{"id":298,"date":"2026-01-19T22:29:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victasuca.wpengine.com\/?page_id=298"},"modified":"2026-01-19T22:29:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:29:39","slug":"our-leadership","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/?page_id=298","title":{"rendered":"Our Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Moderator:\u00a0Rev David Fotheringham<\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Picture of Img 9591 david copy\" class=\"wp-image-14003 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_9591-David-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Img 9591 david copy in the page Our Leadership\" width=\"350\" height=\"auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_9591-David-copy.jpg 1038w, https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_9591-David-copy-600x683.jpg 600w, https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_9591-David-copy-264x300.jpg 264w, https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_9591-David-copy-900x1024.jpg 900w, https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_9591-David-copy-768x874.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1038px) 100vw, 1038px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After pursuing postgraduate studies in Physics, David followed the calling in his heart towards ministry and was ordained in 2000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am attracted to the Uniting Church because of its willingness to step out faithfully to be inclusive and responsive to the needs of the whole community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m drawn to the ways in which God is calling the Church to be a place of reconciliation and hope, wisdom and love.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI appreciate our journey in walking together as First and Second Peoples, on this land where God\u2019s Spirit has been with First Peoples since time immemorial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love that the Church is a community in which to explore faith and deepen our relationship with God, who calls us to compassion and justice.<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019m grateful for ways that that is expressed through our agencies, chaplaincies, and congregations and faith communities both big and small.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--StartFragment --><span class=\"cf0\">Contact Rev David Fotheringham <a href=\"mailto:communications@victas.uca.org.au\">here<\/a><\/span><!--EndFragment --><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"gensec\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>General Secretary: Rev Dr Mark Lawrence<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Picture of Mark lawrence 2019 profile\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1823 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Mark-Lawrence-2019-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Mark lawrence 2019 profile in the page Our Leadership\" width=\"350\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Mark-Lawrence-2019-profile.jpg 350w, https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Mark-Lawrence-2019-profile-247x300.jpg 247w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Mark has been the Synod\u2019s General Secretary since 2012. Ordained in 1988, Mark is a strong advocate of the <a href=\"https:\/\/victas.uca.org.au\/download\/30\/who-we-are\/1894\/basis-of-union\">Basis of Union<\/a>, believing it is as significant today as when the Uniting Church in Australia was formed in 1977.<\/p>\n<p>As General Secretary, Mark jokingly describes himself as \u201cjust a church bureaucrat and a meeting junkie\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He is keen to encourage members to continually seek to renew the Church\u2019s mission as a demonstration of Christ&#8217;s reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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\u2019s invitation to share in his ministry and mission,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Mark\u2019s ministry interests include transcendent peace, leadership, organisational development, and mediation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are governed by a Moderator and General Secretary. The Moderator, Rev Denise Liersch, is the Synod\u2019s spiritual leader. The General Secretary, Rev Dr Mark Lawrence, acts as our executive officer and provides general leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":950,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-298","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22225,"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/298\/revisions\/22225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shops.debug.victas.uca.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}