Ep110. Decolonisation and the Preamble to the UCA Constitution, Garry Deverell and Chris Budden

Rev Dr Garry Deverell and Rev Dr Chris Budden join Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi, Rev Dr Katalina Tahaafe-Williams, and myself to discuss the preamble to the Uniting Church in Australia's constitution. Garry opens by discussing his critique of the document from an Indigenous perspective as one which rein-scribes colonial narratives, Chris then offers some insights into the motivation and process behind the production of the document, after which we all enter into a discussion on the lineage and impact of the document and ask where to from here for a church seeking to continue to engage in decolonisation, repair, and justice.

This episode is a re-post of most recent of the monthly Black Lives Matter and the Church in Australia panels hosted by the Uniting Church Chaplaincy at Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie and the Social Justice Pilgrim Presbytery NT. This episode is a re-post of most recent of the monthly Black Lives Matter and the Church in Australia panels hosted by the Uniting Church Chaplaincy at Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie and the Social Justice Pilgrim Presbytery NT. These panels happen on the final Sunday of the month at 3pm EST. To find out more contact Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi at ucc.csu[@]gmail.com

Dr Garry Deverell is a Trawloolway man, connected to the north east of Tasmania. He is the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow in Indigenous Theologies at the University of Divinity in Melbourne, and the author of Gondwana theology: A Trawloolway man reflects on Christian faith and The Bonds of Freedom: vows, sacraments and the formation of the Christian self .

Rev Dr Chris Budden is a ‘retired’ Minister of the UCA and a former General Secretary of the NSW/ACT Synod, who spent his last two placements working as a support person for the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress. He was chairperson of the working group that developed the Preamble. Chris is author of ‘Following Jesus in Invaded Space: Doing Theology on Aboriginal Land’ (2009), and ‘Why Indigenous Sovereignty Should Matter to Christians’ (2018). He teaches 'Theology and Politics in Reconciliation' at United Theological College and 'Living as a Christian on Aboriginal Land' at Broken Bay Institute. He is an adjunct faculty member at UTC and Assoc. Researcher (PACT) at Charles Sturt University.

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