A Brief History of Gungahlin Uniting Church

In 1994 the Presbytery of the Canberra Region of the Uniting Church in Australia decided to establish a Uniting Church presence in the then very new region of Gungahlin. With a five-year grant for a full-time worker from the NSW Synod Mission Resource Fund (SMRF), the Presbytery began the task of finding someone with the right mix of gifts and skills (some would add stupidity?) to start a new congregation literally from scratch.

The Reverend Mark Greenlees arrived with his family in Gungahlin at the end of 1995 and was inducted as Minister on February 9, 1996 at the Ngunnawal Community Centre. The first public worship service was held at the Nicholls Community House on Sunday February 18, 1996 with 8 people in attendance – 5 Greenlees’ and 3 other risk-takers).

From that seemingly inauspicious beginning Gungahlin Uniting Church (GUC) embarked on a journey of faith that has involved much laughter, plenty of food and some tears. There has been numerical growth – it’s not that hard to go from nothing to something – which meant a move to the larger space of the Ngunnawal Primary School hall. On Sunday February 9, 1997 we gathered for the first time in what has been our home for the last (nearly) 7 years. Again there weren’t many of us but, as with so much of Gungahlin at that time, there was a real pioneering spirit and an enthusiasm to trust God for our future.

In these last 8 years much has changed. Many have come, some have left; children have been born; new houses have been bought or built; friendships have grown; times of great joy and profound sorrow have been shared. In other words, we have begun to grow as a community. Yet, alongside that has been the reality of the pioneering spirit being lost in the growth of Gungahlin (and GUC). This means that while in terms of the church, we are still quite young, in the eyes of the community we have been here "forever" and are now part of the established Gungahlin.

In the last 8 years we have moved from offering one Sunday worship activity to beginning Modular Worship on May 18, 2003. Modular Worship offers a variety of ways for people to worship and grow whilst retaining the opportunity for people of all ages to worship, learn and grow together. In 2004 we hope to develop this concept further, whilst also offering a new monthly gathering opportunity called Chaos Café.

Of course, not everything has been about Sunday worship. Bible study/discussion have met; craft groups have formed; we have offered marriage courses, explorations of manhood, movie study groups; we have eaten together; we’ve played sport together; we’ve even danced together; and in 2003 we introduced Family Groups as a means of being more deliberate about the way we care for one another. Somewhere in all of that we have managed to continue to meet our budget and, in 1999, built a Minister’s residence – largely as a result of the generosity of Presbytery, Synod and the East Belconnen Uniting Church congregation.

While growing numbers, regular worship and other activities are important, the reality is that our "core business" has always been, and will continue to be, about growing healthy followers of Jesus Christ. In December 2002 the 5 G’s of GUC were introduced as we began to explore what it means to be a community of faith that gathers, grows, gives, goes and glorifies God. In a very real sense the 5 G’s spell out what it means for GUC to be a place of mission seeking ways to worship, witness and serve the growing community of Gungahlin and beyond. While the Ngunnawal primary School hall has been an adequate "house" for our Sunday worship activities, 2004 will see GUC needing to explore where we might "house" our mission activities beyond Sunday worship. Some of these activities include Playgroups; youth and children’s ministry; craft and other social activities; family, parenting and marriage courses; counseling services; and the provision of some much-needed community facilities. To further help these plans and dreams come to fruition Damian Palmer and Christine Palmer were commissioned as Mission Education Worker and Pastoral Care Worker respectively in October 2003 – again with Synod Mission Resource Fund and Presbytery support.

GUC has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. It hasn’t always been an easy journey. We have made mistakes. We could have done some things better. At times it has, perhaps rightly, seemed as though we were "making it up as we went along". But in all of these times God has been our ever-present guide and the foundation for all we do and say. From the outset this community of faith has had as its central focus the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord for all people, in all of life, through what we do and who we are.

While, in many respects, the future remains unclear, the one thing that remains constant is that this community of faith will continue to honour and serve the God who loves us, we will remain committed to sharing that love in all of the places to which we go, and we will continue to live as pioneers called to a new place with an unchanging message – the good news of Jesus Christ. My prayer is that those writing the next part of our brief history will see these past 8 years and certainly the next 12 months as being foundational for the ongoing mission of GUC. In 2002 we were introduced to the statement: "History is made by those who turn up." Thanks for "turning up!" You are part of history.