Help for Church Councils

Firstly, thank you! If you are reading this you are probably a member of Church Council. Your willingness to commit to this is really appreciated.  We understand that it is a responsible job and that sometimes it can feel overwhelming or confusing.  The following are some notes to help explain some of your responsibilities and to make your job easier.  This is a work in progress.  If you have ideas about what you would like to see included, please contact the GRP Office on 9579 4682 or send an email to admin.grp@nswact.uca.org.au.

Property Matters

You are probably aware that Congregations are not legal entities and that the legal title in all property is vested in The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (NSW) or The Uniting Church in Australia (ACT) Property Trust (“Property Trust”).

What this means in practice is that whilst Congregations can decide that they wish to buy, sell or build; when it comes to signing a legal document, Synod Property needs to do this. This includes signing for a Community Grant. 

For this to happen, there needs to be a trail of approvals:

  • Firstly Congregations / Church Councils.  There needs to be a clear motion approved and minuted as to the decision made to buy, sell etc. This is used when filling in the Application Form. The Application Form will also ask you about the missional motivation behind this application.
  • The GRP Property Committee needs to be kept informed as they are ones who will make a recommendation to Standing Committee on behalf of the Congregation
  • GRP Standing Committee will receive the recommendation from the Property Committee and, if approved, will sign the application form which needs to be sent to Synod
  • NB It is highly likely that Uniting Mission and Education will be asked to sign off as well, so it is best to discuss your missional intentions with them.

For full details click on the relevant link:

Synod Support

The Synod is now publishing a quarterly Congregation Governance Toolkit and has a new page on the Synod website for this UCA - Congregation Governance Toolkit. The intention is to support Congregations with their compliance responsibilities. The quarterly publications help to ease the burden of these responsibilities by advising which actions to tackle in each quarter, thus spreading the load throughout the year. The Governance Toolkit and the webpage contain links to many resources and templates to help Congregations.

If you didn't receive your Toolkit please ask your Church Council Secretary or contact the GRP Office to find out to whom it was sent. Each quarter, a few governance and compliance topics will be in focus. 

The Synod Risk Officer is Guiselle Vargas.  Guiselle can be contacted on GuiselleV@nswact.uca.org.au.

ACNC

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) is the national regulator of charities. All Congregations need to report to the ACNC annually by submitting the Annual Information Statement (AIS). Church Councils are responsible for ensuring this is done. Most Congregations are Basic Religious Charities (BCR). This means that the reporting requirements are much less onerous. In practice, BCR need to update the names of the responsible persons (usually the Chair, Treasurer and Secretary) and not much else.  Here are some simplified notes on how to do this: ACNC - How to Report

Culture of Safety (Formerly Safe Church)

How To Get Started

All Church Council members are now required to hold current and verified Working With Children Checks (WWCC).  Volunteers in relevant roles including all church Council members will need to attend a Safe Church Awareness Course and a refresher every subsequent 3 years.

Currently the UCA Safe Church training is unavailable. Alternative opportunities are:

There is a Synod Culture of Safety Unit which has carriage over all aspects of safe church and they are the key contact for Presbyteries and Congregations for these matters. This is the link to the ‘About Us’ page for the Safe Church Unit on the Synod website https://nswact.uca.org.au/safe-church-unit/about-us/.  It includes the team members and the scope of their responsibilities.  The team can be contacted on safechurch@nswact.uca.org.au.

Copyright

Please see Copyright for some guidelines, tips and resources.