Church and Social Leadership
Throughout his life, Wilson was an active participant in first the Presbyterian Church of Australia and then the Uniting Church, formed after the union of many congregations of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, Methodist Church of Australasia and Congregational Union of Australia into one denomination. He held a range of senior positions in the Church including:
- Moderator of Assembly, Presbyterian Church in Western Australia (1965)
- Moderator, WA Synod, Uniting Church in Australia (1977-1979)
- President of the Assembly, Uniting Church in Australia (1988-1991)
- Deputy Chairperson of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (1991-1994)
- President, Australian Chapter, World Conference on Religion and Peace (1991-1996)
Wilson was the first layperson to be the President of the Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia. He was particularly concerned with encouraging the broad Australian community to gain an understanding of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history.
In retirement, he travelled widely to Aboriginal and church events, and was an active member of a refugee education scheme near his home.
Read more about this topic: Ronald Wilson
Famous quotes containing the words church, social and/or leadership:
“The form of act or thought mattered nothing. The hymns of David, the plays of Shakespeare, the metaphysics of Descartes, the crimes of Borgia, the virtues of Antonine, the atheism of yesterday and the materialism of to-day, were all emanation of divine thought, doing their appointed work. It was the duty of the church to deal with them all, not as though they existed through a power hostile to the deity, but as instruments of the deity to work out his unrevealed ends.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Growing up human is uniquely a matter of social relations rather than biology. What we learn from connections within the family takes the place of instincts that program the behavior of animals; which raises the question, how good are these connections?”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“This I do know and can say to you: Our country is in more danger now than at any time since the Declaration of Independence. We don’t dare follow the Lindberghs, Wheelers and Nyes, casting suspicion, sowing discord around the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt. We don’t want revolution among ourselves.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)