A Uniting Church Journey - Full Circle

by Rev. Donna Muston

Where do I begin with my personal story of my journey with the Uniting Church when it seems to have been part of my life from even before it came into being?

Growing up as a child in a small Methodist church in a rural town I had the wonderful opportunity to learn that faith is meant to be lived in the community. We were encouraged to invite our friends to ‘Rays’ girls group, our choir entered the local Eisteddfods, we helped out at the local fundraisers, catering for weddings, large events, and of course, the local ‘pig and calf’ sales. The ‘sales’ were places where conversations were held over a cup of tea, a tin roof with a wood stove - all under a Central Queensland sky, frying in the summer and freezing in the winter!  Looking back, it was a way of intergenerational faith sharing.

I mostly remember the way ministers and congregation lived out their beliefs, not so much what was taught in Sunday School or sermons. I recall the kindness, the commitment to gather every Sunday, the gifts used.  And the singing. Loved the singing, still do. I also recall that as a young high school student, I was not afraid to invite my friends to RI classes or to other activities in our church because I knew they would be welcomed and that they would find something that was current and interesting.

Some years later, who would have thought that in Lane Cove, Sydney, I would find a church home that resembled something of a country church, St Columbus Uniting Church. Here, my faith was nurtured, deepened and expanded as I experienced life in this urban congregation. A move to Nowra, south of Sydney, saw yet another different experience and a challenging time, not quite in the right place, but never entertaining the thought that a move to another denomination might be an option.

Eventually my husband Rodney and I moved back to where my faith story began. Biloela. Our children experienced life in this congregation, we grew in faith as a family. Years passed, I became a Pastor in location, experienced ministry during times of disaster, heard a ‘clear call’ during an Assembly opening worship and many, many years later, having been mentored, guided, tested, and supported, am currently serving as an ordained minister in Central Western Queenland.

As difficult and complex as it is and has been, of the many things that has caused me to ‘stay’ is the Uniting Church’s openness to the reality that diverse views exist among us. Diversity reminds us that we need to keep an open space for the ‘one more’ and the ‘one more’. . . the one with questions, the one seeking, the one returning, the one whose experience is so very different from our own journey... Perhaps this is one way we might put into practice our willingness to submit to our commitment to the refining process of renewal, all the while being held in the love of Christ, expressed in the Basis of Union.

Through human witness in word and action, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ reaches out to command people's attention and awaken faith; he calls people into the fellowship of his sufferings, to be the disciples of a crucified Lord; in his own strange way Christ constitutes, rules and renews them as his Church (1992, paragraph 4).

At the end of the year, retirement will see us heading ‘back to Bilo’ and we will once again be one of the ones ‘seeking a place at the table’ in a different place and time.