Associate General Secretary Rev Sharon Hollis has provided an update on the Faithful Futures Project.
Faithful Futures is the shared strategic direction for the Uniting Church across Victoria and Tasmania.
It will guide our ministry and mission for the next decade.
Faithful Futures was developed collaboratively through consultation, research, prayer and discernment.
It was adopted at the 2025 Synod Meeting and is being adopted by all presbyteries.
Faithful Futures is grounded in the dreams, hopes and vision of where we believe the Spirit is calling the Church across Victoria and Tasmania.
It reflects both ministry already under way and our dreams for the future, still to be realised.
At the heart of Faithful Futures is the vision of ‘Following Christ, walking together as First and Second Peoples, seeking community, compassion and justice for all creation’.
There are then five shared goals that will guide and shape the work of the Church to live out this vision.
These goals are:
Coordinated Ministries: Coordinated ministry and mission in geographic areas such as Local Government Areas by 2030: attentive to renewing discipleship, and to the life and needs of the local context.
Respecting Country: Honouring the Church’s Covenant with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, all communities of faith will listen to and be able to tell about some of the histories of the Country on which they are located by the end of 2028, and be invited to develop local and appropriate ways to respond.
Intercultural Leadership: By 2028, to:
be providing appropriate intercultural leadership formation and equipping for all ministry agents and congregations; and
develop intercultural networks for worship, witness and service.
All-age growth: To have at least one all-age community of faith that is interactive, diverse, inclusive and transformative in 80% of Coordinated Ministries by 2030.
New Communities of Faith: Establish at least five new Christian communities by 2030
What is hoped it will achieve?
The Faithful Futures Project is more than a strategy; it is a growth toward a shared, vibrant future – one where congregations, presbyteries and the Synod can truly say they are seeing new ways of working together that enhance worship, witness and service.
The five goals will support this shared future when they are understood less as separate goals and more as an ecosystem, working together to encourage growth in faith, the making of disciples and ministry that responds to the local context.
The hope for the future is of ministry and mission coordinated across geographic areas in ways that support the development of vibrant and healthy intergenerational communities, that make space for new forms of Christian community to emerge and be supported and the strengthening of intercultural leaders and communities of faith.
The five Faithful Futures shared goals will “encourage growth in faith, the making of disciples and ministry that responds to the local context”, writes Rev Sharon Hollis.
Woven through all of this will be a deep respect for Country that arises from listening to and acting on the stories of Country.
By working together across the Church on shared goals we also hope to see deeper collaboration across the councils of the Church, an increased capacity to learn from each other, more willingness to experiment and share that experimentation and a more coordinated use of the resources of the whole Church.
What are the next steps?
The implementation phase is now under way.
A next steps day was held in late September bringing presbyteries and the Synod together.
The day helped presbyteries and the Synod reflect on how to work together to support the implementation of Faithful Futures across the Church.
The day also continued to develop the next steps that need to be taken to help make Faithful Futures a reality.
Presbyteries and the Synod are now focusing on ways they can start incorporating the five goals into their ministry and mission, ensuring the vision remains at the centre of all our work.
The Faithful Futures Steering Committee is being established with membership from every presbytery and the Synod.
Rev Isabel Greenall has been appointed as the chair of the steering committee.
Isabel is currently in ministry as a hospital chaplain with Barwon Health and has experience of congregational and presbytery ministry in rural and regional settings.
The work of the steering committee and Faithful Futures more broadly will be supported by a Faithful Futures implementation lead, and we are currently recruiting for this role.
Working groups for each goal will be established over the next few months.
These groups will support the implementation of the goals through resource development and sharing, and bringing together those who are working on one or more of the goals in their context.
The steering committee and the goal-focused groups will help ensure there is coordination across the Church, as together we begin to implement Faithful Futures.
Faithful Futures is an invitation to the whole Church to consider how we best organise our life together so that we might listen deeply to Country and be better able to see and participate in the new things God is doing.
