Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
(1 Corinthians 12:4-7 NRSV)
The annual in-person meeting of the Australian Ecumenical Officers Network (AEON) was held at the NCCA office in Sydney on 2-3 October 2025.
This year the network meeting brought together representatives from state/territory ecumenical organisations in Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney including Bishop Greg Anderson, Anglican Bishop of Northern Territory and President of NT Council of Churches and Christian Nobleza, Animator for Christian Unity and Liturgy in the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn.
Rev Dr Rod Benson of the NSW Ecumenical Council commented on the “incredible range of topics and challenges covered in our deliberations. I spent two days with colleagues whose missional passion and dedication to their ecumenical ministries were matched by their grace, intelligence, and capacity for critical reflection. The Australian Church is well served by these leaders.”
We took a cohort learning approach, expertly guided by Dr Kate Power of Queensland Churches Together. The gathering recognised the varied forms that ecumenical engagement takes in the various regions with their unique opportunities and challenges. Evident was the strong capacity of gifted leaders to achieve so much with very limited resources, chiefly through hard work and networking.
Ecumenical officers challenged on engaging young people
Christian Nobleza challenged the group to support the emergence of a new generation of young leaders in ecumenism. “Young people from different churches are already coming together to pray and share in informal ways,” he said, “not just through the formal ecumenical structures”. It is important to connect with these parachurch groups to learn from and to support them.
Participants also shared on a range of issues including: how to listen to and engage with indigenous church leaders; what unity in diversity means and how it finds expression in many different ways; nascent hopes to develop an ecumenism and the arts initiative supporting skilled artists of various kinds (painting, sculpture, film and sound, poetry, stories, theatre and more) who identify as Christian and have something significant to express in the church and in the world.
At the conclusion to the meeting, participants left feeling renewed; feeling that it was very worthwhile to connect, share and learn from each other.
“I am already looking forward to our next meeting and, in the meantime, there are seeds to plant and collaborations to pursue arising from our two days together,” says Dr Benson.
Liz Stone
NCCA General Secretary
