Stuart McMillan (born 1955) was the national President of the

Uniting Church in Australia The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Uni ...

(UCA) from July 2015 to July 2018. He was installed for a three-year term on 12 July 2015 at a service at Perth's Scotch College.

Uniting Church in Australia

In 1982, McMillan was interviewed for and appointed to a position as an accountant with the UCA's Northern Synod, based in Darwin, Northern Territory. He and his wife Ros moved from

Epping Epping may refer to: Places Australia * Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Epping railway station, Sydney * Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Epping Forest, Kearns, a he ...

in Sydney with their young family.Travelling North – Profiling the New President

UCA The fiddler crab or calling crab may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae, well known for their sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than the minor claw, whil ...

Assembly 2015 biography of Stuart McMillan, accessed 12 July 2015 McMillan has had many roles in the Northern Synod and associated organisations: accountant, operations manager, general manager of the Arnhem Land Progress Association (ALPA) - now the Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation, pastor, cultural awareness trainer, resource worker, community developer, and Moderator. After living and working in the Northern Territory for some time, a man McMillan knew adopted him as his brother in the Gupapuyngu clan of the Yolngu nation with the skin name ''bulany'' meaning ''red kangaroo''. In order that Yolngu kinship ties were proper in terms of Stuart and Ros’ relationship, and to complete the induction, the man’s wife also adopted Ros McMillan as her sister. McMillan worked as an advisor to the former Moderator of the Uniting Church in Australia's Northern Synod, the Rev. Djiniyini Gondarra, for 12 years through the period after the High Court’s Mabo case decision established native title. McMillan was involved in researching the claimants' situations, and making trips to Canberra to assist Gondarra and others as they gave their input on the drafting of the

Native Title Act The ''Native Title Act 1993'' (Cth) is a law passed by the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is "to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land managemen ...

under the Prime Minister of Australia,

Paul Keating Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...

. The McMillans became part of the

Humpty Doo Humpty Doo is a small town in Australia's Northern Territory, situated just south of the Arnhem Highway, approximately 40 km from Darwin. At the , Humpty Doo had a population of 4,380 people. Its local government area is Litchfield Munici ...

semi-rural community near Darwin, and its Uniting Church. After several ministers, McMillan took on the role of pastor, presiding over weddings, funerals and other activities of an

ordained minister In Christianity, a minister is a person authorised by a church or other religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guid ...

Moderator, Northern Synod

McMillan's wife, Ros McMillan, served as Moderator of the Northern Synod, based in Darwin, from 1996 to 1999. McMillan served as moderator for five years until June 2015.

President of the Assembly

McMillan was elected as President-Elect at the 13th Assembly, held in Adelaide, South Australia in July 2012. McMillan was installed as the President of the UCA on Sunday 12 July 2015, at the 14th Triennial Assembly held in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

(12–18 July 2015). He replaced the Rev.

Andrew Dutney Reverend Professor Andrew Fergus Dutney ( ; born 9 July 1958) is a Christian scholar, writer, and musician. He is a Professor within the College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University. He is the former principal of Uniting ...

.Welcome Stuart McMillan

Assembly 2015, 12 July 2015Uniting Hearts To Warm Perth’s Winter Spirit

, 10 July 2015, accessed 13 July 2015 He started his address to the installation service with the words, in the Yolŋu language, “Bala limurr roŋyirr ŋorraŋgitjlil” – “Let us return to the white ashes of the fire”, an allusion to the Holy Spirit. As a lay president, McMillan’s role in worship will be slightly circumscribed. Under Uniting Church regulations he will not be able to officiate at

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

s or preside over communion outside his synod without the authorisation of the host presbytery.

References

External links

Installation ceremony as President of the UCA, 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMillan, Stuart (Church leader) Living people Uniting Church in Australia presidents Australian accountants Yolngu People from the Northern Territory 1955 births People educated at James Ruse Agricultural High School