Because the decision of Sydney Presbytery is now under appeal, the Parish meeting also agreed unaminously that the Rev Dr Gordon Moyes be invited to continue his duties as Superintendent of Wesley Mission. At a meeting of the Pastoral Relations Committee of the Sydney Presbytery held on Tuesday, January 27th, 19998, approval was given for Dr Moyes to continue his duties as Superintendent of the Mission, pending the outcome of the appeal.The Wesley Mission family and friends welcome the return of Dr Moyes from annual leave.

Rev Dr Tony Chi,
Senior Minister

(reprinted from February issue of On Being Alive)

Negotiations are being conducted within the Uniting Church to try and reinstate Dr Gordon Moyes as head of Wesley Mission in Sydney.

An outspoken critic of 'liberal' decisions and the trend toward ordaining homosexuals in the Uniting Church, Dr Moyes was effectively sacked shortly before Christmas when the Sydney Presbytery of the Uniting Church voted not to renew his appointment on 31 December. His sacking sent shock waves through the Uniting Church around Australia.

Dr Moyes had headed the mission, one of the largest local church-based Christian organisations in Australia, including a large welfare arm, a Bible and arts training college, as well as many other ministry organisations, for 18 years.

In August Dr Moyes announced that Wesley Mission would withhold its contribution towards the cost of the Uniting Church's bureaucracy because of the church's softening stance on homosexuality and possible ordination of homosexual ministers.

EMU (Evangelical Members of the Uniting Church) called for other Uniting Church parishes to follow suit and within days the 800-strong Rangeville parish, in Toowoomba, announced it would stop contributions to the UC's bureaucracy until the homosexual issues were resolved.

In October, a Queensland UC minister, Bruce Sweet, and most of his 100 congregation members at Carbrook, south of Brisbane, withdrew from the UC to form an independent local church, the Calvary Family Church. Rev Sweet said that members of other Uniting Churches in Queensland were quitting their churches.

ON BEING ALIVE understands that a large number of eligible people who normally do not attend swelled the numbers and effectively stacked the Sydney Presbytery meeting which voted not to re-appoint Dr Moyes.

The chair of the Sydney Presbytery, Rev Tony Belaine, conceded that the fact that Dr Moyes had been a 'continual vocal critic of the Uniting Church' may have been a reason for some of the 'against' votes at the meeting.

Dr Moyes and Wesley Mission staff were particularly surprised because Dr Moyes was given full support for the extension of his appointment by the Mission's board, the parish council and the elders' council, as well as the staff and congregation of the mission. It is understood that the working party of the Sydney Presbytery which reported on his work as mission superintendent to the presbytery had also recommended his re-appointment.

Only days before the presbytery meeting which sacked him, the Community Standards Association gave Dr Moyes its annual award for moral and ethical leadership, citing his 'outspoken stance on sexuality issues within the Uniting Church and his continuing opposition to social injustice.'

Kate James/Terry Craig
On Being Alive

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