See also History for a more general history of St Andrews

The current Turramurra Uniting Church

TUC to its friends, the current Turramurra Uniting Church operates from a contemporary complex in Turramurra Avenue. The complex includes a modern 600 seat worship space, a traditional 60 seat chapel which is the original Turramurra Methodist Church and is now the oldest church still used for worship in Turramurra, and several other facilities used by both church and community groups.

TUC and St Andrews are now both congregations of Kuringgai Presbytery. We have a very special informal relationship, and combine officially in several activities, most notably the Flea Market.

History

St Andrews arose from mission work in South Turramurra largely (but not entirely) supported by St Margarets Presbyterian Church, Turramurra. See History.

When the UCA was formed in 1977, Turramurra Parish was formed, consisting of three congregations:

• St Margarets
• St Andrews
• Trinity Methodist Church (formerly Turramurra Methodist Church)

This parish was the first organisation known as Turramurra Uniting Church.

The parish model had its problems. Notably, each congregation and each parish were required to have their own organisational structure, with each congregation being governed by a Council of Elders and each parish governed by a Parish Council. Elders were not necessarily parish council members, and vice versa. A few responsibilities were also exercised by a Parish Council of Elders consisting of all the elders of the parish meeting together, but this met only as required.

So Turramurra Parish had four treasurers, four budgets, four sets of audited accounts, three membership rolls, four secretaries, and four AGMs. Motivating members of the congregations to each attend two AGMs at which most of the information presented would be repeated was not always easy.

Ministers were called to a parish, not a congregation, so Turramurra Parish began life with a three-member team ministry, consisting of three ministers who had each been called to serve in single minister placements. In practice, the ministers continued to serve primarily in their existing congregations, and combined a team ministry with this focus. When new ministers were called to the parish, it was decided that their calls would include a statement that their primary focus was to a particular congregation within the parish.

When St Margarets and Trinity congregations combined, the name chosen for the new congregation this formed was Turramurra Uniting Church. This existed as one of two congregations (St Andrews being the other) in Turramurra Parish, which also continued to be known as Turramurra Uniting Church.

The parish system was discontinued with the release of the UCA report A Pilgrim People. In 1999 Turramurra Parish decided to have a single membership roll and a single governing council, and became Turramurra Congregation.

During a ministerial vacancy in 2005, this situation was reviewed, and it was clear that a combined organisation and ministry team could not now serve St Andrews well. St Andrews and Turramurra Uniting Church became separate congregations within Kuringgai Presbytery on 1 January 2006.

In many ways, we have come full circle. St Andrews has now gained exactly the same status within the Uniting Church as that which it had recently gained in the Presbyterian Church at the time of union.