Sharon Hollis is an Australian Minister and the 16th President of the

Uniting Church in Australia The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) is a united church in Australia. The church was founded on 22 June 1977 when most Wiktionary:congregation, congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church o ...

Early years

Hollis grew up from 8-13 in Keilor Park in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Victoria. From 13, the family lived in Finley, a town in the

Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...

region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Education

Hollis received a degree of

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

in Melbourne. It was during her degree studies that Hollis did a subject on the portrayal of women in Australian society, and this formed her views on

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. She also attended the Monash Uniting Church.

Ministry

Hollis discerned a call to ministry shortly after university, then went through the Uniting Church's discernment process before being accepted as a candidate for ministry. Following further studies in theology, she was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

as a Minister of the Word. Hollis was Moderator (leader) of the UCA

Synod of Victoria and Tasmania The Synod of Victoria and Tasmania is the entity of the Uniting Church in Australia covering the states of Victoria (Australia), Victoria and Tasmania. It is one of six geographically-based Uniting Church in Australia#Synods, synods of the church. W ...

from 2016-19.

Family

Hollis' husband Michael, to whom she was married for 19 years, died by suicide around 2013. They have two daughters.

President of the UCA

Hollis became President Elect of the UCA at the 15th Assembly in 2018, and was inducted as President at the 16th Assembly on 17 July 2021, held with very few people in Queensland and online due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. Also, the 16th Assembly elected the President Elect, Charissa Suli to serve as President from 2024-27. She said, "This is truly an historic moment for the Church. This is ground-breaking that you call a Second Generation

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

n Australian, still in her thirties. Today we move forward because of you all."Rev Charissa Suli announced as President-elect
Uniting Church in Australia, 2021-07-18

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollis, Sharon Living people Uniting Church in Australia presidents Year of birth missing (living people) Religious leaders from Melbourne People from Keilor, Victoria Monash University alumni 21st-century Australian women