About us

The Riverina Regional Partnership is a co-operative venture between the congregations in the Riverina region and the NSWACT Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. The goal is to ensure that congregations in the Riverina are able to focus on their mission and not be unduly burdened by the many matters of church governance and finance. There is a committee charged with oversight and the responsibilities of the Riverina, and it meets monthly. There is a Newsletter that summarises these meetings.

At each Regional Partnership meeting we begin our conversation with discussion around theology, the Church and then in prayer together. The Regional Partnership, as part of the practice of Saltbush, grounds our work and conversation within our faith rather than our faith within our work.

The Riverina Region is one of thirteen Regional Areas established by the Synod of New South Wales and the ACT across its Area for the purposes of Oversight and Support of Congregations and Ministry, including placements, and to help implement and manage programmes, either in individual locations or across the Region.

 

Geography

The Riverina Region stretches from the eastern side of the Snowy Mountains to the Hay and Carrathool plains in the west. In the north to the Boorowa River and to the Billabong Creek in the south. It has been the home and land of the Wiradjuri, Yorta Yorta, Ngarigo, Ngunnawal, Nari Nari Nations and we acknowledge their Elders past present and emerging. The region is dominated by the Murrumbidgee River and the larger towns and cities of Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Narrandera, Deniliquin and Young.

The Riverina Region has large tracks of agriculture land, farming sheep, crops and cattle as well as fruit and grape production. Education, health, manufacturing and defense force facilities employ many people. It covers 80,545 sq kms and has 174,000 people. People in the Riverina have come from all countries in the world to join with 1st Peoples to share a common future together. The Uniting Church in Australia has congregations across the whole region with currently 41 worshiping centers.         

The Regional Council – Riverina of the Uniting Church, the Presbytery seeks to be a council of the church that encourages and strengthens the mutual life and faith that Christian community share in Jesus the Christ.

It will be a council of the church that shares in the burden of administration and will exhort its Christian communities to be active Disciples of Jesus the Christ.

Together as the Region – Riverina we commit ourselves to:

Supporting Christian community to serve the purposes of God and to witness to the gospel in their neighbourhoods.
Offering ways in which the spiritual life of individuals and Christians can be encouraged, grown and developed. 
Working together as Christian community, sharing our human, property and financial resources to enable healthy Christian community across the region.
Working with the wider church to support and encourage Christian community across the Region - Riverina 
Reviewing the physical assets and systems of the Region -Riverina so that new and existing forms of Christian community might emerge, flourish and grow.

The Riverina sits within Wiradjuri Nation, the largest indigenous areas in New South Wales. Known as the “people of three rivers”, the Wiradjuri people have deep connections with the Murrumbidgee River, the Lachlan River and the Macquarie River.

Look here to see a map of the traditional aboriginal lands in Australia.