Emmanuel Uniting Church - Mission Statement:

"To worship God, grow in faith and reach out with His love to others"

Back Ground/founding information

Emmanuel Uniting Church is a multicultural congregation made up of people from the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, America, Canada, PNG, Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Torres Strait, Korea, Malaysia and so on.

Emmanuel, as part of its mission and outreach to the community, shares its property with a large number of other congregations and smaller Christian groups. These congregations and groups include: the Cairns Korean Uniting Church, the Cook Island Christian Fellowship Church (who are seeking to become a Uniting Church congregation), two Torres Strait Islander Christian Groups, The New Independent World Church (another Aboriginal & Islander group), as well as an AOG Congregation (New Hope Multicultural Fellowship).

It has been our aim in the last three years, not just to provide a space for these individual congregations to do their own ministry, but to be intentional in trying to develop and grow in our relationships with one another, through such activities as combined worship services and other cultural activities, so that we might better understand what it means to share and participate together (as the one community of faith) in the mission of Christ into the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The establishment of the “Good Samaritan Ministry Centre” in 2006 has greatly fostered this multicultural vision of the church by working together with other congregations, community based projects and organisations to provide, not just a physical place for people to come and stay, but to accompany this with an active Christian community of people (on site) who are there to genuinely love and care for one another.

Through the Good Samaritan Ministry Centre, the church is able to provide a holistic style of ministry, meeting not just peoples physical needs, but their mental and spiritual needs as well through such programs as bible studies, discipleship training, social activities, and individual pastoral care. Individuals staying at the centre are encouraged to participate in the running and maintenance of the facilities as well as developing the spiritual life of the community by loving and caring for one another.

The strength of the Good Samaritan ministry centre is that there is a strong connection between the centre and the life of the congregation as a whole. That is, the Good Samaritan ministry centre is not an independent ministry from the church, but one that operates within the context of the Emmanuel Congregation.