During 2024 the Assembly Council included:

• Allen Sibley (Chair)
• Allyson Beddoe (Vice Chair)
• Mark Azzi (Vice Chair)
• Angelo Gratsounas (Chair – Morling College Council)
• Catherine Casey
• David Slinn
• Edwina Murphy
• Jamie Long (term concluded at June Assembly)
• Matthew J Kennedy
• Matthew W Kennedy
• Omar Djoeandy
• Vicki Sherry

Attending Council

• Steve Bartlett (Director of Ministries)
• Tim MacBride as Principal, Morling College
• Geoff Moore (Honorary Legal Advisor)
• Fanny Wong (Secretary)

The Assembly Council (AC) continues to serve and lead the Association as a group of volunteers who individually are called to use their gifts and experience to serve in this way. I take this opportunity to thank the Council members for their diligence, expertise, and significant commitment of time. It is very rewarding as we serve God’s Kingdom together.

Our long-serving Chair of AC, Jamie Long, concluded his service as a Chair at the end of 2023 and his term on Council concluded at the 2024 Annual Assembly, having served the maximum number of consecutive terms. His wise, calm, and Godly leadership has been of great blessing to the work of AC and the Association.

A significant change in the work of the Council in the past year has been to establish a Governance Committee, replacing the previous Nominations Committee, with new and expanded terms of reference. The purpose of the Committee is to assist the Assembly Council to;

• fulfil its role of guarding the purpose and vision of the Association,
• establish and maintain appropriate and effective governance practices that enable fulfilment of its corporate governance responsibilities, and
• identify and recommend suitable persons for appointment to Association Councils, Committees, Boards and other related ministries.

The Committee will meet four times per year and is currently focused on governance practices in areas such as the Risk Management framework, Work Health & Safety, Cybersecurity, and Regulatory Compliance, as well as strengthening our approach to identifying and selectingsuitable people to serve on Association Councils, Committees, and Boards. The Committee members include Allen Sibley (Chair), Catherine Casey, Vicki Sherry and Geoff Moore (Honorary Legal Advisor), ably supported by Steve Bartlett, Edwin Ho (the newly appointed Governance Manager for the Association), and Fanny Wong as secretary. Whilst this Committee has responsibility for the overarching risk management framework, the management of financial and property risk remains with the Finance, Risk & Audit Committee.

During the first six months of 2024 the Assembly Council (AC) continued to address the matter that has dominated the work of the Council for the past four years, being the issues surrounding affiliation, Baptist values and marriage. This has involved the development of the processes by which the decisions already made will be enacted, which were adopted by Assembly at the Annual Assembly in June. No one should underestimate the complexity of working through such issues in an association such as ours, and the Assembly Council is now engaged in the very challenging stage of following up those processes as required.

In the second half of the year AC was able to re-engage more fully in governing and reviewing the work of the Association as a whole, with focus on the Strategic Plan, the growth in Regional Ministries, and providing input to the merger of BaptistCare NSW & ACT with BaptCare Victoria & Tasmania and Baptistcare South Australia & Northern Territory, which was completed in March 2025. Alongside the Baptist Unions of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, the Association is now one of the Members of the company under the new constitution of the merged BaptistCare.

The Association team, under the excellent leadership of our Director of Ministries, Steve Bartlett, continues to manage the day-to-day work of the Association with diligence and wisdom. We have been blessed to have a great team supporting Steve, with a strong focus on the Association’s Gen1K vision, through which we have many new fellowships and Churches in various forms being planted and fostered. AC is deeply thankful for the contribution all employees and volunteers to the work of the Association.

As AC we prayerfully seek God’s guidance in all that we do, asking the Holy Spirit to guide our meetings and conversations, striving to be followers and servants of  Jesus, and earthly facilitators of his purposes. We deeply appreciate your ongoing prayers, support, and encouragement.