Frontier Services

Frontier Services was formed in 1977 when the Uniting Church was established and the inland missions of the Presbyterian, Congregational and Methodist Churches were combined. Frontier Services was a name historically used by the founder of the AIM, John Flynn, and it was revived as the official name of the freshly constituted body within the United Church as it carried forward the traditional outback activities of the three uniting denominational partners

The National Library of Australia’s finding aid to the records of Frontier Services explains the administrative changes made when the Uniting Church was formed in 1977:

At the time of the Union of the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in June 1977, the Continuing Presbyterian Church was awarded a sum of money by the Statutory Property Commission to establish work which that Church elected to do under a newly constituted Committee called “Presbyterian Inland Mission”, while the Uniting Church (Congregationalists, Methodists and Uniting Presbyterians) was awarded all the traditional outback activities which that Church elected to carry forward without interruption. Agreement was reached between the two denominations – the Continuing Presbyterian Church and the Uniting Church that to save public confusion the name ‘Australian Inland Mission’ would no longer be used.

For a short period of time the Uniting Church gave to its freshly constituted organisation the title “National Mission Frontier Services” which later was permanently changed to “Uniting Church Frontier Services”. “Uniting Church Frontier Services” is therefore the successor within the Uniting Church to the “Australian Inland Mission”.