St Kilda South Port Uniting Church 02
St Kilda South Port Uniting Church 03

Who we are

At St Kilda South Port, we embrace Progressive Christianity with open hearts and open minds. We choose the Way of Love—standing with the vulnerable, honoring the sacred in all creation, and welcoming everyone exactly as they are.

Formed in 2023 from the coming together of the St Kilda, South Melbourne, and Port Melbourne Uniting Churches, we are a new regional faith community grounded in more than 150 years of local mission. We feel called to continue this legacy: co-creating light, love, and hope for the world.

Our Mission

Guided by our four mission pillars, Worship, Justice, Sacred earth and Arts & Spitiuality,
we seek to:

  • worship God
  • address loneliness
  • build community
  • support the vulnerable
  • nurture the Earth

Through these commitments, we live out, celebrate, and grow God’s mission among us and beyond us.

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge we are on the land of the Yalukit Willam Clan and the Kulin Nation.  The Spirit has risen in this land since the dawn of time, been known felt and understood by the previous and present generations of the Kulin nation. We offer our respect to the their elders, past present and future.

Progressive Christianity 

Progressive Christianity is not a fixed destination but a living journey. It invites us to walk the path of Jesus with open hearts, open minds, and open hands—seeking not certainty, but deeper compassion.

Marcus Borg, one of its guiding voices, described faith as “beloving God” rather than assenting to impossible beliefs. For Borg, Christianity is a way of seeing: seeing the world through the lens of Jesus’ life—a life marked by courage, inclusion, and justice. In his vision, the Christian story is not about escaping this world, but about transforming it through love.

Progressive Christianity takes the Bible seriously, but not always literally. It honours scripture as a sacred collection born of particular cultures and histories, yet still alive with the Spirit’s breath. Questions are not threats but invitations—gateways to a faith that grows.

Feminist theology enriches this journey by uncovering the silenced stories and neglected images of God. It invites us to see the Divine not only as Father but also as Mother, Midwife, Wisdom, and Friend. It honours women in the biblical narrative—Miriam, Ruth, Mary Magdalene—as leaders and bearers of God’s vision. It reminds us that a faith which excludes women’s voices cannot fully embody the liberating gospel of Christ.

Contextual theologies deepen this inclusiveness by affirming that God speaks in every place and culture. In Latin America, liberation theology names God’s preferential option for the poor. In Africa, theology is woven into community, song, and the memory of ancestors. In Asia, Christ is imagined in harmony with interconnected life. For First Nations peoples, the Creator is encountered in Country, in kinship with land, waters, and all living beings.

Progressive Christianity listens to these diverse witnesses, recognising that the Spirit’s truth is too vast to be held by any single tradition.

This movement is committed to justice, peace, and ecological care. It welcomes science as a partner in wonder, and diversity as a gift to be celebrated. It creates space for doubt and struggle, knowing they are part of a living faith.

To be progressive is to follow Jesus into the heart of the world’s pain and possibility, trusting that love is the deepest truth of all things. It is to keep the ancient flame burning—
not behind closed doors,
but out in the open,
where its warmth can be shared,
and its light can guide the way.

Our Ministers

St kilda uniting church Rev Alexandra Sangster

Rev Alexandra Sangster

Rev Alexandra Sangster has been working as a Minister of the Word with the Uniting Church in Australia for over 17 years and as an actor and facilitator for over 20. Alex is a committed and passionate activist who is not afraid to put her body on the frontline. Most recently Alex has been fired up about stopping Adani, saving the Tarkine and getting the refugees out of the Park Hotel Prison.

John Tansey

Rev John Tansey

John, with over 20 years experience in Uniting Church and ordained as a Deacon, has a heart for people both in and outside of the traditional church. John seeks to explore the edges of sacred experience as we encounter the sacred in the everyday. John has a long history of ministry and a passion with people on the margins. John, is passionate about exploring our faith experience on issues of social justice, inclusivity, and equality. John is an accredited Meditation teacher with the Meditation Association of Australia and regularly leads and teaches mindfulness meditation in and for groups in our community. He has a particular passion to explore how we experience the sacred when we gather along with deepening our sense of mystery as we explore our spirituality in our current times.

Safe Church

All children and young people involved in any congregational activity, service or program have the right to feel and be safe.

Accordingly, we commit to:

  • doing all in our power to safeguard children and young people from all forms of abuse, harm and neglect.
  • providing safe environments where children and young people are respected, nurtured and cared for.
  • upholding the law including reporting abuse or allegations of abuse, harm and neglect to the appropriate authorities.
  • ensuring policy, practice and decision making which affects the safety of children and young people places paramount consideration on child safety.