Welcome to Rev Paul Turley, our Minister of the congregation
AGM is Sunday 26th March 2023
SALA: An opportunity for Remote artists

Happenings!

 

James and Miguel's Wedding

 

Induction of Rev Paul Turley

Paul's Response to the Congregation:

It is a joy for me to be welcomed into the community of Scots Church Adelaide and I thank you all so much for the welcome.

In 2018 a YouGov survey found that 40% of people believe that their job did not “make a meaningful contribution to the world. Other polls since have found similar results. You might be forgiven for thinking the job of an ordained minister in a Christian Church at the start of the Twenty-first Century is one of those jobs.

The Church as an institution is well passed the era of Christendom when it was for so long the preeminent institution in western culture. And while those days are behind it, the Church still operates in so many ways as if the turn from institutional religion is an aberration which, with the correct application of technique, commitment or piety will soon be remedied. But we are past all of that now.

We know this in our own denominational story. The Uniting Church in Australia is half the size it was 20 years ago. The average Uniting Church congregation is around 30 people and likely ten years older than the surrounding demographic. However, this is the institution of the Church.

Yet the Church is not an institution. The church has an institutional expression, but it is not an institution. The Church is an organism. We have an institution, but our institutional structure is our exoskeleton. An exoskeleton's purpose is to give shape, structure, and protection to the organism. But it is not the organism.

We often confuse the exoskeleton we need for the essence of who we are. An organism only has its exoskeleton for a season. To change and grow it must shed its old exoskeleton. The difficulty for the organism is that without the old exoskeleton and, while waiting for the new one to form, it is left vulnerable and shapeless. This is the Church now.

And not just the Church. Many traditional institutions are in this same uncertain, vulnerable place. For example, that venerable institution across the road from us, The University of Adelaide. The purpose and place of the academy in culture was once obvious and unquestioned. Today, we are asking society-wide questions as to the purpose of these entities. Is their purpose training or education? Is there a difference? Should university education be open to all or to only a select few? South of us too, the trade union movement on South Terrace must ask itself profound questions about its relevance and purpose. Over the last 20 years the union movement to has lost half its membership.

This is an unnerving and confusing time for the Church and a very strange time to be an ordained minister in the Church. Just as the Church as institution is losing its assumed place and purpose, so too its clergy.

But this is also an exciting time for all us who are ministers in God’s church. (And in the Uniting Church that is all of us.) As our institutions structure weaken and dissolve, our nature as organism and as community can, perhaps, be seem with more clarity.... Read on >>>>

 

SOL Music

 

SALA Space

Would you love to be part of SALA, but know people won’t travel that far? Scots Church Adelaide is here to help.

Scots Church Adelaide have a beautiful hall and adjoining facilities on North Terrace on offer for a community or individual artist/s from a remote area to display throughout SALA (August). In 2022, a SALA exhibition of artists from the small community of Sedan, saw the venue on the maps of many city SALA trails and received over 200 visitors over two weeks.

We provide the venue and amenities, a SALA welcome flag, support, and social media advertising to successful applicant for free.

Artist/s would provide SALA registration ($300 per venue), art, installation, oversight of exhibition and bump out. Artists maintain all proceeds from sales.

Conversation about insurances will be part of the application process.

Two significant deadlines:

Applications due to Scots Church Adelaide: March 30th 2023

SALA registrations close: May 10th 2023

For more information, please contact Jill: 0409178465 or connections@scotschurch.org at your earliest convenience.

Image: Copyright Riley Schirmer Marne Valley Photography

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