Division seems characteristic of modern Australia and the wider world,
I am writing this from another country on January 26th, 2026. Even writing ‘January 26th’ can be seen as divisive while the debate over the naming and timing of Australia Day continues.
The recent Bondi killings of Jewish people sharpen that sense of division. Which religious and cultural community group suffers most discrimination, hate speech and violence? How is one person’s hate speech another’s freedom of expression? Who should have guns, and how many, and what kind? Meanwhile the federal coalition has splintered and chasmic cracks have opened in a major political party.
Old global alliances are shattering. Many think we now face a three-sided great power rivalry outside of a rules based order. Nations that were once allies now gear up against each other. Guess who suffers when the great powers tussle?
Division abounds.
Too often, we are forced into a false choice: either preserve unity by suppressing difference or affirm difference at the cost of unity. The result is either brittle conformity or open fragmentation. The Christian community shows a different way in which diversity strengthens unity.
Consider these recent examples from my experience:
- Christians from Russia and Ukraine embracing each other as brothers and sisters and working together on an educational project
- Black and white South African Christians sitting together to take major decisions, worshipping, laughing and eating together
- A Sydney church service led by an Iranian migrant, with the Bible talk given by a Greek pastor, music by Chinese people, and an elder in a wheelchair doing the children’s talk
The list goes on. The point is simple. Within Christian communities, differences of race, nationality, gender, and ability do not disappear – but they no longer define the boundaries of belonging. In Christ, these differences find a deeper point of unity that allows them to become strengths rather than threats.
The apostle Paul captured this vision succinctly: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Paul was not denying difference. Unity does not depend on uniformity. Rather, he was insisting that shared identity in Christ is strong enough to hold real diversity together without collapsing into hierarchy or hostility. Of course, churches do not do this perfectly. However, in Christ they do have a solid starting point.
This is diversity without division.
Returning to Australia, we can see several common approaches to unity. One is to blend all differences into a kind of tasteless “Oz smoothie,” where distinct identities are flattened for the sake of social harmony. Another is the “fruit salad” approach: differences are preserved, but can compete and clash, leaving society permanently tense. A third approach is to privilege one group and measure everyone else by how closely they conform to it. As a Caucasian Australian man, I know how easily my own group benefits from this arrangement.
None of these approaches truly resolves the tension between unity and diversity. Each either weakens one or weaponises the other.
Christian unity offers a better way. Here, the dividing wall of hostility is broken down – not by erasing differences, but by setting them within a deeper allegiance. Identity in Christ does not demand sameness, yet it refuses to let difference become destiny.
A final story. An elderly non-Christian relative of mine attended a church service with people from many races, skin tones and languages. Her response was astonishment at how well these people all ‘got on’. To those who know Christ, this is everyday life in the nation of believers.
David Burke,
Moderator-General
