The United Faculty of Theology (UFT) is an informal association of theological colleges founded in 1969 to provide an ecumenical setting for theological education and to support research. The UFT is a recognised teaching institution of the Melbourne College of Divinity.
Classes are available at the Parkville, Victoria campuses of its member colleges and also online.
The United Faculty of Theology comprises:
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The origins of the UFT lie in co-operation between the theological halls (seminaries) based at Queen's College and Ormond College, respectively Methodist and Presybterian foundations affiliated with the University of Melbourne. In the 1960s and even earlier these were sharing resources while preparing resident theological students for the externally-examined graduate Bachelor of Divinity degree of the Melbourne College of Divinity. These two bodies amalgamated in effect before formal union of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches as the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977.
During the same period the Jesuit Theological College moved to nearby facilities in Parkville and asked Ormond College to accommodate its library. The result was the Joint Theological Library (later the Dalton-McCaughey Library) which has over time come to serve all the members institutions of the UFT.
In 1969 the faculty members of the three future Uniting Church halls, together with the Jesuit college and the nearby Trinity College Theological School (Anglican), agreed to form the UFT and to teach a new degree, the undergraduate Bachelor of Theology.[1]