ministry practice in global mission, evangelism, and social justice. She is the Minister for Trinity Uniting Church in the City of Perth, Western Australia.
Ecumenism-in-Migration: Contextualisation as movement in the Ecumenical Movement
In this paper Katalina will highlight significant developments in contextualisation in the 20th and 21st centuries and to discuss the role and the impact of contextualisation in the evolution of the ecumenical movement and its viability now and into the future. The unprecedented level of global migration with its very public and visible implications for the world church generally and for the ecumenical movement specifically has exposed some fascinating and concerning issues around the survival of the ecumenical movement locally, nationally, and globally. Attention will be given to how contextualisation is played out in diasporic situations and its shaping influence in the dynamics of ecumenical relationships across cultural and theological boundaries. The paper will discuss key challenges in ecumenical mission that some of the themes in WCC Mission Affirmations such as Together Towards Life have tried to address including mission from the margins and the associated notions of agency, empowerment, and freedom. Contextualisation prioritises and enables a dialogue between margin and centre as social locations and cultural conditioning, to examine embedded power dynamics and privilege that threaten not just the viability but also the integrity of the ecumenical movement.

Rev Dr Paul Goh
Paul is a Korean-Australian Uniting Church Minister and President-elect of the Uniting Church (2027-2030). Being a practical theologian (Ph.D. Boston University), Paul has taught at Alphacrusis University College, Sydney College of Divinity, Pilgrim Theological College and Presbyterian University & Theological Seminary (in Seoul) and currently provides guest lectures and postgraduate supervision with the Uniting College for Leadership and Theology and the University of Divinity. He is currently working with the Synod of South Australia’s Mission Resourcing team in the area of Justice and Multicultural and Cross-cultural ministry. He has had diverse ministry experience in Korea, the USA, and Australia including intentional intercultural ministry with Anglo-multicultural and Fijian Congregations in Melbourne. Paul has long had a passion for church renewal, social-ecological justice issues and Christian witness in a multicultural and multi-faith context. Paul enjoys both bush and beach walking.
From Hospitality to Partnership: The intersection of Migration, World Christianity and Ecumenism in South Australia
In this paper Paul seeks to map a new paradigm of ecumenism as a Missio Dei at, on and from the intersection of a global migration, multiculturalism, and World Christianity in a South Australian context. By examining quantitative and qualitative data from the Cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) – Intercultural Ministry Survey in South Australia and the Australian National Church Life Survey (NCLS), the project explores how the Christian practice of ecumenism with migrant churches can be enhanced by a deeper responsiveness to interculturalism in a context of post-White and post-Christendom. Based on an online survey of 55 South Australian Uniting Church members, including both lay people and ministers, it investigates how mainline local congregations have responded to their increasingly multicultural migrant contexts and reflects on the status of intercultural ministry in progressing and embodying the Church’s vision of being a multicultural church. Data from 33 interviews with migrant church leaders including first and second‐generation immigrants from Asian and African backgrounds are analysed in three categories: gifts and graces, felt needs and challenges, and aspirations and opportunities for building ecumenical relationships and partnerships with Anglo-White churches. It concludes with recommendations for a vision of transformative ecumenism as a solidarity with “the others” to move from the model of welcome and hospitality to the model of accompaniment, conviviality, and partnership.

Rev Dr Stephen Burns
Stephen will draw together the themes that have arisen during the day through the presentations and conversataions.

Stephen grew up on the coastal edge of Cumbria and after studying theology at the universities of Durham and Cambridge entered the ordained ministry of the Church of England, serving in parishes in the Diocese of Durham. He was Director of the Urban Mission Centre in Gateshead before coming to Queen’s as Tutor in Liturgy. Since then he has taught in Sydney, Australia, at Charles Sturt University’s United Theological College, and Cambridge, USA, at Episcopal Divinity School. He is currently Stewart Professor of Liturgical and Practical
Theology at Trinity College Theological School in the University of Divinity, Melbourne. Read more here.

Victorian Council of Churches, vcc@vcc.org.au, 0499 726 213, https://vcc.org.au

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