Bowral Uniting Church hosts Voice to Parliament workshop

Reverend Michael Earl said the idea for a workshop was first raised by activist Brooke Prentice.

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"She's an Aboriginal and a Christian and does these kinds of workshops. She was coming down to the Illawarra and said that she would be available to us," he said.

"We had been thinking of doing something like this so we booked her in. However, something came up for her which was a real shame.

"We were very fortunate on the other side of it that Nathan Tyson, an indigenous man who works in the NSW branch of the Uniting Church, was able to come on short notice," Reverend Earl said.

The room was broadly supportive of the Voice to Parliament, according to Reverend Earl.

"At the same time people had lots of questions. We had a pretty long Q and A time," he said.

"We received questions that were probing aspects of The Voice that people were still unsure about."

That included questions about it being non-binding and how it would be funded. The group also discussed its relationship to other indigenous organisations.

"Really good questions, and all questions that are in the public domain and part of the conversation anyway," Reverend Earl said.

"Questions about how the people will be selected, what it will mean for various aspects of life if it gets passed, what it will mean for politics and the legal side of things."

Despite The Voice being divisive to Australian politics Reverend Earl described the workshop conversation as "cohesive".

"It was very harmonious in the sense that it was very civil," he said.

"There were no moments of discomfort where I felt that anyone was trying to stir anything up that would be divisive. Mostly it was an opportunity to ask questions."

However, there was a level of uncertainty across the board according to Reverend Earl.

"A lot of people just seemed quite unsure about the particular details of it, and the speaker really did his best to address those uncertainties, and really assure people that it was not going to radically alter our way of life," he said.

Bowral Uniting Church hopes to host similar workshops in the lead-up to The Voice to Parliament referendum.

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