Common Dreams – Pitt Street Uniting Church

Exploring Faith

Pitt Street people are engaging with 21st century theological and ethical questions. We value the insights of progressive Christianity, which are expressed in the content of our Sunday Reflections and in our adult education programs.

We believe that following the Way of Jesus of Nazareth can lead to an awareness and experience of the Sacred and to lives lived in right relation. We understand Jesus Christ as one of the channels through which God is made known to humanity.

We regularly have an education/discussion session after church to explore our understandings of religion, spirituality and faith. We were an active participant in the Common Dreams Australian/New Zealand network of religious progressives.

The next talk will be on Sunday, 27-Apr-2025, 11:30 am, in the church fellowship room on the life and times of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Listening to Country: An Indigenous Theology and Spirituality - April 2024

There is much wisdom, knowledge, and direction for living to be discovered in listening to country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in these lands now called Australia know this and seek to live deeply connected to country and to share that knowing with others.

This three part series was jointly sponsored by Pitt Street Uniting Church, Eremos, St James Institute and Wellspring Community in collaboration with the then operative School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Divinity. The aim of the series was to explore and break open some of the wisdom, knowledge and direction for living to be discovered in listening to country.

Session 1 Sunday 21 April 2-4pm: Rev Dr Garry Worete Deverell presenting: Christ as country: Aboriginal spirituality and Christianity in conversation
Session 2 Sunday 11 August 2-4pm: Professor Dr Anne Pattel-Gray: Aboriginal Spirituality and Connection to Country.
Session 3 Sunday 8 September 2-4pm: Nathan Tyson: Acknowledging Country: Way forward to Reconciliation

Watch this series of talks on the Pitt Street website or YouTube channel playlist

For more information go to the Eremos webiste

Inspiring, Sustaining

Common Dreams 2019, a conference for advocates of spirituality and social change, was held in Sydney 11-14 July 2019.
Chief among those advocates was keynote speaker Matthew Fox, exponent of Creation Spirituality, activist and prophetic witness for social, environmental and gender justice.
He was joined by speakers including Joel McKerrow on The Poetics of the Sacred Imagination, Margaret Mayman on Holding Hope and Acting Up, and Rod Bower on Common Home and a Just Society.
Electives ranged from post colonialism and Aboriginal reconciliation to religious naturalism.
Artists included Heather Price, Rachel Collis, Alex Sangster and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir.

Common Dreams on the Road - July 2018

We were delighted to have the Prof Joe Bessler as our Australia/New Zealand Common Dreams on the Road tour from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 July 2018. The Common Dreams programme ran from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon, and Professor Bessler preached at the Pitt Street Sunday gathering at 10 am.

Professor Bessler's is Professor of Theology at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
His theological specialty is religion and culture. He is author of A Scandalous Jesus: How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better.

Festival event – ‘Theology in the Age of Trump’ - 27-07-2018 - Prof Joe Bessler
'Christian Platonism - The Rise and Fall of the Christian Myth' - 28-07-2018 - Prof Joe Bessler
'Reflections on the Future of Theology' - 28-07-2018 - Prof Joe Bessler
'The virtues of a questionable faith' - 28-07-2018 - Prof Joe Bessler
'Prayer and Practice for contemporary followers of Jesus' - 28-07-2018 - Prof Joe Bessler

'Telling a new creation story: a spirituality for living and loving earth' - 28-07-2018 - Rev Dr Jason John
'The futures - religious and secular: craft a two-minute story of solutions, with help from Donald Trump' - 28-07-2018 - Rev Dr Jason John

Watch Prof Bessler's talks on the Pitt Street YouTube channel

Bio information is on the Westar Institute website.

Faith Futures Festival - October 2017

Rev Dr Hal Taussig was the keynote speaker at the Pitt Street Faith Futures Festival.

Hal is a New Testament theologian and a consultant pastor specialising in revitalising ‘mainstream’ congregations. His latest book, A New New Testament, invites readers to seek a fresh approach to the gospel of Jesus Christ through exploration of early Christian texts that were not included in the New Testament.

Lecture: "New Reformation: Recovering lost wisdom, inspiring new paths"

Lecture: " A New New Testament and Futures of Progressive Christianity"

Workshop: "Disrupting Worship: challenges for contemporary gatherings via the imaginative, diverse, passionate and festive gatherings of the early Christ people"

Watch Hal's talks on the Pitt Street YouTube channel

Testing Tradition, Liberating Theology - July 2016

A lecture and conversation by Dr Val Web covering themes from her latest book Testing Tradition, Liberating Theology: finding your own voice.

Val Webb holds a PhD in theology. She was born in Brisbane and lived for thirty years in the USA. She previously held executive positions in the Uniting Church in Australia. She has taught religious studies and world religions at universities in the USA & Australia and is the author of eleven books.

Watch on Pitt Street's YouTube channel