Our Leadership

Moderator: Rev Salesi Faupula

Born in Tonga, Salesi moved to Australia as a child as his father Haloti, a minister with the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, undertook missionary work with the Methodist Church.

Salesi’s Uniting Church journey began on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, and he was ordained as a minister in 2012.

“I made a vow at my ordination in 2012 that I would make myself available and commit myself to serving God,” he says.

“I believe that God calls me into this role of Moderator and continues to equip me for it, and that is where my faith lies.

“The connections and relationships I have formed in congregational ministry, at a presbytery level, and within the Synod itself, have been very important to me and will continue to be as Moderator.

“The inclusivity and diversity of the Uniting Church is something that I have always found heartening, and, in 1985, the Church declared itself to be a multicultural church and that journey continues.”

Contact Rev Salesi Faupula here

 

General Secretary: Rev Dr Mark Lawrence

Mark has been the Synod’s General Secretary since 2012. Ordained in 1988, Mark is a strong advocate of the Basis of Union, believing it is as significant today as when the Uniting Church in Australia was formed in 1977.

As General Secretary, Mark jokingly describes himself as “just a church bureaucrat and a meeting junkie”.

He is keen to encourage members to continually seek to renew the Church’s mission as a demonstration of Christ’s reconciliation.

“I urge the Church to keep looking for fresh words and deeds for its ongoing worship, witness and service, in order to remain faithful to Christ’s invitation to share in his ministry and mission,” he says.

Mark’s ministry interests include transcendent peace, leadership, organisational development, and mediation.