Ecumenical publication to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Ut unum sint
14 December 2020
A Celebration of Ut unum sint The 25th Anniversary
Editors Doru Costache and Diane Speed
The Sydney College of Divinity Dean and CEO Professor Diane Speed, and Senior Lecturer at St Cyril’s Theological College Dr Doru Costache, have edited and put together a collection of reflections on behalf of the Theological Reflection Commission of the NSW Ecumenical Council. The book, A Celebration of ‘Ut unum sint’: The 25th Anniversary celebrates the encyclical of that name by Pope John Paul II on Christian unity.
The Sydney College of Divinity espouses an intentional ecumenicity that brings together a wide range of Christian traditions. Diane who has headed SCD for more than a decade and is a member of the Council says “we hoped (with the book) to open a door on where the ecumenical movement now finds itself, where it might be heading, and what ecumenism means to ordinary Christians, as well as official church leaders.”
The book is a collection of thirty-five essays written by people who have a clear passion for the gospel of God and its flourishing. Each in its own way, explicitly or implicitly, originates in one biblical text or another that gives the foundations of Christian unity. The book is divided into two sections, the first of which presents reflections on Ut unum sint, and the second, reflections on ecumenism more generally. Taken together, they are a statement about the progress of the ecumenical movement from the early memories of the authors to today.
The book was launched during the first week of December 2020 by Professor Gerard Kelly, Catholic Institute of Sydney at the NSWEC Heads of Churches meeting.
This resource may be freely distributed, with due acknowledgment of the NSW Ecumenical Council https://www.nswec.org.au/. The text copyright remains with the authors.
Notes on Contributors
| Lex Akers – The Revd Dr Lex Akers is Pastor at the Pittwater Wesleyan Methodist Church at Mona Vale NSW and the NSW District Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia. He is also a Lecturer at Excelsia College in Macquarie Park NSW. |
| Clabon Allen – The Revd Clabon Allen is a retired minister of the Uniting Church of Australia in Sydney and previously the United Reformed Church, within which he served in Malaysia and Hong Kong as well as the United Kingdom. He is also a long-term member of the Wellspring Community and its Council. |
| Matthew Attia – The Revd Matthew Attia is a priest at Saint George Coptic Orthodox Church at Kensington NSW and General Vicar of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Sydney and Affiliated Regions. His professional background is legal. |
| Philip Bradford – The Revd Philip Bradford is a semi-retired minister of the Anglican Church in Sydney, still in occasional parish ministry and the Anglican Healing Ministry. He is a strong advocate for women in ministry and a member of the Research Ethics Committee of the Sydney College of Divinity. |
| Rosemary Bradford – Mrs Rosemary Bradford has leadership roles in the Anglican Healing Ministry and the Third Order of St Francis, as well as with the parishes in which she and Philip 13 have served. She is a member of the Society of Saint Francis Association and a Director of the Sydney College of Divinity. |
| James Collins – The Revd Dr James Collins is the Rector of St Paul’s Anglican Church in Burwood, Sydney, with a professional background in education and a particular concern with Christian engagement with ethnic diversity. He is an Anglican nominee to the NSW Ecumenical Council, of which he is a Vice-President. |
| Joy Connor – Mrs Joy Connor is a TAFE teacher, a member of the Uniting Church of Australia living in the Blue Mountains and an active member of both the Wellspring Community and the Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group. |
| Doru Costache – Protopresbyter Dr Doru Costache ministers to St Gregory’s Orthodox Mission at Mona Vale NSW. He is a member of the Sydney College of Divinity’s Graduate Research School and an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney. He also is Secretary of the NSW Ecumenical Council’s Theological Reflection Commission. |
| Mervyn Duffy – The Revd Mervyn Duffy SM is Dean and Lecturer at Te Kupenga—Catholic Theological College in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a member of the CatholicMethodist dialogue of New Zealand and a keen supporter of receptive ecumenism. |
| Rob A. Fringer – The Revd Dr Rob A. Fringer is Principal and Senior Lecturer at the Nazarene Theological College Australia and New Zealand, based at Thornlands QLD, also Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Queensland and a Director of the Sydney College of Divinity. |
| Neil Holm – Dr Neil Holm is the previous Leader of the Wellspring Community and its present Secretary. An Anglican based in Brisbane, he is much involved with indigenous affairs and social justice. His background in higher education has included ongoing roles in the Sydney College of Divinity and previous roles with the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (NT) and the Australian College of Theology. |
| Monica Ibrahim – Mrs Monica Ibrahim is a solicitor practising family law and a sessional lecturer in the School of Law, Western University Sydney. An Orthodox laywoman, she studies pastoral theology at the Catholic Institute of Sydney. She supports the revival of the female diaconate in the Orthodox Church and worships at St Gregory’s Orthodox Mission in Mona Vale NSW. |
| Philip Kariatlis – Dr (Associate Professor) Philip Kariatlis is Sub-Dean of St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College in Chippendale NSW, which trains all Australian Greek Orthodox ordinands. He is a member of the Faith and Unity Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia and a Director of the Sydney College of Divinity. |
| Gerard Kelly – The Revd Dr (Professor) Gerard Kelly lectures at the Catholic Institute of Sydney in Strathfield NSW. He is Chair of the Faith and Unity Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia and Co-Chair of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue. For the Sydney College of Divinity, he is Chair of Academic Board, Discipline Coordinator of Theology, a Director, and Vice-President. |
| Vincent Long – The Most Revd Vincent Long OFM Conv is the Catholic Bishop of Parramatta, NSW, the Bishops’ Delegate for Migrants and Refugees, and Chair of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council. |
| Shenouda Mansour – The Very Revd Dr Shenouda Mansour is the current General Secretary of the NSW Ecumenical Council and editor of its Sharing e-newsletter. He is a Coptic Orthodox priest at St Anthony and St Paul Church in Guildford NSW, is engaged in a range of ecumenical and interfaith activities, and has a particular concern with education and identity. |
| Erica Mathieson – The Revd Dr Erica Mathieson is a semiretired priest now based in Sydney, previously leading a parish in the Canberra-Goulburn Diocese after a similar ministry in Melbourne. She has a strong commitment to ecumenism and has published on Christian and Jewish women’s religious lives. |
| David B. McEwan – The Revd Dr (Associate Professor) David McEwan is Director of Research at the Nazarene Theological College Australia and New Zealand, based at Thornlands QLD, and Pastor of the Church of the Nazarene at Logan QLD. He is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland and a supervisor for the University of Manchester and Sydney College of Divinity. |
| Marie McInnes – Dr Marie McInnes is a semi-retired academic now teaching for U3A in the Blue Mountains NSW. An Anglican, she has recently joined the Wellspring Community and has had a long involvement with Amnesty International. |
| Michael McKenna – The Most Revd Michael McKenna is the Catholic Bishop of Bathurst and has recently been appointed by 16 Pope Francis as a member of the Pontifical Council for InterReligious Dialogue, the central office of the church for the promotion of inter-religious dialogue in accordance with the spirit of Vatican II. He is a regular observer at meetings of the NSW Ecumenical Council. |
| Alanna Nobbs – Dr (Professor Emerita) Alanna Nobbs AM is semi-retired from the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University, which includes a Coptic Studies unit. An Anglican, she has led the Society for the Study of Early Christianity at the University and assisted the Sydney College of Divinity in many roles, currently chairing two of its academic committees. |
| Raymond Nobbs – Dr Raymond Nobbs is the previous Dean and CEO of the Sydney College of Divinity, for which he has continued to perform occasional supervisions and acted in an advisory capacity. He has particular expertise in Australian church history and is himself an Anglican. |
| Tim O’Hearn – Dr Tim O’Hearn was a senior academic and advisor to the leadership at the Australian Catholic University. He is a Catholic member of the NSW Ecumenical Council’s Theological Reflection Commission and a Director of the Sydney College of Divinity, whose Strategic Planning Committee he chairs. |
| Terry O’Mara – Mr Terry O’Mara AM was a senior public servant working in community services. After his retirement he was asked to work with Anglicare and did so for many years. His own background is Catholic and legal. |
| Neil Ormerod – Professor Neil Ormerod has many publications in theology and was the first lay Catholic to be made a Fellow of the Australian Catholic Theological Association. He is a strong supporter of ecumenism. He worked for many years at the Australian Catholic University, is now at the Sydney College of Divinity, and also does work for the Australian College of Theology. |
| Peter Powell – The Revd Dr Peter Powell is a minster of the Uniting Church in Australia. A registered psychologist, he specialises in learning and behaviour difficulties and addressing childhood sexual abuse. He is a past Executive Director of the Clinical Pastoral Institute and a past President of the NSW College of Clinical Pastoral Education. |
| Wagdy Samir – Dr Wagdy Samir is a Coptic Orthodox layman. Holding a PhD in mathematics from the University of New South Wales, he is now undertaking doctoral studies at the Sydney College of Divinity in the theological and ecumenical contributions of Fr Matthew the Poor (d. 2006). He worships at St George Coptic Orthodox Church, Kensington NSW. |
| Alex Scutt – The Revd Alex Scutt is currently serving in Melbourne as a priest and musician within the Anglican Church. He is also the current Leader of the Wellspring Community, which both espouses an ecumenical identity for itself and is concerned to advance ecumenism as one of its formal areas of concern. |
| Diane Speed – Dr (Professor) Diane Speed is Dean and CEO of the intentionally ecumenical Sydney College of Divinity, an Anglican nominee to the NSW Ecumenical Council and Convenor of its Theological Reflection Commission, also Deputy Leader of the Wellspring Community and a VicePresident of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Theological Schools. |
| Clayton Spence – Major Clayton Spence represents the Salvation Army on the National Council of Churches in 18 Australia’s Faith and Unity Commission and the NSW Ecumenical Council’s Theological Reflection Forum. The Mission Leader at Campsie Salvation Army NSW together with his wife, he is also a member of the Army’s Territorial Moral and Social Issues Council. |
| Mandy Tibbey – Ms Mandy Tibbey is a Sydney barrister and an Anglican nominee to the NSW Ecumenical Council, serving in its core leadership group. She serves the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, in its Guardianship, Commercial and Consumer and Administrative and Equal Opportunity Divisions, and the Anglican church, in professional disciplinary matters. |
| André Van Oudtshoorn – The Revd Dr André Van Oudtshoorn is Principal and Academic Dean at the non-denominational, evangelical Perth Bible College. He is an ordained minister of the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia and is also the Senior Pastor at Scarborough Baptist Church. |
| Paul Weaver – The Revd Paul Weaver is an Associate Priest at Epping Anglican Parish. He is the longest-serving member of the NSW Ecumenical Council’s Theological Reflection Commission and the Taizé liaison officer for the Council, coordinating periodic visits from a member of the ecumenical Taizé community. |
| Raymond Williamson – The Revd Dr Raymond Williamson OAM is the current President and a former General Secretary of the NSW Ecumenical Council. A retired Anglican priest in Sydney, he has published on Australian church dialogues and councils and directs the Centre for Ecumenical Studies within the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture at Charles Sturt University. |
| Joseph Meelis Zaia – His Beatitude Mar Meelis Joseph Zaia AM is Metropolitan of the Assyrian Church of the East, presiding over the Diocese of Australia, New Zealand, and Lebanon. He has founded the international Assyrian Church of the East Relief Organization, two diocesan schools, and Nisibis Assyrian Theological College at Horsley Park NSW. He engages in NSW Ecumenical Council activities and undertakes doctoral studies at the Sydney College of Divinity. |
