The Uniting Church SA is committed to addressing social justice needs, and this is reflected by the sixth key direction: championing justice. Helping the disadvantaged and marginalised has long been a part of the Uniting Church’s activities. The championing justice core team are keen to establish new justice initiatives, in partnership with local congregations, faith communities, schools and agencies.

The championing justice core team is convened by Rev Peter McDonald, working with Rev Ian Hunter, Charlene Kent and Peter Russell.The objectives of this key direction are:

• Develop and resource new social justice communities
• Resource ministries with marginalised groups
• Increase the church’s capacity to engage and respond to justice issues

If you wish to be involved, or speak to someone from the core team, please contact Peter McDonald (pictured) - (08) 8202 5880 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Justice in your local community is closer than you think, according to team convenor, Rev Peter McDonald.

“Justice can be about alleviating poverty, but it is also as much about helping people who are marginalised or isolated – right here, in our own community,” he explains.

This has been demonstrated in the array of case studies that the Championing Justice team have compiled. They are available for viewing on the strategic plan website – www.strategicplan.sa.uca.org.au.

 “What the case studies showed us is that these acts of justice stemmed from people engaging in their community,” comments Peter.

“It’s about meeting the needs of people and their community, helping people find their voice and removing barriers to being heard.

“It can be as simple as ensuring a children’s program is included at church, so that children can be taught the Gospel at their own level of understanding and reason.

As well as gathering examples of justice stories, this key direction has also focussed on finding issues which are not yet being addressed, with the option of providing seed funding to projects.

“We’ve received many proposals for justice projects our team could provide seed funding for,” said Peter.

“One is looking very promising and we hope to be able to move forward with it and share more information in the near future.”

In the meantime, congregations are encouraged to send their own justice stories to the team, to be put onto the website.

Another useful resource is the solidarity and justice weblog - http://solidarityandjustice.wordpress.com – to find out about local events and news in which people can take part.

Image: Migrants and refugees new to Australia are able to learn beach safety, thanks to a partnership betwen Maughan uniting Church's Centre of Welcome and the West Beach Surf Lifesaving Club.

A range of resources exist to assist in the development of community projects.  The following are a small sample of the resources available and cover areas such as project development, community engagement and applying for funding. 

Some of the resources have been developed for rural and regional communities but the information and resources are easily applied in an urban setting.

• Our Community: a range of information and resources including grants and funding opportunities www.ourcommunity.com.au

• Community Builders: information, case studies and networking with others www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au

• Community Capacity Building Toolkit: extensive resource with references to other useful sources of information  Community Capacity Building Toolkit (443.98 kB)

• Sustainable Enterprise Creation: Making a Difference in Rural Australia and Beyond – a collection of case studies of projects in rural areas  Sustainable Enterprise Creation (151.78 kB)