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An extension to the FoU Newsletter
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An extension to the FoU Newsletter
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 In November, 2003, the Standing Committee of the Uniting Church in Australia resolved, "to establish a process to clarify the doctrine of the Church regarding people in committed same-gender relationships being in leadership roles, including ordained ministries, with a view to decision-making at the 11th Assembly." It has commenced a three-step process, with the potential to change the doctrines of the Church concerning membership, inclusivity, participation and ministry (mission). Faith and sexuality remain central issues in this process of discernment. There is a variety of opinion within the Church, from those who seek change, to those who accept the status quo in matters of faith and sexuality. "Living with diversity" is a valid, Christian way, supported biblically by Matthew 13: 24-31, for those who see the presence of gay and lesbian people among us as "the seed sown by the Enemy", and by Galatians 3:1-18, for those who claim the "promise of the Spirit through faith". Those who seek change may seek that change in different areas of doctrine, policy and practice, even within the narrow concern regarding "people in committed same-gender relationships being in leadership roles." The choices for change seem to be that the UCA becomes meaner and leaner (if it proscribes the membership and participation of homosexual persons in some way) or it becomes leaner but not meaner (if it refuses to adopt policies of reactionary, right wing factions and they carry out their long standing threats to leave and form their own cult). The trigger in all this has been the adoption of Resolution 84 (Assembly minute 03.12.04; ASC minute 03.69) and the prior decison of EMU not to continue to "live with diversity". R84 is not a compromise position, it is the "bottom line" for the Church, in accord with principles of justification through faith. Those who struggle to live with diversity truly struggle to be Christian in the same way that we all do. Christ confronts our very selves, confronting even our prejudices, differences and cultural restraints, as we try to embrace others in love, with mercy and wisdom. We are all "sinners", all called into judgment yet redeemed through Christ. He is the one who stands outside our safe-places, outside our barriers of distinction, calling us to him in solidarity. As "one in Christ" we are a diverse people. It cannot be any other way without denying human diversity. The very fact that the drafting of R84 involved a lengthy period of consultation with Congress, migrant ethnic churches, presbyteries, EMU and Uniting Network, testifies to that diversity. It is to the credit of Uniting Network NSW, that in hosting the next Daring gathering in June, 2004, the theme is Being One in Christ: Daring to Embrace Diversity. Through R84, the Church upholds the Gospel and maintains its position, testifying to inclusive teaching and to an inclusive Christ. Noting extracts from Assembly minute 00.25.03, R84 celebrates that "the Church’s faith is in the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that the Church’s work and unity are built upon the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ". The Assembly Standing Committee decision (03.69) goes on to affirm "the authority of the Scriptures as defined in the Basis of Union, acknowledging that within the Church there is a range of views on questions of Biblical interpretation on various matters of Christian faith and practice". It also affirms that "we are bound together by Christ, and because we love the Uniting Church as part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church we will continue to work together in our diversity as servants of the living God." Would we wish to change that "doctrine"? Changing any doctrine to bar or proscribe gay and lesbian membership and participation (and let us not disguise the fact, this is what some, reactionary, evangelical factions want to do) impacts upon other doctrines of the Church, especially those pertaining to faith in the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the person and work of Jesus Christ, Creation, human nature, the nature of the Church and ministry (mission), fellowship and how we respond to people, "justification by faith alone", and the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. On one hand, the potential now exists to consider changes those doctrines, too, if we decide as a Church to erect barriers of distinction based on sexuality. On the other hand, there is potential to reinforce the status quo; we may decide to continue to live with diversity as servants of the living God. There is theological ambivalence in what the Church is asking of us, for as Dorothee Sölle asks, "what does it mean to hear Christ as the one Word of God, if some Christians assert that only heterosexual love counts as obedience to Christ: that it is a sin to love another person of the same sex?" (Dorothee Sölle, Thinking About God: An Introduction to Theology, SCM Press, London, and Trintity International, Philadelphia, 1990, p.12) What ever we do, let us not lose sight of the fact that people are at the centre of our discussions- people of faith who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. Some live in stable same-gender relationships, currently serving the Church as participating members and providing leadership as teachers, Elders, Ministers of the Word, Deacons, Lay preachers, Youth Workers. Their experiences of faith and of the Spirit active in their lives should be the voices to which we listen, for in them all ambivalence is removed as they affirm that through faith alone it is Christ who sets them free, justified, equipped to participate and empowered to lead. 
Twig, Branch, Trunk and Root: An Approach to Orthodoxy? Can orthodoxy, as ‘right opinion’, ‘right doctrine’, or ‘right belief’, be traced as a single set of beliefs, back through the historical periods of the church from modernity, through the Enlightenment, the Reformation, the Middle Ages, post Chalcedon periods, formations of creed at Chalcedon and Nicaea to the early church, the Gospels and the apostles to Christ? Is the church like a mighty tree, with individuals like leaves held on community twigs amid denominational branches that flow to a solid trunk and down to deep roots bedded in Christ? Is this a valid image, allowing for a pruning, as heresies were excised from the trunk? Or does being perched on your leaf and looking back along twig and branch give a myopic view, hiding the swamp below from which your particular viewpoint emerged on one of many trunks? More...
Thoughts From Around the World Unity or Schism? The NSW Synod website carried two articles from Sojourners Magazine, February 2004, that make interesting reading from contributors within The Presbyterian Church (USA). Both articles are adapted from a presentation at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians national conference held in November, 2003, in Washington, D.C. Like the UCA, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been starkly divided over the role of gay and lesbian participation in the church. It feels to many, as author Richard Mouw puts it, that the church is getting ready for "divorce court." Should the church split or stay together? The authors of these two articles—both Presbyterian, one liberal and one conservative—differ on many things, but they are in accord about whether to engage unity or schism— as the best way forward. Both opt for unity but on what terms or reasons? Why the Evangelical Church Needs the Liberal Church Paper by Richard J. Mouw, president of
Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. This article is
adapted from a presentation at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians
national conference held in November in Washington, D.C. As
a conservative, evangelical voice, he speaks for Reformed orthodoxy and
the creative tension that exists when dialogue between liberal and
conservative opinion prevents the evangelicals from arguing among
themselves! As he says, "I would much
rather see us continue to focus on the major issues of Reformed thought
in an admittedly
pluralistic denomination than to deal with the tensions that often
arise among ourselves
when evangelicals get into the debates that seem inevitably to arise
when we have
established our own "pure" denominations." more.
Uniting Network presents a selection of resources on its web site to assist the "year of wrestling with issues". Some of this material may be downloaded. You are invited to journey with us, listening and reflecting upon experience of Christ With Us. Friends of Unity resources discussion concerning R84 This paper looks at theological aspects of Resolution 84 (Assembly minute 03.12.04) and demonstrates that this really is the "bottom line" for the Uniting Church. More...
In Bart Ehrman’s new book there is a treasure trove of insights into the thinking and practices
of the "early church". It uncovers the "chaos of contending beliefs", the search for orthodoxy,
conflicts and heresies, falsifications and hidden truths in a polemical
arsenal of early Christian experience.
Lost Christianities raises questions of diversity, tolerance, the invention of Scripture and the formation of orthodox canon. It allows for a renaissance of lost witnesses and obscure texts in reviewing what it once meant and what it yet may mean, to be Christian. Reading Lost Christianities engages questions of how the Ebionites, Marcionites, Thomasines, Gnostics and others may speak to us in our time. The voices of Jewish Christianity, of Hellenists and of multi-cultural interpretations of the Christ event, speak anew from the murky waters of history from which orthodoxy arose. In them the water of faith appears less dark and dim. The language may be strange and some of the concepts ancient, unfamiliar and even hilarious- accounts in which Jesus walks without leaving footprints, the Cross speaks, Jesus resurrects as a giant, a lioness defends the female victim in the arena, and Jesus (Judas Thomas' identical, twin brother) converts a man to abstinence on his wedding night. Yet each throws more light upon the canonical Gospels, revealing more of what proto-orthodoxy sought to counter. Ehrman's account of the Acts of Paul and Thecla and of Christian communities that accepted the forgery as "gospel" and revered Thecla as a saint, uncover intriguing examples of faith and attitudes to sexuality and to women. His treatment of Morton Smith and The Secret Gospel of Mark and disputes over the authenticity of Clement's letter to Theodore is fascinating and startlingly inconclusive, a mystery among mysteries. Ehrman discusses discoveries and different forgeries, pseudepigaphical and canonical- from the Gospel of Peter, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, 2 Peter, Titus, 3 Corinthians, and some epistles of Paul, Ignatius and Clement. He considers questions relating to who wrote these books, why forge authorship under a false name, how did some of them find their way into New testament canon, and what early form of Christianity do they represent? While there are differences in how each community records and interprets Christian experience, all speak of the transcendent importance of the Christ event, as they grapple with issues of inclusivity, tolerance, sin, salvation, death and the nature of Christ. I see Christ traversing culture, in these Christianities. Now that is not far removed from what the UCA is seeking to do, today, is it not? Also by the same author... Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: Effects of Early Christological Controversies on The Text of the New Testament. ( Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, 1993) A scholarly account of how theological conviction and ideology colours the way in which one reads the bible, or transmits it, that is immensely readable, often with the suspense of a detective story. Ehrman traces, with irony, how the victors write the history, reproducing the texts to affect the transmission, in an age when Scribes could easily mould the documents to make them say what they mean them too say. He considers the way in which the experience, intellectual background and social history of early Christianity not only influences "orthodoxy" and "heresy" alike but also raises hermeneutic issues of concern for today, that "we all engage in, rereading and therefor rewriting our texts at every turn.". Thus, against the background of second an third century Christianity, Ehrman demonstrates that Scripture, and even "orthodoxy", is a malleable, political tool in the polemic struggle for opinion and supremacy. Ehrman shows how scribal changes were made at significant places in early texts (that eventually become books of the NT) to support proto-orthodox understandings or to prevent contrary, "heretical" opinion seeming to be based on original, "apostolic" scripture. In some cases, what was deemed "unorthodox" and therefore altered to conform to proto-orthodox understanding, was original, apostolic opinion! Alteration of a text being, in the language of text-critical analysis, a "corruption" of the text, which Ehrman analyses in terms of the struggle for supremacy of proto-orthodox approaches to Christology. In this he provides an account of the social and intellectual history of early Christianity and uncovers the wealth of variety, differentiation and experience that existed. The road to orthodoxy is discussed and given historical, theological and socio-political reasons for it becoming the dominant form of Christianity in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches. In passing, he also discusses how authors of NT books falsely maligned their opponents in polemical thrusts claiming licentiousness, reprobate and profligate behaviour (Romans 1:24-27, Phil. 3:19, Eph 5;1-7, and 2 Tim 3:1-9). Thus it raises questions as to how far polemic and rhetoric within Scripture can be applied in good conscience in our time, when it was originally intended to castigate through application of prejudice and stereotypes (Rom. 1:24-27) or served to malign their opponents (Eph 5:1-7, 2 Tim 3:1-9). I recommend The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture as a valuable background resource for the UCA's "year of wrestling with issues" and Christian orthodoxy today.
A Wonderful Gift to the Church
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/ (Gk: trans. the voice of one crying in the wilderness)
Mk. 1:3
Remove the barriers
the Lord is come.
This page is maintained by Wal Anderson, who is a member
of Friends of Unity Executive.
