Historical Background
The Acacia Ridge Church was opened in 1966. It began as a preaching place linked to Sunnybank U.C. They became independent of Sunnybank in 2000. For 20 years prior to 2014 non-Uniting Church language groups (Tongan, Samoan and Fijian) used the church’s facilities on a loose tenanting arrangement. The Rev Harold Kilah provided a link with the Presbytery and, more recently, Pastor Tricia Tschernez has taken that role.
On the 13th July 2014, with the encouragement of South Morton Presbytery, the Niue worship group formally moved to Acacia Ridge from Knox Moorooka. 41 people from the Niue group were officially received on to the Acacia Ridge UC roll as members, members in association or adherents. Discussions leading towards this had begun in May between the Niue group and Acacia Ridge church representatives, after the closure of Knox Moorooka. The Niue group’s desire was to formally join the UCA as part of a larger Congregation, and to worship with that larger Congregation, with the option of developing their own language service down the track if they wished. The Niue group asked if they could have a worship time for their own service each Sunday, and a meeting of stakeholders in the use of the church property agreed to a new time structure to accommodate a Niue service on Sundays at 10:30 am, starting March 2015.