Congregations of the Uniting Church may face pressure to take on many new responsibilities and programs following a range of decisions by the church’s national assembly, which met in Adelaide last month.

"We’ll have to provide some suggestions about how congregations can cope," said Assembly general secretary Rev Gregor Henderson. "There are some substantial ‘asks’ [of congregations] and we want to make sure they have some understanding of what’s being laid on them."

Among assembly decisions which directly affect the local Christian community are:

· All congregations are "encouraged" to become learning communities, with systematic Christian education programs for people of all ages.

· All congregations are "requested" to have a vision statement and to renew their commitment to this every three months.

· Congregations and groups are "urged" to develop different styles, times and places of worship to help build up "a spectrum of worship options".

· The report on understanding and use of the Bible has been "commended" to congregations (and presbyteries) for prayerful consideration and action.

· The assembly document Living with the neighbour who is different has also been "commended" to congregations for study and action ¾ and part of the suggested action is "fostering neighbourly relations with people of other faiths".

All these go along with other decisions that could be said to start with assembly’s definition of the congregation’s "distinctive responsibilities": ¾ "to be the embodiment in one place of the one holy, catholic and apostolic church."

They go on to a request for study of Roadmap for Reconciliation and other resources on reconciliation, and encouragement to congregations (and church agencies) to welcome newly arrived refugees.

Concern was raised on more than one occasion during the Adelaide meeting about how all the requests for congregational action were going to be communicated.

The assembly secretariat now has the task of arranging for a "coordinated communication" to congregations about what is expected of them.

Assembly standing committee will need to approve this, so it’s likely to be November before any document of expectations and suggestions about how to handle them becomes available.

That will raise the issue of whether local congregations feel that the church’s national council (the assembly) has the authority to determine their agenda.

One of the decisions which may test that is the call to congregations to become "learning communities" and to have systematic Christian education across all age groups.

That came just after release of Making Disciples, the Uniting Education report on a survey of Christian education in UCA congregations. The report notes that only 4 per cent of clergy surveyed said their churches definitely had structured ways of teaching the basics of the Christian faith.

It also points out that almost 70 per cent of clergy taking part affirmed that adult Christian education was directed mostly at congregation members.

"However, the most significant challenges [for Christian education] may lie beyond these congregations and among people who do not feel particularly at home within them," it says.

Crosslight, Vic (August, 2000)