“It’s inspiring us to be something greater than just consumers”: Inside the Gordon church wrestling with the North Shore's big issues

The atmosphere at Gordon-Pymble Uniting Church is quiet but lively when minister Karen Mitchell-Lambert welcomes the Lorikeet: Chinese dance classes in one room, gentle hymns in another, staff tending to administrative matters.

North Shore Lorikeet: In the lead-up to the election, how is the church dealing with political hot button topics?

Karen Mitchell-Lambert: I’ve got Liberal voters, Labor voters, Greens voters, Independent voters - I’ve got everybody in my community. One of the things I love is, on a Friday, we have a current affairs discussion group. Whatever’s happening that week, they talk about it. We’re talking about some really highly intelligent people who have had life experience and they know how to debate things respectfully. In that group, there are avid Liberal voters, avid Labor voters - but they talk about the issues and they educate each other about it. I love it!

What I would say about Australian politics is I think we’ve lost the ability to respectfully debate together and not end up name-calling. That really upsets me: the leaders of our country are called to try and figure out what the best thing for our country is: you should be debating that rigorously together.

It’s been really interesting talking to people about how they’ve experienced the lobbying from the different parties. We’re in a well-educated area, and one of their biggest frustrations is that they feel like politicians treat them like an idiot. They care about these issues and want an intelligent response. They don’t want some down-pat rote answer. They want someone who’s actually thought about it.

What are the big issues facing your community?

Affordable housing is massive. I don’t think people realise what this actually means. Affordable housing isn’t just about homelessness - it’s so teachers can afford to live in the area, so that police can, so the person who’s serving you at Coles or Woolies or the local cafe can live in the area. The Uniting Church is a very big advocate for affordable housing. We’re a partner of Sydney Alliance and the work they’re doing.

We’re really big social welfare advocates. Uniting itself is our welfare arm, and it has services in a bunch of areas, but we also partner with Lifeline. The Uniting Church is very much about great, practical services.

There are also a whole bunch of issues around mental health. Particularly in this area is the issue of loneliness, because people lose partners and families and they’re in big places on their own and they don’t know where to reach out, or how to find people. That’s one of the things we’re working really to make people aware of: actually anybody can be part of this. You don’t have to adhere to a certain belief system.

Tell us a bit about the Uniting Church.

There are a number of Uniting Churches across the North Shore.The church came about nearly 50 years ago when ecumenicalism was a big movement and the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches amalgamated.

The hope in doing that was that we would be a more relevant church. We have a lot of diversity: in our theology and in our understanding, not everyone agrees - even with me, as the minister! And our leadership is cooperative. We try to listen to God together, which makes it a bit more accountable in terms of how we make decisions.

We’re really trying to offer an alternative to the individual, consumerist way of life and trying to figure out what it means to be God’s people here on the North Shore.

What led you here?

I came to the faith as a young adult. I was in secular youth work and realised many problems need to be resolved long before these young people end up on the street - and that comes from people in the community actually caring, and that’s the church’s job. That’s a key part of the Uniting Church’s identity. It’s about helping the poor, working towards justice - that’s where our faith calls us to go.

I moved into church youth work, had many different roles, then ended up becoming an ordained minister. I’ve been here two years now and live in Pymble.

How do young people feel about church these days?

We went through a stage where everybody hated church and it was a taboo word. That’s one of the biggest problems we have, that people think “I’ve had this experience” so therefore all churches are the same as that and they’re just not. For us, we’re LGBTIQ-affirming and neurodivergence-friendly.

Young people are really open to talking about spirituality and how they connect with deep and sacred things themselves. I think there’s a lot more connection with deep and sacred things than what we talk about. We talk about that here.

Tell me more about your affirming stance towards LGBTIQ people.

Not all Uniting Churches are LGBTIQ-supportive, but we are. We made the decision about same-gender marriage at a national level. There was lobbying from both directions, people went in expecting a fight; and yet somehow God’s spirit moved in that space and we came up with a practical solution that reflected the diversity of who we were in the church: we would have two rites of marriage where congregations and ministers could decide themselves about whether they would do same-gender marriages or not.

Would you call this a progressive church?

I don’t think we would use that politicised language, but other people might name us that way.

As the minister here, I try to walk a line that allows people to be faithful to who they are and what they’re called to be. The joy and great complication for me is actually how we hold a diverse group of people together and identify what really matters.

What would you say to people feeling disillusioned or isolated?

You don’t have to do this alone. You’re not alone. There are people who care just as much as you do about what’s going on in the world and who want to make a difference, too.

Please be courageous and pick up the phone - there are free services that can make a difference for you. If you can’t do that, just be honest to the person next to you.

What’s next on the church calendar?

Pentecost [June 8], which is where we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Check out the Church’s range of programs open to the community here.