In July this year, the Uniting Centre for Education and Formation (UCEF) will be holding a Formation Focus Week. We hope this will become an annual event that will help the Uniting Church in Western Australia to intentionally highlight the importance of lifelong learning.
Article by Rev Dr Cathie Lambert, first published in the April 2025 edition of Revive magazine.
In November 2024, I attended the Association for Reflective Practice in Theological Education Conference in Adelaide. It was a gathering of people from around Australia and New Zealand who were involved in education and formation of ministry practitioners. Some were formators for denominational leaders: priests, pastors and ministers. Others led clinical pastoral education programs associated with hospitals or other chaplaincy contexts. The participants were from diverse backgrounds and contexts and there was a great deal of rich discussion.
I learnt a lot from the presentations and incidental conversations, however, there was one discussion that surprised me and caused me to rethink the language we use in our own formation program. One woman shared that the current cohort of formation students that she was working with had several people from African backgrounds. As she introduced the concept of field education, one courageous student mentioned that the term ‘field education’ was very difficult for them. ‘Going out into the field’ had negative connotations associated with their experienced oppression of those who worked manually in the fields. They did not want to experience the hurt of more ‘field education’. As a result, the woman sharing this story altered the language used in her context, speaking of the opportunity to learn ministry skills in a Ministry Practice Placement. Her story had an impact on me. I saw the term ‘field placement’ from an entirely different perspective that I had never considered. As a result, I chose to rename this aspect of our formation program in the same way.
In July this year, the Uniting Centre for Education and Formation (UCEF) will be holding a Formation Focus Week. We hope this will become an annual event that will help the Uniting Church in Western Australia to intentionally highlight the importance of lifelong learning. In 2025, our theme will be “The Power of Perspective”. Our perspective on faith, God, Jesus and the Christian way are shaped by our experiences, culture and teachings throughout our lives. It is, however, one perspective which may be limited and partial. Listening to people who are different to us allows us to learn from a new perspective we may not have considered.
You may have heard the story of the group of blind men who discover an elephant for the first time. The one who felt the trunk described it like a snake, the one who felt the leg proclaimed it was like a tree trunk, the one in contact with the tusk pronounced it was a spear, and so on. Various versions of the story have different endings. In some, the discussion descends into a heated argument with each person holding to their experience of the elephant. In other accounts, the men learn from each other and come to a more rounded description of an elephant. Perspective holds power. It holds the power to divide and separate us from one another. However, it also holds the power to bring about learning, growth and transformation.
The Uniting Church is wonderfully diverse, bringing people together of different ages, cultures, genders, and theological understandings. As with the blind men and the elephant, our differing perspectives could be a characteristic that divides and separates us. Our hope is that as a community we will choose the more challenging path of embracing our different outlooks in order that we may all grow and learn.
The Formation Focus Week will be held from 21 to 27 July 2025. We invite you to join UCEF in a week of exploring “The Power of Perspective”. Resources will be provided for a group discussion in your local context. This may be used in a regular bible study or fellowship group. You may also choose to bring together a group of people especially for this week. The resources will use a variety of modes to encourage you and your community to engage with differing perspectives to your own.
On the evening of Friday, 25 July, we will come together as the wider Uniting Church in Western Australia. There will be an opportunity to meet in person or online. During this evening, we will continue to explore the theme and have time to meet with others from around our church.
Resources for Sunday worship will also be provided for congregations to bring the theme together in an act of worship. More details will follow shortly, but we hope you will save the dates and plan to engage in Uniting Centre for Education and Formation’s Focus Week on “The Power of Perspective”.
Check the Uniting Church WA events page for details of Formation Focus Week or contact the UCEF team – [email protected]