TNC July 2010 Part of the TNC Youth Program

read the Hon Rev. Dr. Gordon Moyers Sermon

http://www.confessingcongregations.com/national/item/rev-dr-gordon-moyes-the-reason-behind-our-uniting/

http://www.confessingcongregations.com/assembly/about/founding-documents/

http://www.confessingcongregations.com/uploads/TNC_Presenation.pdf

http://www.confessingcongregations.com/uploads/ACC_PRESENTATION_8TH_JUNE_2010.pdf

See anything missing?

Loops, Bella and Donny (LBD - Loops made me write that bit)

The Basis of Union sets out the faith of the Uniting Church.  It therefore is a vital reference in determining doctrine and the practise and witness of the Christian faith in the Uniting Church.

The document, however, is itself at risk in the Uniting Church because it is undermined in a number of ways. It was officially changed in 1992 and the new version is on the UCA official website. Also in 1992, the then UC president, cast doubt on the authority of the Basis of Union in the Uniting Church by ruling that it was not relevant to determination about ordination at that time. Further, a comparison of the language of the Basis of Union and language on UCA doctrine websites reveals that official church committee documents (and therefore intended to be instructive for members) change the language of the Basis of Union to meanings quite different. Finally, the Assembly claims for itself the final authority in doctrinal matters – an authority against which there is no avenue of appeal. And, if all these don’t disable the Basis of Union as authoritative, the Uniting Church has simply ignored it. For example, the Uniting Church Working Group on Doctrine on it’s own “DocByte – Doctrine”  page defines doctrine as, “… the way the church listens corporately to the past and grapples with faithful thinking and living now.” But it has failed to make any “grappling with faith and thinking and living now” comment on the issue that is right now splitting the church – the ordination of persons practicing homosexual acts.

In the context of these undermining behaviours, the Uniting Church’s changing of an ordinand’s vow from “adhere” to the Basis of Union, as required by paragraph 14 d of the B. of U., to acknowledge the Basis of Union as a “guide”, suggests that ordained clergy need only vaguely refer to parts of the Basis of Union when it suits them. It’s worthy Orwellian double speak to regard as a ‘guide’ a document which itself requires ‘adherence.’

So, it’s up to us, the members of the Uniting Church, to seize the Basis of Union as a sufficient expression of confession of saving faith in Christ. Our salvation depends on our confession together in Christ’s Church – not on what errant and arrogant churchmen and women try to force on us, in the name of the Uniting Church, by way of political stances on such matters that might be before Australian Parliaments. The Uniting Church leadership has abrogated its responsibility to preach the gospel which the Basis of Union so eloquently sets out.

Fortunately, there are many good things in the Basis of Union, and they are easy to understand.

The first thing about it is that is the historical document written by representatives of three former congregations as the sufficient expression of the Christian faith they had each received and would be the grounds upon which the three churches came together. For this historical purpose, it can’t be changed in hindsight.

The second purpose of the Basis of Union is that makes quite clear reason for the existence of the Uniting Church. Paragraph 3 is a succinct and beautiful expression of classic evangelical orthodox confession. In Jesus Christ God was reconciling the world to himself. The whole of creation belongs to God. We are called to respond in faith. To this end, God sent forth his Spirit that men may trust him as their Father. The whole work of man’s salvation is effected by the sovereign grace of God alone. The Holy Spirit is a foretaste of the coming reconciliation and renewal which will be for all creation. The Church is to bear witness to Christ. The reconciliation of the whole of creation was begun in death and resurrection of Christ but has been completed yet. (The Queensland Synod’s attempt in the last five years to usher in God’s final reign in the form of a narrow political goal is misplaced and will fail, as is already evident.)

Another purpose of the Basis of Union that is authoritative for us is that it traces the particular historical line of Christian witness to Christ that we are part of. The beginning is Scripture. “When the Church preaches Jesus Christ, her message is controlled by the Biblical witnesses.” (The Word of God on whom man’s salvation depends is to be heard and known from Scripture appropriated in the worshipping and witnessing life of the Church.) Next are the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, (these to declare and to guard the right understanding of that faith) the first (seven) ecumenical councils (because they express the unity of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church) the witness of the reformation found in the certain documents of that period including the Heidelberg Catechism and the Savoy Declaration, John Wesley’s 44 Sermons,( so that the congregation of Christ’s people may again and again be reminded of the grace which justifies them through faith, of the centrality of the person and work of Christ the justifier, and of the need for a constant appeal to Holy Scripture) and the inheritance of literary, historical and scientific enquiry of recent centuries (to sharpen her understanding of the will and purpose of God, and to confess her Lord in fresh words and deeds)

Paragraph 14 about ministers, deacons, elders and lay preachers clarifies how all church officials and members with influence must regard this line of witness. “In the above sub-paragraphs the phrase “adhere to the Basis of Union” is understood as willingness to live and work within the faith and unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church as that way is described in this Basis. Such adherence allows for difference of opinion in matters which do not enter into the substance of the faith.”

There’s the word “adhere”. That the Basis of Union may “guide” our thinking, by setting boundaries within which our thinking and acting occurs, is not strong enough. Our leaders must adhere to the Basis of Union.

Adhering to the Basis of Union is hardly a burden. This classic, orthodox, evangelical line of Christian witness, has within it the clarification of God’s will every time it was significantly contested. The Nicene Creed, and the Arian controversy that surrounded it, clarified that it is Christ alone that our salvation is found. That is a moral act. We are not at liberty, as a few noisy voices proclaim in the UCA today, to act as we please out side the liberation from sin that Christ gives. The Reformers discovered anew the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church which belongs to Christ, which preaches Christ’s salvation and his kingdom and within which sinners may find repentance and new life. We not at liberty to make the church into a society that practices “strenuous tolerance” nor “radical welcome”. The Reformers also discovered, as the Church Fathers did before them, that the church exists between the Christ’s cross and resurrection, and the final reconciliation of God’s world to himself. We are not at liberty to try to usher in God’s final kingdom – as the Queensland Synod has attempted to do in recent years. We are to faith in Christ and to bear witness to that faith.

By Paul Langkamp - South Korea.

There was once a church that was governed by inter-related councils.  Some councils had smaller areas of responsibility and some had greater but even the one with the greatest responsibility of all was obliged to seek the concurrence of the other councils in matters of vital importance to the life of the church.  In this way even the smallest councils had a responsibility for the whole church.

The winds of change blew over the church bringing new beliefs and many of the smaller councils felt so battered that they erected strong walls of self-protection and forgot about their responsibility for the whole church. 

The Greatest Council of All saw that the church was divided by many beliefs and concluded that no one belief could claim validity over another but that all must be offered hospitality within the church and be treated in a democratic way.  This idea came from one of the new beliefs.  The idea was that there was no access to an external source of validation which would say which belief was right.  Nevertheless, hospitality and democracy were regarded as values.  These values were set free from any external source of validation. 

But the church had a document called the Basis which described the external source of validation.  It was the Basis that had given the church its structure of inter-related councils.  The Basis prevented the church from offering the kind of hospitality and democracy that some in the church thought it should.

The Greatest Council of All had elected a committee to act for it when the Council was not sitting.  This Committee seemed strongly influenced by the idea of a set of values without external source of validation.  The only source for such a set of values was personal control.  The Committee decided to change things so that it would have the power to interpret the way the Basis could operate in the church.

Through a formal agreement with another group, the Committee claimed control over the way the church operated (including control over the Greatest Council of All).  The Committee refashioned the provision of the Basis so that it was no longer obligatory for the Greatest Council of All to seek the concurrence of other councils in matters of vital importance to the life of the church.

So the new belief that seemed to offer democracy destroyed the democracy of inter-related councils.  The new belief that seemed to offer hospitality to many beliefs allowed the Committee to impose its own belief on the many.  And the smaller councils that had erected walls of self-protection found that their walls came crashing down.

(By Katherine Abetz - posted by Walter)

The proposed preamble to the Constitution of the UCA is a Trojan Horse to undermine both the status of the Basis of Union and the nature of authority in the UCA.  If the Preamble and the Constitutional change to Section 2 are permitted, then ASC has absolute power on my reading, it can overrule a full Assembly.  Nothing has to be referred back for concurrence.  A matter may be referred back for ‘consultation’, and if the ASC does not change its mind, then that is the end of it!! 

Once you democratically vote for a dictatorship, there is no democratic way back to democracy!
If the ASC is serious about acknowledging the First People, then it should carefully uphold the matter of interrelated councils, and adherence to the Basis of Union in the Preamble.