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Francis Macnab is minister for life at St Michael's Uniting Church, a congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia in Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia, and a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar.

Personal
He was born to J D Macnab and Mary Anne Louisa Hughes on 21 June, 1931. He married his wife Sheila in 1958 and they have 3 children, 2 daughters and a son. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his contributions to Psychotherapy and Religion.

Training and psychological work
He holds degrees from the University of Aberdeen, the University of Melbourne and RMIT in psychology and applied science. including postgraduate study in psychology and group therapy in Aberdeen.

In 1961, Dr Macnab opened the Carinmillar Institute, a clinical psychological centre, the largest in Australia, which is now the largest training body for psychologists and counsellors in the country. He continues as its Executive Director

Dr Macnab also founded, and is the Director of the Australian Foundation for Aftermath Reactions, which provides trauma treatment and training. He is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society.

Ministry
Following a ministry at Prahran Presbyterian Church from 1961 until 1970, he was made minister of the then Collins Street Congregational Church in 1971. The church became a congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia at its inception in 1977.

During his ministry he has created "Mingary - the Quiet Place" a contemplative space at St Michael's open for members of the public to enjoy a meditative and reflective experience. Mingary also offers low cost counselling under the supervision of the Manager Pyschologist Dr Lynette Kramer. Mingary is run in conjunction with the Cairnmillar Institute and the Australian Foundation for Aftermath Reactions, both of which Dr Macnab founded.

"A New Faith"
Dr Macnab told the 16 September 2008 edition of the Age, "The old faith is in large sections unbelievable. We want to make the new faith more believable, realistic and helpful in terms of the way people live". The new faith was launched with a $120,000 advertising campaign including posters reading, "The Ten Commandments, one of the most negative documents ever written." Dr Macnab described Moses as a mass murderer, Abraham as concocted and Jesus as a Jewish peasant and certainly not God.

Reaction
The Moderator of the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, Rev Kioa described Dr Macnab's comments challenging the divinity of Jesus as questioning some of the faith's most basic beliefs, turning away from 2000 years of "orthodox Christian belief." Other members of the Synod published their concerns.

The Synod of Victoria and Tasmania voted to request St Michael's Uniting Church to remove advertising for its new faith and apologise to Jews, Christians and Muslims for the comments it contained about the Ten Commandments. The Uniting Church did not move to discipline Dr Macnab because no formal complaint had been received.

The Kirk Session of Scots' Church published a reply defending the Ten Commandments from "[t]he most incredible publicity war... being waged against the historic Christian faith." They installed a poster outlining the influence of the Ten Commandments on their Russell Street frontage facing towards St. Michael's.

Dr Macnab's response
In a interview with Stateline Victoria, Dr Macnab replied to criticism saying that he was in agreement with others inside Christianity who, "are asking the traditional church to re-examine and renew their basic thinking about what faith can be, because millions of people do not find the old faith meaningful to their lives." He said he "would expect that kind of reaction from people who take the scriptures far too literally."

In an address on 5 October Dr Macnab defended his comments, including against suggestions they were offensive to Jews, citing his study in undergraduate and postgraduate work in Hebrew language and history, including distinctions, and saying "Some of the comments have been knee-jerk reactions, uninformed and heavily overloaded with bad manners." He also stated, "While I have no intention of denigrating the Ten Commandments as a sacred symbol of the Jewish Torah and the Old Covenant, I say they are negative." He gave 8 reasons why he believes the Ten Commandments to be negative, and outlined his alternative 10 Commandments, which he described as "positive, plausible and powerful" : 