Wesley Mission facts for kids
Wesley Mission is a name used by three independent Uniting Church groups which are a part the Uniting Missions Network of UnitingCare Australia. These predominantly grew out of inner city Central Methodist Missions of the Methodist Church of Australasia. Most of the Methodist City Missions of that era later joined together to form Mission Australia.
Wesley Mission Newcastle
Newcastle City Mission was founded in 1940 by a group of Newcastle business people with the aim of assisting those in distress and poverty throughout Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. In 1999, Newcastle City Mission merged with Wesley Mission Sydney.
Wesley Mission Newcastle services the Newcastle and Hunter region. Services delivered from the Newcastle offices include gambling and financial counselling, youth services, a seniors living centre, vocational training, home and community care, emergency relief, a retail furniture store, family services and chaplaincy.
Wesley Mission Sydney
Wesley Mission Sydney, previously known as the Central Methodist Mission before union, is the largest Wesley Mission and is located in Sydney. The mission headquarters are in Pitt Street right at the heart of the CBD of Sydney.
Wesley Mission Sydney was previously headed by the Reverend Dr Sir Alan Walker, an international evangelist and founder of Lifeline. After a worldwide search, Rev Dr. Keith Vincent Garner was brought from the United Kingdom to replace Gordon Moyes as Superintendent of Wesley Mission on the 5th Feb 2006. He became the 9th Superintendent in the Mission's 193-year history. As well as being Superintendent and CEO, he preaches each Sunday evening in the Wesley Theatre 6pm. His sermons are broadcast on TV and he hosts a weekly TV program on Channel 9.
Wesley Mission operates out of over 200 centres and employs over 2000 staff with a budget of $160 million. It owns and runs the old Bourke St. Methodist Church in its current form, a crisis accommodation service called Edward Eagar Lodge. The Mission, up to 2013, was associated with Wesley Institute for Ministry & the Arts (now Excelsia College).
Wesley Mission Victoria
Wesley Mission Victoria (previously Wesley Mission Melbourne) provides a range of community services that help people improve their quality of life and increase their social and economic participation. It works across a range of service areas including aged care, children youth and family, crisis and homelessness, disability, and employment.
Wesley is the organisation behind some of Melbourne's best known and most valued community services, including the Lifeline Melbourne telephone counselling service and Wesley Do Care - a social support service helping older people stay socially active and participate in their community.
Wesley Mission Victoria was established as a Central Methodist Mission in 1893, next to the Wesley Church in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. At that time, the area was known as the 'back slums' of Melbourne and was notorious for opium dens, gambling houses and places of ill-repute.
Wesley's heritage is founded on the response of Wesleyan Methodists in Victoria to the severe economic depression and associated inner city poverty of the early 1890s.
Today the organisation employs over 800 staff and receives the support of over 1,600 volunteers who help to deliver more than 50 services across metropolitan Melbourne.
