The gifts of our women leaders

From Rev Dr John Squires
Presbytery Minister - Wellbeing

Andrew and Judy have written about their experience at the National Assembly of the Uniting Church last weekend. It is good that the Assembly has installed the Rev. Sharon Hollis as President of the Assembly for the next three years (2021–24). It is noteworthy that at the same meeting (being held online because of the COVID pandemic), members of the Assembly have elected a female President-Elect, the Rev. Charissa Suli. She will serve as President-Elect for three years, and then take up the position of President in July 2024.

The UCA employs a system where the current President, the immediate former President, and the President-Elect all serve as ex officio members of the Assembly Standing Committee, the body that oversees the church during the three years in between National Assembly meetings.

For the next three years, the President, the Past President, and the President-Elect will all be females: the Rev. Sharon Hollis, Dr Deidre Palmer, and the Rev. Charissa Suli, respectively. In addition, the current General Secretary of the Assembly is also female: Colleen Geyer. Her term has just been extended by the current Assembly. It is a striking symbol, when considering the national leadership of Christian churches across Australia. All of our key leadership (pictured below) are female.

That reflects a central feature of our church: a commitment to equality of the sexes and to the mutuality of male and female in ministry, as well as in life more generally. Because of last weekend’s election, I did some research into our leadership over the past 44 years, which resulted in this blog:

https://johntsquires.com/2021/07/18/the-exercise-by-men-and-women-of-the-gifts-god-bestows-upon-them-celebrating-women-in-leadership-in-the-uniting-church/

The first Moderator of the NSW Synod was Mrs Lilian Wells; the second Moderator of the Victorian Synod was Mrs Ethel Mitchell; the fifth Moderator of the South Australian Synod was Mrs Elizabeth Finnegan; and the seventh Moderator of the Tasmanian Synod was Dr Jill Tabart (pictured below: Moderators Lilian Wells and Ethel Mitchell, top; Elizabeth and Paddy Finnegan, and Jill Tabart, below).

Dr Tabart went on to be elected as the seventh President, serving 1994–97 in that role. She was the first female President. I learnt as I researched that there have been many other female Moderators, and we will see our fourth female President in 2024.

Of course, as we recall females in prominent leadership roles in Synod and Assembly, we should also take into account the numerous females who have served as Chairperson of Presbyteries, Church Councils, and Congregations—including, and especially, in our own Presbytery (most recently, Vanessa, Delia, and Judy).

And, of course, there are thousands upon thousands of females serving as active members of Congregations and Fellowship Groups and living out their discipleship in community groups right around the country. Females outnumber males within the church by a factor of at least 2:1, so it is way beyond time that our leadership reflects this!

Nevertheless, the current Assembly leadership reminds us that the Uniting Church contribution has been, and will continue to be, a reminder of the importance of providing a female perspective when issues of national social and political importance are being considered. (It’s a message that our national political leadership seems incapable of hearing and implementing—despite the power of the #EnoughIsEnough movement from earlier this year.)

As we look at this array of leadership, we can recognise a sign of our commitment as a church, to be open to the moving of the Spirit. We have seen this in the gifted leadership of Dr Tabart (who signed the Covenant relationship with the United Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress in 1985) and Dr Palmer (who has steered the church through the difficulties of the 2018 decision about marriage, and who has been key to the development of a fine resource on domestic violence in 2021).

May that be what transpires under the leadership of Sharon Hollis, our first ordained female President, and then Charissa Suli, our first Pacific Islander female President.