Ronald Wilson - Church and Social Leadership

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 and, church, social and/or leadership:

    The legacies that parents and church and teachers left to my generation of Black children were priceless but not material: a living faith reflected in daily service, the discipline of hard work and stick-to-itiveness, and a capacity to struggle in the face of adversity.
    Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)

    The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.
    Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)

    The difference between style and taste is never easy to define, but style tends to be centered on the social, and taste upon the individual. Style then works along axes of similarity to identify group membership, to relate to the social order; taste works within style to differentiate and construct the individual. Style speaks about social factors such as class, age, and other more flexible, less definable social formations; taste talks of the individual inflection of the social.
    John Fiske (b. 1939)

    Nature, we are starting to realize, is every bit as important as nurture. Genetic influences, brain chemistry, and neurological development contribute strongly to who we are as children and what we become as adults. For example, tendencies to excessive worrying or timidity, leadership qualities, risk taking, obedience to authority, all appear to have a constitutional aspect.
    Stanley Turecki (20th century)