Uniting Church in Australia

Uniting Church in Australia
UCA logo
ClassificationProtestantism
OrientationCalvinism and Methodism
PolityPresbyterianism, Connexionalism and Congregationalism
President of the AssemblyCharissa Suli
Distinct fellowshipsUniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress
AssociationsNCCA, WCC, CCA, WCRC, World Methodist Council, Pacific Conference of Churches
RegionAustralia
Origin1977; 47 years ago (1977)
Merger of
Congregations2,000[1]
Members243,000 (2016)[1]
Aid organizationUnitingCare UnitingWorld
Nursing homesUnitingCare
Colour-coded map of Australia
Uniting Church members as a percentage of the total population in the 2011 census, divided geographically by local area

The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977,[2] 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.[3] According to the church, it had 243,000 members in 2018.[1] In the 2016 census, 870,183 Australians identified with the church, but that figure fell to 673,260 in the 2021 census.[4] In the 2011 census, that figure was 1,065,796. The UCA is Australia's third-largest Christian denomination, behind the Catholic and the Anglican Churches.[5] There are around 2,000 UCA congregations,[1] and 2001 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research indicated that average weekly attendance was about 10 per cent of census figures.[6] The UCA is one of Australia's largest non-government providers of community and health services. Its service network consists of over 400 agencies, institutions, and parish missions, with its areas of service including aged care, hospitals, children, youth and family, disability, employment, emergency relief, drug and alcohol abuse, youth homelessness and suicide.[1] Affiliated agencies include UCA's community and health-service provider network, affiliated schools, the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, Frontier Services and UnitingWorld.

  1. ^ a b c d e "Submission to the Review of the ACNC Legislation" (PDF). Uniting Church in Australia. February 2018.
  2. ^ "UCA - Our History".
  3. ^ "Uniting Church in Australia Assembly - About the Uniting Church in Australia". assembly.uca.org.au. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  4. ^ "Census of Population and Housing: Census article - Religious affiliation in Australia, 2021". www.abs.gov.au. 4 July 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  5. ^ "Cultural Diversity in Australia". abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 21 June 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  6. ^ "Census vs Attendance (2001)" National Church Life Survey