Rural Ministry in Various Forms

The BCA Dusty Boots program
 -Teenagers help out in rural Australia (google it!)

Last week in Lindsay Whybrow's article, mention was made of Bush Church Aid, an Anglican based organisation, which seeks to "share the gospel, build up the church and care for people all around Australia." BCA places field staff, co-workers and affiliates across the continent, working as pastors- like Lindsay- teachers, evangelists, chaplains or nurses. The children's program mentioned last week is a collaboration between Lindsay and larger city-based churches organised through the Bush Church Aid link. 

As you can probably already see, ministry occurs in this region in several different ways.
One way is through organisations like Bush Church Aid, another is through ordained ministry placements in rural churches, although these are rare. In the Uniting Church Riverina Presbytery for example, only 4 such positions, plus one Presbytery minister, exist.

Julie, with Josie & the pre- school children,
 at Weilmoringle.

Another is through the Rural Chaplains -Julie and Phill, and others like them, who serve the more isolated towns in the West. Chaplains are called in during crisis situations like fire, flood or suicide to support those affected but they also work continually getting to know people in rural communities and helping them to overcome isolation and reach their goals for their community.

Kaltara Lay Preachers Retreat 2013 at Galong

Lay people play a huge role in rural ministry. Often left wondering how they would cope without a minister when they could no longer afford one, they have found that God has given them the gifts, faith and strength to keep going and He had blessed their ministry. Now lay people lead worship, preach, serve in a pastoral role, care for those in their community and minister through performing weddings and funerals. This often is greatly appreciated by the communities as they are shown God's loving care through the lives of these lay ministers,who they see as people just like themselves.

RMU meeting to organise the Rural Ministry Conference.

Supporting this work is the RMU- the Rural Ministry Unit- a gathering of ordained and lay rural ministers who share ideas and support and promote rural ministry and the UME - the Uniting Mission and Education resourcing team which builds the knowledge and skills base of the church across NSW and ACT.


In addition, Resource workers and ministers support lay people by organising workshops, researching and making new resources available.

Frontier Services staff travel across remote areas of Australia
to attend the Centenary celebrations in Melbourne in 2012.

In the Uniting Church, Frontier services is another organisation which, since the days of Rev. John Flynn, has worked with outback communities to 'empower them as communities and individuals, to overcome the disadvantages of living in remote locations." It has up to 1000 staff who deliver a range of services to assist with health, family support, aged care, finances,crisis situations and pastoral support and ministry.


One such minister was Jorge Rebolledo who visited Hillston for its Sesquicentenary Celebration Ecumenical service but that's another story...