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Burwood's Ministry Team

 

Burwood UCA is fortunate enough to be able to employ a diverse ministry team to carry out the pastoral care, preaching, children’s ministry and other ministries in the Burwood community. In recent years Burwood has made the decision to change from having two Ministers to employing one full time Minister of the Word (Rev’d Peter Whitaker), as well as a part-time Youth Worker (Bronwin Illing-Smith), and another part-time Minister for Pastoral Visitation and Care for the Elderly (Rev’d Dr Paul Moore). We believe in this way that we cater better to the diverse needs of the church and community.

Rev. Peter Whitaker
[email: pgwhitaker@netspace.net.au]
 


Rev'd Peter C. Whitaker M.A., B.D., Dip.Ed., F.A.I.M		 Hello and welcome to Burwood Uniting Church's web page.  I was delighted to join the ministry team at Burwood in February 2001. I count it a great privilege to exercise, once again, a Biblically based preaching-teaching ministry in the pastoral context.

Years of academic reading, especially at Tyndale House, Cambridge UK, in the field of New Testament, have enriched my life. During the nineties I not only focussed on educational practice and research, but also reflected on how the Church might relate the Gospel to students in a secular institution.

I come to parish ministry asking how the Church might relate to a post-modern society without compromising the Gospel. And I am one of those “strange” people who believe the next decades hold much promise to a faithful and reflective Church.
 
Ordained in 1972, I have had 12 years of parish ministry in South Africa, Wales and Australia. The bulk of my ministry has been in Christian Education with six years as a chaplain, and almost twelve years as the chief executive officer of the Council for Christian Education in Schools.

 
As much as my ministry is my life, so I also embrace life on a wider front.  My wife, Gillian, teaches part-time. Together we enjoy music, reading, films, theatre, bushwalking, motorcycling, and I am a new enthusiastic convert to sailing dinghies.  Of course our three children, Bradley, Robyn, Heather and their partners fill our lives with much pleasure..


Bronwin Illing-Smith (Youth Worker) 

Mobile: 0411 779913 

email:beejay_i@tpg.com.au

Thanks for visiting!

I started working with the Youth and Young Families of Burwood Uniting in July 2007.  Prior to ministry at Burwood, I was the Youth Ministry Co-ordinator for Living Faith Church (The Uniting Church & Church of Christ in Greensborough) for 3 and a half years.  I have also been involved in youth ministry in various other settings including Watsonia/Macleod Uniting, Traralgon Uniting and Gippsland Presbytery September and Easter Camps for children and youth.

I believe that the landscape for ministry with children and youth has changed remarkably over the past few decades and that we are called to reach out to the young people that are crying out for faith, hope and the love of God in their lives.We need to build up our communities again in this time of closeness in proximity, but yet distance in relationships. 

As well as working in ministry I am involved in Guiding; leading Eltham Echidna Ranger Guides and playing tenor saxophone and clarinet, including playing for Melbourne Gang Show for the past 11 years.  I also enjoy travelling and have been fortunate to have travelled in Asia, the South Pacific and Europe.


Catch me online @ myspace.com/beejay_i

 

Rev. Dr Paul Moore (Pastoral Visitation and Aged Care)
Phone:  (03) 9429 5860

Paul is semi-retired as a U.C.A minister having served the church at Ingham North Queensland, West End Brisbane, Revere and Saugus in Boston Massachusetts U.S.A, Melbourne Lifeline, St. Andrew's Central Box Hill Parish and now as a Pastoral Visitor for the Ageing at Burwood Uniting Church for two afternoons per week. He was also an adjunct lecturer in Pastoral Studies with the Churches of Christ Theological College and Whitley Baptist Theological College as well as lecturing in the United Faculty of Theology.

In addition Paul continues as a Counselling Psychologist in his Private Practice for a day and a half each week seeing up to 13 clients per week.

 

Prior to ministry Paul was a Primary School Teacher in Brisbane then a Physical Education Teacher in Brisbane, Toowoomba and Cairns.

Paul is married to Wanda a retired Emergency Physician and has two sons David and Peter. David is married to Simone with two beautiful daughters, Aliyah and Carmen. Peter is engaged to Sara.

Paul & Wanda have a small environmentally friendly home built by their son David, a builder, on a 20 acre property about 10 kilometres north of Hanging Rock, at the edge of the Cobaw State Forest. This is used as a weekender, mainly for growing trees and a garden. They have recently exchanged their Camberwell home with David, their son, for his renovated terrace home in Richmond, where they live during the week. 

Paul's hobbies include: developing the property at Cobaw, golf, swimming for fitness, reading, 4 wheel driving and tenting to different parts of Australia.

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