New Moderator Rev Salesi Faupula speaks during Opening Worship at Synod 2025.
When I was installed as Moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, I wore the robe of my late father.
The fabric is worn and the stitching frayed, yet as I put it on, I felt the weight of memory, of sacrifice, of faith passed from one generation to the next.
It reminded me that my story is not mine alone.
I walk this road because others have walked before me, and because God keeps calling us all forward.
This is what it means to be a pilgrim of the Spirit.
We are people on the move, carrying the prayers and hopes of those who came before us, and preparing the way for those who will come after.
Again and again I discover that God is already ahead of us, waiting on the road.
Synod 2025 was my first as Moderator.
It was an intense few days, full of listening, debate, prayer, and decision.
For some it was encouraging, for others difficult.
Some left with energy, others with weariness or feeling unheard.
All of these experiences matter, and all are part of our shared story.
The Faithful Futures proposal is one example.
It moved through working groups, re-wording, debate, and the addition of a fifth goal before consensus was reached.
It bore the marks of prayer and patience, and showed that when Christ is at the centre, we can still find ways forward together.
Financially, our church is relatively healthy, yet we still wrestle with how to balance sustaining the institution with living the gospel.
Decline is felt in both rural and urban congregations.
Some hold significant resources, others are growing but financially stretched.
Rural communities often feel isolated or unheard, especially in the face of fires, droughts or floods.
These are not simple issues. They call us to ongoing discernment about the kind of church we are or continue to be and becoming together.
A Tongan proverb speaks into this: pikipiki hama, kae vaevae manava.
In desperate times at sea, when small boats were out of rations and in danger of sinking, people would bind their canoes together (pikipiki hama) and share what remained, even if it meant tearing apart their own life resources (vaevae manava).
It is a story of survival through sacrificial sharing. Might this be an image for us?
Synod 2025 considered many proposals. I name only a few here, not because they are more important, but because they help frame my early reflection.
This year marks 40 years of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress and 40 years since declaring the UCA a multicultural church.
We committed to a response to the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s final reports, noted the Treaty statement before Parliament, and passed a proposal on non-violent anti-genocide action. Each presses us to live what we proclaim.
The world carries many fractures: the wounds left by the Voice referendum, the rise of racial hatred, the tragedies of wars.
It would be easy to withdraw, but the gospel calls us otherwise.
To be pilgrims of the Spirit is to keep moving forward, carrying hope rather than despair, building bridges rather than walls.
The Basis of Union reminds us that “God gives us a future which is the gift of God’s own life”.
That truth steadies our steps. As we begin this new Synod term, the invitation is: let us keep walking, bound together, sharing life, trusting Christ who goes before us, and who whispers still: “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Rev Salesi Faupula
Moderator, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania
