Letter from the Chair of the Synod 2025 Business Committee
A letter of encouragement from Rev. Pablo Nunez, the Chair of the Synod 2025 Business Committee.
Hello wonderful family of the NSW & ACT Synod.
How are you? I am doing well, busy but blessed, and continually being reminded that the reason that I am busy is because I am living the days for which I prayed years ago. That realisation makes me more grateful, and maybe a little more careful about the things that I am praying for today!
I am writing to you because we are getting ready for our Synod 2025! Yes, it has been a little over a year since we met at Katoomba, and we went through the work to take the next steps into our Future Directions, approving the proposals that have launched us into an amazing set of new possibilities. And that is why I am allowing myself to be moved about returning to Synod in Session, so we can discern the next steps into this exciting season for our movement.
The build up since Synod 2018 has been nothing short of exhilarating. We are engaging with opportunities to see renewal, rebirth and reform in ways that we could have never imagined not long ago. This is a unique time in which we can celebrate our beautiful heritage, at the same time that we discern a way forward to continue to build a powerful legacy.
I was reading Numbers 10 not long ago, a passage that shows this very creative strategy to make sure the people of Israel move together while journeying through the desert. Numbers 10.4 says “If only one is sounded, the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—are to assemble before you.” I kept reading it and this question came to my heart: is this what God wants to do in Synod 2025? Is God calling us in a very special way to assemble the leaders of the church around our Synod, creating together the strategies, dynamics and systems, but also the culture and vision that will invite our church into the next stages of Future Directions?
My invitation to each Presbytery and each member of our church is to consider the nominations for membership prayerfully and passionately -- the proposals coming forward are extremely important and we need to have in the room, the people that will then engage with the process of making them a reality. This is the most important expression of the church in my opinion: the Congregations, faith communities, church planting, where our church becomes flesh and blood into the communities that we want to see transformed.
Personally, I would also invite you to see the number of young people required from each Presbytery not as the total number of younger members, but the minimum- we need to see around the tables the people that will live out the decisions that we are making for the next 20, 30, 40 years and beyond.
We need their voices, their views, their courage and their passion, as we need the experience, knowledge and wisdom of our more experience members. We need to be a representation of the church we are and also the church we want to be into the 21st Century. Heritage and legacy present in in every aspect of our Synod- what a picture!
So, please, see the dates for nominations, registrations and for the presentation of Proposals that are being sent as part of this communication. Our Synod teams are working hard to make sure we have the best possible scenario so we can focus on our discussions and resolutions, enjoying a deep experience of worship and Biblical reflection, while engaging in our unique blend of fellowship and networking.
We need your engagement from now on, praying for our gathering, engaging at Congregation and Presbytery level, and building up the team that will engage with the challenge of being a Church movement that will honour our past while dreaming of a new future for the Uniting Church in NSW & ACT.
Grace and peace to us all, and see you soon!
Rev. Pablo Nunez
Chair, Synod Business Committee
My invitation to each Presbytery and each member of our church is to consider the nominations for membership prayerfully and passionately -- the proposals coming forward are extremely important and we need to have in the room, the people that will then engage with the process of making them a reality. This is the most important expression of the church in my opinion: the Congregations, faith communities, church planting, where our church becomes flesh and blood into the communities that we want to see transformed.