Welcome
To the Church of the Southern Cross, embracing Australasia and Oceania.

 We welcome you to our place in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and invite you to join us on a journey. Right here at the beginning I want to share a story with you about this journey that will give you some idea about the ever changing but always challenging and exciting future into which we are called.  

       Once upon a time there was a mighty river. It flowed gracefully and elegantly across the landscape. Along its banks it gave life and sustenance to the tribes of Aboriginal Australians who camped by it. For many generations this river was the central focus for life. Then, gradually, the river ceased to flow, becoming a stagnant pool. With the heat of summer it started to dry up. Around the banks of the disappearing symbol of their security, the people watched aghast. What could be happening to them? By the dried-up riverbed many sat, waiting for the river to flow once more.

       Yet others thought to look around and discovered that the river was not gone. Still flowing, it had simply changed course upstream, creating a billabong on the curve at which they sat.*  

This reminds us that God's Church is a timeless community with a timeless message to minister to an always changing world. The commission of the Church is to respond and we are privileged to participate in God's mission of reconciliation to his creation with all the wonderful multi-hued diversity and giftedness of his people. 

In this great river the streams of Christian tradition and spirituality converge and flow together, interweaving the sacramental, evangelical and charismatic. The Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches is a worldwide family of relationally connected Christian communities who follow and worship Jesus Christ in a variety of expressions of being the Church. We believe that new emerging ministries in the Church are responses by the Holy Spirit to a changing society. We consider ourselves as friends and family on a common journey and quest of spiritual discovery grounded in the ancient faith revealed in the incarnation of the Divine Creator of all in His Son Jesus Christ and moving forward in relevant and fresh ways into the 21st century.  

If we, in any way, may be of encouragement or assistance to you in the name of our loving Saviour, please contact us.  

In the love of our Lord Jesus Christ 

Rex Harman                                                                                                                     Bishop, Missionary Diocese of the Southern Cross

(*Adapted from a story told by Sister Veronica Brady. Published in; Where the River Flows: Sharing the Gospel in Contemporary Australia, Peter and Sue Kaldor, Lancer Books, Homebush West NSW, 1988)