JourneyOnline
Rev Dr Tony Floyd has been appointed as the new Uniting Church National Director of Multicultural and Cross-cultural Ministry . Dr Floyd, who himself emigrated from England, has worked in ministry based with congregations in Victoria, Tasmania, and Chicago. He succeeds Rev Helen Richmond in this position.
Multi/cross-cultural connection both with migrant and Indigenous Australians has been a feature of Dr Floyd’s personal and professional life. He is, as he puts it, firmly “committed to the reality that God created a multicultural world” and to the Uniting Church as a “self-declared multicultural church.”
In Dr Floyd’s view multicultural and cross-cultural ministry is not about establishing a multicultural church so much as recognising and embracing our identity as a multicultural church with a focus on “living out who we are.”
As to the future direction of the ministry Dr Floyd says one priority is second generation Australians. Another focus will be encouraging the church to make use of the documents and guidelines the Church has adopted. And the increasing number of small communities, such as refugee groups, linking with the Uniting Church — The Basis of Union has been translated into Arabic as well as one of the Sudanese languages — means there is increased need for attention in this area.
Over the next few months Dro Floyd plans to visit the synods and meet with people face-to-face to discuss his agenda of advancing a national network of cross-cultural experiences and vision where “all peoples of every language and culture find their place alongside one another in God’s promises as gifts of God’s grace”.
Photo : Uniting Church National Director of Multicultural and Cross-cultural Ministry Rev Dr Tony Floyd
