Country Australia Style Lombardic Phone +61 3 9654 5120 | Website stmichaels.org.au Senior pastor(s) Francis Macnab Architect Joseph Reed | |
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Location Corner of Collins Street and
Russell Street, Melbourne Denomination Uniting Church in Australia Address 120 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia Similar Scots' Church - Melbourne, Wesley Church - Melbourne, 120 Collins Street, St Francis Church - Melbourne, St Paul's Cathedral - Melbourne Profiles | ||
St michael s uniting church australia 1
St Michael’s Uniting Church is a church in Collins Street in central Melbourne, Australia. Originally the Collins Street Independent Church, a Congregational Union of Australia church, and later Collins Street Uniting Church, St Michael's has become well known as a centre of liberal theology and political radicalism under its outspoken minister, Rev Ric Holland, currently the church's executive minister. The church became a congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia at its inception in 1977.
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Rev Ric Holland
Rev Ric Holland commenced the post of Executive Minister at St Michael's Uniting Church in Melbourne, on the 1st of February 2017. For the vast majority of his ministry, Rev Holland has worked in the field of Social Justice and has been CEO of many large organisations both in the United Kingdom and Australia. Rev Holland asserts that despite all the top CEO positions he has held, he remains “one of John Wesley’s preachers”. During his first month at the helm of the church, Rev Holland announced his intention to encourage St Michael’s to be “a loud voice in the field of social justice, including, mental health and marriage equality”.
Rev Holland became a Uniting Church Minister in 1989 when he transferred from the British Methodist Church. He was later appointed the Director of Communications at the United Church of Australia in 1990.
He has also worked as the Chief Executive Officer at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital and Parkinson’s Victoria. His passion for Social Justice can also be seen in his work with Comic Relief Australia, the Uniting Church in Australia, the National Marriage Guidance Council / Relate UK, Nottingham Council of Social Service and Community Service Volunteers, Scotland.
History
The first church on this site was built in 1839, one of the first churches in the Port Phillip District (now the state of Victoria). The original church was demolished in 1866 to make way for the larger church now on the site. The church was designed by Joseph Reed, who also designed the Melbourne Town Hall and the Royal Exhibition Building. The church is classified by the National Trust of Australia. It was variously known as the Independent Church and the Congregational Church before it was given its present name.
Architecture
The building is in the Lombardic architectural style, with multi-coloured exterior brickwork, open cloisters on the side of the building and Romanesque arches.
The interior of the church was designed in accordance with the principles of the Congregationalist Church, as a place where all members of the congregation could both hear and see the preacher. It features a sloping floor with tiered seating and a gallery to increase the capacity of the church. The church underwent major renovations in the 1970s. It is now undergoing further renovations to its exterior structure.
Psychological services
Opened in 1991, "Mingary - the Quiet Place" is a contemplative space at St Michael's. Mingary also offers low-cost counselling under the supervision of the manager psychologist, Lynette Kramer. Mingary is run in conjunction with the Cairnmillar Institute and the Australian Foundation for Aftermath Reactions, both of which Francis Macnab founded. The minister since 1971, Macnab holds degrees in psychology and is a fellow of the Australian Psychological Society.
Dr Franics Macnab's New Faith
In September 2008, Francis Macnab launched what he called a "new faith" with a $120,000 advertising campaign including posters reading "The Ten Commandments, one of the most negative documents ever written." Macnab described Moses as a mass murderer, Abraham as concocted and Jesus as a Jewish peasant and certainly not God.
The Moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, the Revd Jason Kioa, described Macnab's comments challenging the divinity of Jesus as questioning some of the faith's most basic beliefs, turning away from 2000 years of "orthodox Christian belief". Other members of the Synod published their concerns.
The Synod of Victoria and Tasmania voted to request St Michael's Uniting Church to remove advertising for its new faith and apologise to Jews, Christians and Muslims for the comments it contained about the Ten Commandments. The Uniting Church did not move to discipline Macnab because no formal complaint had been received.
The Kirk Session of Scots' Church published a reply defending the Ten Commandments from "[t]he most incredible publicity war... being waged against the historic Christian faith." They installed a poster outlining the influence of the Ten Commandments on their Russell Street frontage facing towards St Michael's.
In an address on 5 October 2008, Macnab defended his comments, including against suggestions they were offensive to Jews, citing his study in undergraduate and postgraduate work in Hebrew language and history, including distinctions, and saying "Some of the comments have been knee-jerk reactions, uninformed and heavily overloaded with bad manners." He also stated, "While I have no intention of denigrating the Ten Commandments as a sacred symbol of the Jewish Torah and the Old Covenant, I say they are negative." He gave eight reasons why he believes the Ten Commandments to be negative and outlined his alternative 10 Commandments, which he described as "positive, plausible and powerful".