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The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was established on 22 June 1977 when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Congregational Union of Australia came together under the Basis of Union. According to the Australian Census in 2011 there are 1,065,796 people identifying with the Uniting Church in Australia, making it the third largest denomination behind the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research in 2001 indicated that average weekly attendance as approximately 10% of this number.〔("Census vs Attendance (2001)" ) ''National Church Life Survey''〕 The Uniting Church in Australia is widely considered and often described as being a progressive-liberal church, ordaining women and gay people, and supporting progressive causes. ==Organisation== The Uniting Church is governed by a number of non-hierarchical inter-related councils which each have responsibility for various functions or roles within the denomination. The meetings of councils include: *Congregation (local) *Presbytery (regional) *Synod (state) * Assembly (national) The membership of each council is established by the constitution. Each council includes both women and men and lay (non-ordained) and ordained people. The offices of President of Assembly, Moderator of Synod (who chair these councils) and other such offices are open to all members of the UCA whether lay or ordained, male or female. The UCA is a non-episcopal church, that is it has no bishops. The leadership and pastoral role in the UCA is performed by a presbytery as a body (meeting). However, many members appear to understand the "chairperson of presbytery" or the "moderator" of the synod as exercising this role. This position may be occupied by an ordained minister or a lay person. In many presbyteries there is also a "presbytery officer" who may be ordained or a lay minister. The presbytery officer in many cases functions as a pastoral minister, a pastor to the pastors (a ''pastor pastorum'') to people in ministry. Other presbyteries use this position for mission consultancy work and others for administrative work. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Uniting Church in Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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