President calls for preparedness, not predetermined positions
The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Dr Jill Tabart, has written a pastoral letter to church members urging delegates to come to the Eighth Assembly (Perth, July 5-12) with openness and preparedness and not predetermined positions — particularly when considering the topic of sexuality.
Dr Tabart said, "In this 20th year since the formation of the Uniting Church in Australia, we celebrate the richness of the heritage that is ours through the long history of the church; and we rejoice that we are called to be equipped as God's people for the coming new millennium and the many changes that confront us."
She said "Forward Together — Moving with God's Spirit" was not only the theme for the Eighth Assembly, but it was also the "rallying cry for the whole of our church to energetic and visionary creativity in how we responded to our Lord as we live out our faith day by day, week by week, in and from the congregations where we are nurtured".
She said, "For those who are privileged to be elected members of the Assembly meeting, let me remind you of your responsibility to prepare carefully through reading, pondering and discussing the papers, through prayer for God's guidance for you and all who gather, and through your coming with a spirit of openness so that each one of us may truly be led by the Holy Spirit throughout the course of the meetings in July."
Dr Tabart said, "Being well prepared does not mean coming with pre-determined positions. As our Manual for Meetings reminds us, decision making in the church means respecting the contribution each one of us brings, expecting insight from God through each person's understanding. It is only as we work and pray and listen and ponder God's Word together that the way forward will be discerned. It will be an exciting week as we wait with expectation for God to lead us in our discoveries!"
She said many members of the church were particularly interested in considerations on the topic of sexuality and the gospel. The church, she said, had been well served by a dedicated and hard-working task group which had read every one of the more than 8,000 responses to the Interim Report on Sexuality. The task group was finalising a complete re-writing for the final report on sexuality and faith, she said.
The Assembly also commissioned an independent person to summarise the responses to the interim report to ease the load on the volunteers who made up the task group.
Dr Tabart said, "I remind you that sexuality is on our agenda because the Uniting Church has few stated policies on sexuality in its own name and because the huge changes in recent decades in Australian values and conduct demand a fresh response from us.
"But the Assembly in July will not be a single issue meeting! Many other important issues will be considered. The authority of the Basis of Union, our focus for mission in the next decade, our local church structures, the way we educate our ministers, and a renewed emphasis on ecumenical action are just some of them."
Dr Tabart invited all members and congregations to pray for the Assembly as elected members prepared for Perth. "Pray that the Assembly will be a truly faithful gathering, where Christian community and Christian decision-making will ensure the church is moving with God's Spirit."
‘Affirm sexuality’ says task group chair
The chair of the Assembly Task Group on Sexuality hopes that the Uniting Church will "affirm sexuality" when the national Assembly responds to the task group's five years of work.
The Rev. Alistair Macrae nominated the five big issues of sexuality on which he believed the church needed to act: an affirmation of sexuality, marriage, relationships, the Bible, and homosexuality.
He received backing from the church's national president-elect, the Rev. John Mavor, who was very keen for the Assembly to make some decisions on the task group's final report, instead of leaving it open for discussion for another three years.
Mr Mavor admitted the Perth meeting "runs the risk of becoming known as 'the Sexuality Assembly', but my prayer is that it will be remembered because of the distance we make on that issue there".
He said, "The focus at this Assembly will be how the church deals with sexuality. We can't just leave it. We've got to work with this great issue at this Assembly. We must make some distance, we have to make some sorts of decisions."
Heading Mr Macrae's list of five issues is the need for the church to affirm human sexuality. "This is not to deny that sexuality is affected by sin, like anything else, but to affirm that it's also a gift, with its potential for life, healing, comfort, pleasure and connectedness.".
Of the other four issues he said:
A positive statement on marriage was needed — along with a recognition of divorce which would "formalise what we already practise". The Assembly could expect a recommendation endorsing marriage as an exclusive, heterosexual, lifelong covenant.
Relationships needed attention, especially ways in which the church could actually help people to form good and just relationships.
The role and authority of the Bible needed extended study by the Uniting Church. Differing views of scripture had been "a significant source of conflict" in the debate about the Interim Report on Sexuality.
Homosexual people's place in the life and ministry of the church posed many issues. Task group recommendations would give the church a chance to decide whether it needed ongoing discussion or was ready to make definitive rulings.
Mr Macrae said the report of the task group identified two critical points on which the group's 12 members were not unanimous. "We remain in disagreement on some issues, but we respect one another's Christian integrity and we desire to remain in fellowship within the Uniting Church."
He indicated the revised report on sexuality (tentatively titled "Uniting Sexuality and Faith") would contain more biblical and theological discussion and a reordering of chapters. "The Interim Report had an insufficient biblical and theological case for change — that was a big message from the more thoughtful responses to the report," he said. "So there is a lot more explicit theology and biblical material."
Another criticism prompted the reordering. Many Interim Report readers criticised it for starting with society's changing patterns, "as if we were seeking to set our sails to capture the secular winds, and responding to them rather than out of our Christian tradition".
The first chapter of the new report will set out Christian perspectives and what they offer to society's discussion of sexuality. A strong emphasis is that humans are called into community.
"We were criticised for presenting a very liberal, individualistic view of ethics — a 'what's right for me' approach," said Mr Macrae. "We've tried to ground this new report in a communal ethic: How might our relationships reflect God's will and build up the community?"
The task group was well aware of its critics. Four members read every response to the Interim Report — more than 8,000 of them. The summary of responses estimates more than 30,000 Uniting Church people could have been involved in them.
In the new report, chapter 2 is on the Bible, especially its "faithful interpretation" (a term from the Uniting Church's Basis of Union); chapter 3 is about ethics; chapter 4 is on right relationships; chapter 5 ("Living alone, living together") deals with life issues, from children and parenting through to gay, lesbian and bisexual relationships; and chapter 6 concerns ministry and church order, including who should be leaders and ministers.
Mr Macrae said, "The task group regrets that the issue of homosexuality so dominated the discussion [of the Interim Report] and deflected attention from other substantial issues."
He couldn't see the Uniting Church voting to exclude homosexual people from membership. "The debate really focuses around the ordination of homosexual people who don't commit themselves to celibacy.
"There's a big divide still between people who believe homosexuality is sinful ... and those who would see that homosexual or heterosexual relationships are not inherently sinful — who would want to judge homosexual relationships according to the same criteria by which we'd judge heterosexual ones.
"If the church wants to go in that second direction, there would seem to be a need to reflect that in the way we honour, bless and strengthen committed homosexual relationships."
No Sunday School picnic
Uniting Church president-elect the Rev. John Mavor said of the Assembly: "If people come hell-bent on conflict, it could be a destructive Assembly. But if we come to it as the people of God — and I don't want to make it sound like a Sunday school picnic — hearing each other, finding those things where we can move forward, and if we're open to the Spirit, then why can't we find a way forward?"
Mr Mavor said the church was "so hyped up" about sexuality that he couldn't predict its decision. "But I believe there are some things we can get a consensus on, and my job will be to get as much consensus as possible."