James Haire - Work

Work

Haire was ordained as a Christian minister in 1972. From 1972 to 1985 he was a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, serving in Halmahera and Sulawesi, Indonesia, where he worked as a Lecturer and Principal of a Theological College, and as Professor of Theology. He served as a Minister of the Halmahera Church, Indonesia from 1972 to 1985, and continues to be a Minister of that Church.

Haire served as Uniting Church Minister of Darwin City Parish (Northern Territory, Australia) from 1985 to 1986.

From 1987 to 2003, he was Professor of New Testament Studies at Trinity Theological College, Brisbane, and was Principal of Trinity College from 1992 to 2000. He was also the Dean of the Brisbane College of Theology from 1991 to 1997, and President of the Brisbane College of Theology from 1997 to 1999. In addition, he was Professor of Theology at Griffith University in Brisbane, and was Head of the School of Theology at Griffith University from 1993 to 2000. He has examined for higher degrees at various universities in Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands and South-East Asia. He is Visiting Professor at two Indonesian Universities, and has been on the Editorial Boards or Advisory Boards of six international theological journals (based in Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and two international theological book series (based in Germany and The Netherlands). In 2009 he became a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) in Princeton, U.S.A. In 2011 he became an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Queensland, Australia.

He was co-chair of the National Dialogue between the Uniting Church in Australia and Catholic Church in Australia from 1992 to 2004. He represented the Uniting Church at the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches in Spain in 1993, and was an Official Guest at the Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2006. Since 2002 he has been a member of the International Joint Commission of the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church (MRCIC). From 2004 to 2010 he was a member of the Network of Theologians of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), and since 2009 has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of "Reformed World" of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). He was a Main Speaker at the Maramon Convention in India in 2006. He was Niles Memorial Lecturer and Keynote Speaker at the Twelfth General Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2005, and a member of the Executive and General Committees of the Christian Conference of Asia from 2005 to 2010.

Haire has also been a member of the Advisory Board of the National Institute of Law, Ethics and Public Affairs (later the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance), and was a member and chairperson of the Griffith Asia Pacific Council.

He was President-Elect of the Uniting Church in Australia from 1997 to 2000, President of the Uniting Church in Australia from 2000 to 2003 and Ex-President from 2003 to 2006. He was Chairperson of the National Heads of Churches from 2000 to 2003.

Since 2003 he has been Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture within Charles Sturt University, of which he is also Professor of Theology and Director of the Public and Contextual Theology Strategic Research Centre (PACT).

Haire served as President of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) from 2003 to 2006.

He is a published book author (his work also translated into Dutch and Indonesian), and has had many academic articles and book chapters published internationally.

He retains a deep interest in Indonesian social and church matters. He became a Presidential Friend of Indonesia in 2010.