Sydney Australia • 16-19 August 2007

Conference Info | Contributors | Program | Sponsors | National Tour

Headline Speakers

Bishop John Shelby Spong
author and religion commentator

Rev Stephanie Dowrick
writer & inter-faith minister

These outstanding headline speakers will be supported by a diverse range of international and local presenters ...

Keynote Speakers

Izzat AbdulHadi - Head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia. Prior to taking up his diplomatioc post in 2006, Izzat served for 18 years as Director-General of the Bisan Center for Research and Development, a leading NGO in community development and civil society development. The Bisan Center aims to strengthen the Palestinian civil society, promoting human rights, democratic principles, human sustainable development and social justice through community development and applied research. Following the Oslo Accords in 1993 he was also among a core group of civil society leaders that established the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO).

Joe Bessler-Northcutt - Joe Bessler-Northcutt is Associate Professor of Theology at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With academic degrees from Harvard (M.T.S.) and the University of Chicago (Ph.D.) where he was a Century Fellow, Bessler-Northcutt teaches in the areas of Theology, Ethics, religion and literature, and religion and politics. Specializing in modern Christian Theology and theories of interpretation, he is co-author with Martin-Belsky of Law and Theology: Cases and Readings. He has also written numerous essays on the theological importance of historical Jesus research, including “Learning to See God: Prayer and Practice in the Wake of the Jesus Seminar” and has a book forthcoming from Polebridge Press, Re-Thinking the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Scandalous Theology in the Public Interest.

Senator Bob Brown - Bob Brown has been a life-long activist. As well as the Franklin campaign, he was shot at and assaulted at protests against logging at Tasmania’s Farmhouse creek in 1986, and in 1995 was arrested and jailed twice for demonstrating peacefully to protect Tasmania's Tarkine Wilderness from roading and logging. In 1990, Bob Brown established the Australian Bush Heritage Fund to buy land for conservation. His books include Lake Pedder, Wild Rivers, Tarkine Trails, The Greens and, in 2004 Memo for a Saner World. Bob Brown was a driving force in forming the Australian Greens in 1992. He has travelled extensively, fostering Green politics and forming close links with Greens in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Since being elected to the Senate in 1996 he has been the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens.

Dr John Falzon, a sociologist working in the area of social justice and social change, is Chief Executive Officer of the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council. He has written and spoken widely on the structural causes of marginalisation and inequality in Australia and has long been involved in national advocacy campaigns such as the struggle against unjust welfare legislation. He has worked in academia, lecturing at the University of Western Sydney, in research and advocacy with civil society organisations and in community development in large public housing estates such as Macquarie Fields and Riverwood. He began working for the St Vincent de Paul Society in 2001 and has enjoyed the privilege of working with Vinnies members all over Australia to put the case for a National Anti-Poverty Strategy to the Senate Inquiry into Poverty in 2003, a strategy that is yet to be embraced by a Federal Government in Australia. John holds degrees in Communication Studies, Theology and Social Analysis.

Rex A E Hunt - Chair, National Planning Team and Director, Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Canberra. Rex Hunt is an ordained minister of the Uniting Church in Australia in placement at The Church of St James, Canberra, and director of The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Canberra. He also is founder of The Network of Biblical Storytellers Australia (1990). An Associate of the Westar Institute Rex is a member of Westar’s Literacy & Liturgy Seminar, and is a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International.

Jonathan Keren-Black - Rabbi, Leo Baeck Centre for Progressive Judaism, East Kew. Jonathan writes: I believe in putting prayer into practice. I am interested in faith frameworks for modern life, and my studies, talks and meetings with others have persuaded me that those of us who consider ourselves ‘religious’ have an enormous amount in common, as well of course as important differences. I firmly believe that we must learn to live together with interest and respect for, and indeed celebration of, difference and diversity. We pray to the same God, who created this magnificent diversity – who are we to try to make others the same as us? I also believe that God put us on earth as care-takers of creation – and we have done a pretty poor job recently and are fast running out of time! Hence I see it as our religious obligation to resolve difficulties and problems in our world.

Julie McCrossin - Julie wears many hats including media presenter, freelance journalist, debater, comedian, activist, consultant and lecturer among many others. She hosted ABC Radio National's 'Life Matters' for five years and appeared regularly on Channel 10 TV's 'Good News Week.' She says she talks for a living and she does that very well. In 2003 she told the story of her faith journey in Pitt St Uniting Church's 'God and Me' series. An Anglican in Sydney, Julie has worked also with the Metropolitan Community Church. Her website is www.juliemccrossin.com

Fred Plumer - After an extensive background in building management, real estate development and restaurant ownership and management, Fred Plumer made a career shift in 1981. He earned his M.Div. degree at the Pacific School of Religion while doing work in an inner city community center. In 1984 he was called to the Irvine United Congregational Church in Irvine, California to lead a UCC new start church. The church became known throughout the denomination as one of the more exciting and progressive mid-size congregations in the nation. In September of 2004 Fred retired from the Irvine church so he could devote more time to writing and his passion - reclaiming the message of Jesus. In January of 2006 after Jim Adams, founder of TCPC retired as President, he was elected as the new President of The Center for Progressive Christianity.

Jenny Te Paa - Dean of the College of St. John the Evangelist in Auckland, New Zealand and chair of the international Anglican Justice and Peace Network.

B. Brandon Scott - Darbeth Distinguished Professor of New Testament at the Phillips Theological Seminary, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bernard Brandon Scott is the author of several books, including Hear Then the Parable, one of the most important books on parables in this generation, and the editor of several more. A charter member of the Jesus Seminar, he is co-chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media Section of the Society of Biblical Literature and a consultant to the American Bible Society experimental film translations. In recognition of that work, the American Bible Society Research Center awarded him a research grant for 1999–2000 to work on sound mapping, the study of sound as the communication environment of the ancient world.

Val Webb - Val began her professional life with a Graduate degree in Microbiology and a research appointment at the University of Queensland. In 1988, Val completed a Ph.D. in Theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul. She has since taught at the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, Minnesota, Whitley College, Melbourne, Murdoch University, Perth and United Theological College, Sydney. Her books include In Defense of Doubt: an Invitation to Adventure (Chalice Press, 1995), Why We’re Equal: Introducing Feminist Theology (Chalice Press, 1999), John’s Message: Good News for the New Millennium (Abingdon Press, 1999) and Florence Nightingale: the Making of a Radical Theologian (Chalice Press, 2002). Her latest book Like Catching Water in a Net: Human Attempts to Describe the Divine will be published by Continuum New York and London in September 2007.

Sherri Weinberg - Sherri has served as Minister at St Paul’s of Devonport for the past 5 years. She has a richly diverse social and cultural background that provides a foundation for over 25 years in ministry, 17 of which has been as an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. A pot pouri of qualifications includes an MA in Religious Studies; B. Theol, Dip. Min, social work, counseling (specialist areas - suicide/grief and relationships ), change management and mediation. Committed to progressing transformation in the church, Sherri seeks to provide an open, inclusive and safe ‘sanctuary’, and encourages people to understand themselves uniquely sacred within the context of the sacredness of creation. Sherri does not believe the founding documents of the Christian Church reflect the freedom and wisdom inherent in the life and teachings of Jesus and therefore refuses to be bound by imposed doctrine, statements of faith, or outdated and meaningless creeds.

Moderators, Planning Team and Workshop Facilitators

Graham Byrne - Committee Chair, Progressive Christianity Network of South Australia and member of the Lay Ministry Team of Verdun Uniting Church, a progressive congregation in South Australia. Graham is Meeting Chair, Hills Circle of Friends - a support and lobby group for Refugees in South Australia. He is a former ordained minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church (1968-1982) - serving in Queensland, Vanuatu, Melbourne and Adelaide - and having resigned for theological and progressive reasons. He has worked as a public servant in the South Australian Government for the past 21 years, with roles in marketing, communications and contract management.

Dick Carter - Richard J (Dick) Carter is a company director with special interests in the minerals industry, board leadership, corporate governance, strategy formulation and occupational health and safety. In the not-for-profit sector he is the foundation President of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria, Chair of Prahran Mission-UnitingCare, a director of UCA Funds Management and Chair of the Ewing Memorial Uniting Church Council. He is Chairman of Macmahon Holdings Ltd and of Consolidated Minerals Ltd, and a director of ERA Ltd. He is a past director of several listed companies, including North Ltd and he was Chairman of Ticor Ltd. His executive career spanned thirty seven years with the BHP Group (now merged into BHP Billiton) from which he retired in 1997 as BHP Minerals' Chief Executive Officer. Dick has also had wide experience in industry and professional representative groups (including The Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy of which he was President in 1998) and government bodies concerned with regional development. He was Western Australia’s Citizen of the Year in 1996 and he was awarded the Centenary Medal.

Dermot Dorgan - Dermot Dorgan grew up in Ireland and came to Australia in 1973. He’s been involved in overseas aid, justice and peace education, and most recently refugee settlement. He started writing songs in the eighties, mostly on social issues, with a humourous or satirical flavour. (“Make ‘em laugh, but make ‘em think as well”). He’s produced several albums, including The Cockroach and the Vatican and The Call of the Cappuccino. He’s currently working with the Romero Centre in Brisbane

Don Dowling - Don is an ordained minister of the Uniting Church in Australia and in placement as a Consultant in Leadership, Urban Mission and Evangelism to the Uniting Church in Australia (NSW Synod) Board of Mission. Don is also a member of the Progressive Evangelical Network, Sydney. Prior to moving to Sydney from Perth, Don worked in congregations, both rural and urban, in hospital/hospice, defence force and school chaplaincies. His ministry is centred around connecting the church with those around it. In particular, Don was the initiating minister of the Warehouse Café, Shenton Park, WA—a seven-day a week café where the church and community meet. A Progressive Theological Thought group meets monthly at the café.

Greg Jenks - Anglican priest and religion scholar, Greg is a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and a former Associate Director of the Westar Institute. He is Executive Trustee of FaithFutures Foundation and President of Friends of Sabeel Oceania. Greg is currently Academic Dean and Lecturer in New Testament at St Francis' Theological College in Brisbane, and his particular research interests are historical Jesus studies and Christian origins.

Nigel Leaves - Nigel is Director and Dean of Studies of John Wollaston Anglican Theological College, Perth, Western Australia. He has been a tutor and part-time lecturer in Theology at Murdoch University in Perth and the coordinator and lecturer for the Wollaston Board of Theological Studies in Adult Religious Education. He has served as an Anglican priest in the United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and Australia. He has been keynote lecturer at the United Kingdom Sea of Faith Conference and the Westar Institute in California, USA and has conducted workshops at various conferences in the areas of religion and philosophy. He has written three books, Odyssey on the Sea of Faith: The life and writings of Don Cupitt (2004) Surfing on the Sea of Faith: The religion and ethics of Don Cupitt (2005) and The God Problem: Alternatives to fundamentalism (2006); and numerous articles in theological journals. His next project is to write about the resurgence of atheism and the response of religions. He is a Fellow of the Westar Institute (USA) and The Jefferson Center (USA).

Cecilie & Mervyn Lander - Anglican priests, Zen masters and medical specialists

Scott McKenzie - President, Sea of Faith in Australia. Scott is a financial adviser, director of Financial Force Pty Ltd, a small financial advisory firm (and Australian Financial Services Licence holder)in Brisbane, having been a public servant and teacher for many years. Scott was elected President of SoFiA in September 2006.

Kath McPhillips - Kathleen is Senior Lecturer in Humanities at the University of Western Sydney. She has written extensively on themes around women and religion and post-modern spirituality and culture. She is a member of the International Board of Editors for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion: co-editor of the Australian Religion Studies Review and executive member of the Association of Women Scholars of Religion and Theology. She is currently working on a feminist hagiography of Mary MacKillop.

David Merritt - David is secretary and a founding member of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria. He has been a consultant to churches across Australia on identifying priorities for the church in contemporary society. He was for many years the Director of the national education agency of the Uniting Church in Australia. He studied education and theology in Australia and the United States.

Michael Morwood - Michael is the author of the best-selling books, God Is Near, Tomorrow's Catholic, Is Jesus God, Finding Our Faith and the award-winning, Praying a New Story. Michael lives in Melbourne, and is highly regarded as an inspiring and challenging speaker on the need to re-shape Christian imagination, thought and liturgical language. Michael spends several months each year in the USA speaking to groups and conducting days of reflection.

Negar Partow - Negar is a Ph.D. at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. Her doctoral research is exploring the political implications of Messianic ideology in the Middle East. Negar will draw on her personal and professional expertise to reflect on the nexus of terror and religion in the Middle East.

Ian Pearson - Representative, Progressive Evangelical Network, Sydney. Ian is an ordained minister of the Uniting Church in Australia and in placement as minister of Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney.

Elenie Poulos - Reverend Elenie Poulos is a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia serving in ministry as the National Director of UnitingJustice Australia in the National Assembly. Elenie represented the Uniting Church at the World Council of Churches General Assembly in Port Alegre, Brazil in 2006 and was recently elected to a World Council of Churches’ advisory group, the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA). She is actively engaged with the National Council of Churches is Australia (NCCA) as Deputy Chair of Christian World Service (CWS) and as a member of the Social Justice Network. Prior to her current position with the National Assembly, Elenie was School Chaplain at MLC School Burwood, NSW, for six years. She is currently a doctoral student at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney.

Noel Preston - Noel is former chair of Earth Charter Australia and in 2006 was an invited speaker to the Earth Dialogues Forum organised by the Brisbane festival and Green Cross International. In 2006 he delivered the ACU Brisbane Aquinas Lecture on the topic: " Ethics sans frontieres: the vocation of global citizenship. From 1995 to 1997 he was President of the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics. He is a regular public commentator on social ethics and widely published as an ethicist. In 2006 he published, Beyond the Boundary - a memoir exploring ethics, politics and spirituality.

Jonathon Rea - Jonathon is Secretary and Treasurer, National Planning Team for the Common Dreams conference and a member of the Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Sydney. He is a member of Pitt Street Uniting Church. For the last 6 years Jonathon has worked as a company director and commercial/business consultant, and he previously had over 25 years in banking and finance in Australia and overseas. His 30 years involvement as a volunteer and committee member in various NGO and community care groups include serving as a board member of Uniting Care NSW/ACT, Uniting Care Ageing (Sydney Region) and the Waverley War Memorial Hospital, Committee member of Uniting Network. Jonathon is currently undertaking a Masters in Public Theology at United Theological College, North Parramatta. He is also a Justice of the Peace.

John Smith - Representative, Progressive Christian Network of Victoria. John is an ordained minister in the Uniting Church in Australia and is currently in placement at the Ewing Memorial Uniting Church in Malvern East, (Vic) as a parish minister. John is recognised for his work in innovative welfare management for young offenders and people with disabilities, he is a founding member of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria.

Eric Stephenson - Co-ordinator, Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Sydney. Eric is a retired Uniting Church minister, and co-ordinator of The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought Sydney. Eric is also a member of The Spirit of Life Unitarian Fellowship, Kirribilli.

Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir - The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir (SGLC) is the pre-eminent gay and lesbian community choir in Australasia and among the largest non-auditioned choirs in Australia. Established in 1991, it has won numerous musical awards and achieved international recognition. Membership of SGLC is open to all. The choir rehearses on Thursday evenings from 7pm-10pm at the Heffron Hall, cnr Burton and Palmer Streets in Darlinghurst. Call 9360 7439 or email choir@sglc.org before coming along to check the choir is not in recess.

Contributors | Sponsors | Newsletter | Program

	Izzat AbdulHadi - Head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia. Prior to taking up his diplomatioc post in 2006, Izzat served for 18 years as Director-General of the Bisan Center for Research and Development, a leading NGO in community development and civil society development. The Bisan Center aims to strengthen the Palestinian civil society, promoting human rights, democratic principles, human sustainable development and social justice through community development and applied research. Following the Oslo Accords in 1993 he was also among a core group of civil society leaders that established the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO).
	Joe Bessler-Northcutt - Joe Bessler-Northcutt is Associate Professor of Theology at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With academic degrees from Harvard (M.T.S.) and the University of Chicago (Ph.D.) where he was a Century Fellow, Bessler-Northcutt teaches in the areas of Theology, Ethics, religion and literature, and religion and politics. Specializing in modern Christian Theology and theories of interpretation, he is co-author with Martin-Belsky of Law and Theology: Cases and Readings. He has also written numerous essays on the theological importance of historical Jesus research, including “Learning to See God: Prayer and Practice in the Wake of the Jesus Seminar” and has a book forthcoming from Polebridge Press, Re-Thinking the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Scandalous Theology in the Public Interest.
	Senator Bob Brown - Bob Brown has been a life-long activist. As well as the Franklin campaign, he was shot at and assaulted at protests against logging at Tasmania’s Farmhouse creek in 1986, and in 1995 was arrested and jailed twice for demonstrating peacefully to protect Tasmania's Tarkine Wilderness from roading and logging. In 1990, Bob Brown established the Australian Bush Heritage Fund to buy land for conservation. His books include Lake Pedder, Wild Rivers, Tarkine Trails, The Greens and, in 2004 Memo for a Saner World. Bob Brown was a driving force in forming the Australian Greens in 1992. He has travelled extensively, fostering Green politics and forming close links with Greens in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Since being elected to the Senate in 1996 he has been the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens.
	Dr John Falzon, a sociologist working in the area of social justice and social change, is Chief Executive Officer of the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council. He has written and spoken widely on the structural causes of marginalisation and inequality in Australia and has long been involved in national advocacy campaigns such as the struggle against unjust welfare legislation. He has worked in academia, lecturing at the University of Western Sydney, in research and advocacy with civil society organisations and in community development in large public housing estates such as Macquarie Fields and Riverwood. He began working for the St Vincent de Paul Society in 2001 and has enjoyed the privilege of working with Vinnies members all over Australia to put the case for a National Anti-Poverty Strategy to the Senate Inquiry into Poverty in 2003, a strategy that is yet to be embraced by a Federal Government in Australia. John holds degrees in Communication Studies, Theology and Social Analysis.
	Rex A E Hunt - Chair, National Planning Team and Director, Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Canberra. Rex Hunt is an ordained minister of the Uniting Church in Australia in placement at The Church of St James, Canberra, and director of The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Canberra. He also is founder of The Network of Biblical Storytellers Australia (1990). An Associate of the Westar Institute Rex is a member of Westar’s Literacy & Liturgy Seminar, and is a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International.
	Jonathan Keren-Black - Rabbi, Leo Baeck Centre for Progressive Judaism, East Kew. Jonathan writes: I believe in putting prayer into practice. I am interested in faith frameworks for modern life, and my studies, talks and meetings with others have persuaded me that those of us who consider ourselves ‘religious’ have an enormous amount in common, as well of course as important differences. I firmly believe that we must learn to live together with interest and respect for, and indeed celebration of, difference and diversity. We pray to the same God, who created this magnificent diversity – who are we to try to make others the same as us? I also believe that God put us on earth as care-takers of creation – and we have done a pretty poor job recently and are fast running out of time! Hence I see it as our religious obligation to resolve difficulties and problems in our world.
	Julie McCrossin - Julie wears many hats including media presenter, freelance journalist, debater, comedian, activist, consultant and lecturer among many others. She hosted ABC Radio National's 'Life Matters' for five years and appeared regularly on Channel 10 TV's 'Good News Week.' She says she talks for a living and she does that very well. In 2003 she told the story of her faith journey in Pitt St Uniting Church's 'God and Me' series. An Anglican in Sydney, Julie has worked also with the Metropolitan Community Church. Her website is www.juliemccrossin.com
	Fred Plumer - After an extensive background in building management, real estate development and restaurant ownership and management, Fred Plumer made a career shift in 1981. He earned his M.Div. degree at the Pacific School of Religion while doing work in an inner city community center. In 1984 he was called to the Irvine United Congregational Church in Irvine, California to lead a UCC new start church. The church became known throughout the denomination as one of the more exciting and progressive mid-size congregations in the nation. In September of 2004 Fred retired from the Irvine church so he could devote more time to writing and his passion - reclaiming the message of Jesus. In January of 2006 after Jim Adams, founder of TCPC retired as President, he was elected as the new President of The Center for Progressive Christianity.
	Jenny Te Paa - Dean of the College of St. John the Evangelist in Auckland, New Zealand and chair of the international Anglican Justice and Peace Network.
	B. Brandon Scott - Darbeth Distinguished Professor of New Testament at the Phillips Theological Seminary, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bernard Brandon Scott is the author of several books, including Hear Then the Parable, one of the most important books on parables in this generation, and the editor of several more. A charter member of the Jesus Seminar, he is co-chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media Section of the Society of Biblical Literature and a consultant to the American Bible Society experimental film translations. In recognition of that work, the American Bible Society Research Center awarded him a research grant for 1999–2000 to work on sound mapping, the study of sound as the communication environment of the ancient world.
	Val Webb - Val began her professional life with a Graduate degree in Microbiology and a research appointment at the University of Queensland. In 1988, Val completed a Ph.D. in Theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul. She has since taught at the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, Minnesota, Whitley College, Melbourne, Murdoch University, Perth and United Theological College, Sydney. Her books include In Defense of Doubt: an Invitation to Adventure (Chalice Press, 1995), Why We’re Equal: Introducing Feminist Theology (Chalice Press, 1999), John’s Message: Good News for the New Millennium (Abingdon Press, 1999) and Florence Nightingale: the Making of a Radical Theologian (Chalice Press, 2002). Her latest book Like Catching Water in a Net: Human Attempts to Describe the Divine will be published by Continuum New York and London in September 2007.
	Sherri Weinberg - Sherri has served as Minister at St Paul’s of Devonport for the past 5 years. She has a richly diverse social and cultural background that provides a foundation for over 25 years in ministry, 17 of which has been as an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. A pot pouri of qualifications includes an MA in Religious Studies; B. Theol, Dip. Min, social work, counseling (specialist areas - suicide/grief and relationships ), change management and mediation. Committed to progressing transformation in the church, Sherri seeks to provide an open, inclusive and safe ‘sanctuary’, and encourages people to understand themselves uniquely sacred within the context of the sacredness of creation. Sherri does not believe the founding documents of the Christian Church reflect the freedom and wisdom inherent in the life and teachings of Jesus and therefore refuses to be bound by imposed doctrine, statements of faith, or outdated and meaningless creeds.

	Graham Byrne - Committee Chair, Progressive Christianity Network of South Australia and member of the Lay Ministry Team of Verdun Uniting Church, a progressive congregation in South Australia. Graham is Meeting Chair, Hills Circle of Friends - a support and lobby group for Refugees in South Australia. He is a former ordained minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church (1968-1982) - serving in Queensland, Vanuatu, Melbourne and Adelaide - and having resigned for theological and progressive reasons. He has worked as a public servant in the South Australian Government for the past 21 years, with roles in marketing, communications and contract management.
	Dick Carter - Richard J (Dick) Carter is a company director with special interests in the minerals industry, board leadership, corporate governance, strategy formulation and occupational health and safety. In the not-for-profit sector he is the foundation President of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria, Chair of Prahran Mission-UnitingCare, a director of UCA Funds Management and Chair of the Ewing Memorial Uniting Church Council. He is Chairman of Macmahon Holdings Ltd and of Consolidated Minerals Ltd, and a director of ERA Ltd. He is a past director of several listed companies, including North Ltd and he was Chairman of Ticor Ltd. His executive career spanned thirty seven years with the BHP Group (now merged into BHP Billiton) from which he retired in 1997 as BHP Minerals' Chief Executive Officer. Dick has also had wide experience in industry and professional representative groups (including The Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy of which he was President in 1998) and government bodies concerned with regional development. He was Western Australia’s Citizen of the Year in 1996 and he was awarded the Centenary Medal.
	Dermot Dorgan - Dermot Dorgan grew up in Ireland and came to Australia in 1973. He’s been involved in overseas aid, justice and peace education, and most recently refugee settlement. He started writing songs in the eighties, mostly on social issues, with a humourous or satirical flavour. (“Make ‘em laugh, but make ‘em think as well”). He’s produced several albums, including The Cockroach and the Vatican and The Call of the Cappuccino. He’s currently working with the Romero Centre in Brisbane
	Don Dowling - Don is an ordained minister of the Uniting Church in Australia and in placement as a Consultant in Leadership, Urban Mission and Evangelism to the Uniting Church in Australia (NSW Synod) Board of Mission. Don is also a member of the Progressive Evangelical Network, Sydney. Prior to moving to Sydney from Perth, Don worked in congregations, both rural and urban, in hospital/hospice, defence force and school chaplaincies. His ministry is centred around connecting the church with those around it. In particular, Don was the initiating minister of the Warehouse Café, Shenton Park, WA—a seven-day a week café where the church and community meet. A Progressive Theological Thought group meets monthly at the café.
	Greg Jenks - Anglican priest and religion scholar, Greg is a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and a former Associate Director of the Westar Institute. He is Executive Trustee of FaithFutures Foundation and President of Friends of Sabeel Oceania. Greg is currently Academic Dean and Lecturer in New Testament at St Francis' Theological College in Brisbane, and his particular research interests are historical Jesus studies and Christian origins.
	Nigel Leaves - Nigel is Director and Dean of Studies of John Wollaston Anglican Theological College, Perth, Western Australia. He has been a tutor and part-time lecturer in Theology at Murdoch University in Perth and the coordinator and lecturer for the Wollaston Board of Theological Studies in Adult Religious Education. He has served as an Anglican priest in the United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and Australia. He has been keynote lecturer at the United Kingdom Sea of Faith Conference and the Westar Institute in California, USA and has conducted workshops at various conferences in the areas of religion and philosophy. He has written three books, Odyssey on the Sea of Faith: The life and writings of Don Cupitt (2004) Surfing on the Sea of Faith: The religion and ethics of Don Cupitt (2005) and The God Problem: Alternatives to fundamentalism (2006); and numerous articles in theological journals. His next project is to write about the resurgence of atheism and the response of religions. He is a Fellow of the Westar Institute (USA) and The Jefferson Center (USA).
	Cecilie & Mervyn Lander - Anglican priests, Zen masters and medical specialists
	Scott McKenzie - President, Sea of Faith in Australia. Scott is a financial adviser, director of Financial Force Pty Ltd, a small financial advisory firm (and Australian Financial Services Licence holder)in Brisbane, having been a public servant and teacher for many years. Scott was elected President of SoFiA in September 2006.
	Kath McPhillips - Kathleen is Senior Lecturer in Humanities at the University of Western Sydney. She has written extensively on themes around women and religion and post-modern spirituality and culture. She is a member of the International Board of Editors for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion: co-editor of the Australian Religion Studies Review and executive member of the Association of Women Scholars of Religion and Theology. She is currently working on a feminist hagiography of Mary MacKillop.
	David Merritt - David is secretary and a founding member of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria. He has been a consultant to churches across Australia on identifying priorities for the church in contemporary society. He was for many years the Director of the national education agency of the Uniting Church in Australia. He studied education and theology in Australia and the United States.
	Michael Morwood - Michael is the author of the best-selling books, God Is Near, Tomorrow's Catholic, Is Jesus God, Finding Our Faith and the award-winning, Praying a New Story. Michael lives in Melbourne, and is highly regarded as an inspiring and challenging speaker on the need to re-shape Christian imagination, thought and liturgical language. Michael spends several months each year in the USA speaking to groups and conducting days of reflection.
	Negar Partow - Negar is a Ph.D. at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. Her doctoral research is exploring the political implications of Messianic ideology in the Middle East. Negar will draw on her personal and professional expertise to reflect on the nexus of terror and religion in the Middle East.
	Ian Pearson - Representative, Progressive Evangelical Network, Sydney. Ian is an ordained minister of the Uniting Church in Australia and in placement as minister of Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney.
	Elenie Poulos - Reverend Elenie Poulos is a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia serving in ministry as the National Director of UnitingJustice Australia in the National Assembly. Elenie represented the Uniting Church at the World Council of Churches General Assembly in Port Alegre, Brazil in 2006 and was recently elected to a World Council of Churches’ advisory group, the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA). She is actively engaged with the National Council of Churches is Australia (NCCA) as Deputy Chair of Christian World Service (CWS) and as a member of the Social Justice Network. Prior to her current position with the National Assembly, Elenie was School Chaplain at MLC School Burwood, NSW, for six years. She is currently a doctoral student at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney.
	Noel Preston - Noel is former chair of Earth Charter Australia and in 2006 was an invited speaker to the Earth Dialogues Forum organised by the Brisbane festival and Green Cross International. In 2006 he delivered the ACU Brisbane Aquinas Lecture on the topic: " Ethics sans frontieres: the vocation of global citizenship. From 1995 to 1997 he was President of the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics. He is a regular public commentator on social ethics and widely published as an ethicist. In 2006 he published, Beyond the Boundary - a memoir exploring ethics, politics and spirituality.
	Jonathon Rea - Jonathon is Secretary and Treasurer, National Planning Team for the Common Dreams conference and a member of the Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Sydney. He is a member of Pitt Street Uniting Church. For the last 6 years Jonathon has worked as a company director and commercial/business consultant, and he previously had over 25 years in banking and finance in Australia and overseas. His 30 years involvement as a volunteer and committee member in various NGO and community care groups include serving as a board member of Uniting Care NSW/ACT, Uniting Care Ageing (Sydney Region) and the Waverley War Memorial Hospital, Committee member of Uniting Network. Jonathon is currently undertaking a Masters in Public Theology at United Theological College, North Parramatta. He is also a Justice of the Peace.
	John Smith - Representative, Progressive Christian Network of Victoria. John is an ordained minister in the Uniting Church in Australia and is currently in placement at the Ewing Memorial Uniting Church in Malvern East, (Vic) as a parish minister. John is recognised for his work in innovative welfare management for young offenders and people with disabilities, he is a founding member of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria.
	Eric Stephenson - Co-ordinator, Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Sydney. Eric is a retired Uniting Church minister, and co-ordinator of The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought Sydney. Eric is also a member of The Spirit of Life Unitarian Fellowship, Kirribilli.
	Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir - The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir (SGLC) is the pre-eminent gay and lesbian community choir in Australasia and among the largest non-auditioned choirs in Australia. Established in 1991, it has won numerous musical awards and achieved international recognition. Membership of SGLC is open to all. The choir rehearses on Thursday evenings from 7pm-10pm at the Heffron Hall, cnr Burton and Palmer Streets in Darlinghurst. Call 9360 7439 or email choir@sglc.org before coming along to check the choir is not in recess.