My thanks to a regular reader who brought to my attention the 166th General Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia.

This branch is not one that I regularly track and the Synod meeting did not make it onto my earlier list. It is a small branch but lays claim to being the oldest Presbyterian denomination in Australia. And while it was not a formal branch of the Free Church of Scotland, it did adopt the “Free Church” label and generally paralleled it in belief and practice. It is a continuing church being the descendant of those churches which did not join the state churches leading up to their federation that formed the Presbyterian Church of Australia in 1901. It is also worth noting that in style of worship they follow the Regulative Principle and their singing is in the style of unaccompanied psalmody.

For further information about this Presbyterian branch I refer you to the various pages that are part of the Introducing Ourselves section of the web site. You can also find their polity documents in their Handbook of Practice and Procedure.

The Annual Meeting of the Synod was held 7 to 9 May, 2013, in Wauchope, NSW. For information about the details of the meeting the Minutes are posted and the church’s publication, Presbyterian Banner, has a summary and some pictures in the June issue with a continuation in the July issue. It also includes the sermons given by the outgoing Moderator, Sjirk Bajema, and the new Moderator, Andres Miranda.

I do not see the reports to Synod online so a couple of the items that caught my attention in the summary and minutes are missing context and details. One of these is the ongoing work related to church property. The property of the denomination is held by trustees with a set of trustees appropriate to each state the church is in. Last fall the Parliament of the State of Victoria adopted modifications to the appropriate property act and this Synod approved modifications for the State of New South Wales. The two presbyteries in the state are now given the opportunity to make minor modifications before it is sent on to the civil government for their action.

I would presume that modifications are similar for the two states. In Victoria, the changes made included some minor ones, but one of the more notable changes was the dropping of the word “Free” from the name of the church. What seems to be the most significant change to the act is the granting of more power to the trustees to manage properties and the funds under their control.

The other business item that looks interesting, and I would be very interested in seeing the final product, is a series of brief statements on the topics of yoga, a Christian’s right to protest, homosexual marriage, and abortion. In the published summary it is suggested that they will hopefully be published in the Presbyterian Banner in the near future.

This looks to have been a productive and efficient meeting and a successful one from the prospective of the business of the church as well as the fellowship and encouragement of the servants of the church. Well done and I will try to remember to include the church on my list next year.