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Church urged to be community of lifelong learning
Thursday, July 10
A new principle for the Uniting Church seems to be emerging at the Eighth Assembly: If it's good enough for ministers, it's good enough for lay people, too.
This started showing on Monday with the report on ministerial education. It proposed a "keep learning or else" move which may soon leave UCA clergy with a simple choice. They'll have to commit themselves to continuing education for all their ministry or face the prospect of no new settlements.
But the report went much further than that. It declared learning to be "an essential part of the whole of life" for lay people as well. "The church as a whole, and in its congregations, is to be characterised by attention to the learning, spiritual development and personal growth of all its members."
People could not simply take an education package at one point in their life and draw on it for all future needs, said the report. Whatever their place in church life, people's Christian formation "is an ongoing process from the beginning of life to its end".
Wednesday, there was more of this from another source. Presenting the report from Uniting Education, director John Emmett said the agency was now "exploring projects that will help congregations become life-long learning communities".
He added that it couldn't be assumed any more that "one size fits all", so diversity can be expected in any 'ongoing education packages' offered. But the message is clear, and it's to all church members: Keep learning!
Lay people aren't likely to face an "or else" – threatening them would be too much of a risk – but encouraging them won't be easy. Mr Emmett reported on US research showing that most adult Christians don't have a mature faith, and most congregations don't have effective Christian education. The evidence suggested these conclusions were also true for the Uniting Church in Australia, he said.
Put it another way: who wants to bother about more learning? There were "very real questions as to whether [the teaching ministry] is currently valued by our church, or even if this tradition might continue in the foreseeable future," he said.
But Uniting Education still has enough hope about the possibilities (and funds) to invest in both an international Christian education project and the miracles of modern technology.
The Christian education project is "Curriculum 2003". It stems from a meeting of the UCA with seven North American churches in Canada last October, together with publishers, to see if one lectionary-based curriculum could be developed for all eight churches.
The meeting agreed that the three curricula currently being produced for these churches would be "terminated" by the end of the year 2002, and it set up a consortium to develop the new project. The research now being done by Uniting Education (UE) is part of the primary work on that.
Mr Emmett said this involved asking some 1000 congregations and other UE clients about their use of Christian education material and say what is important to them. It was the first time such a comprehensive survey had been done in Australia, he said.
As for technology: "Electronic media will totally transform the way the church holds and distributes its knowledge in the next 10 years," said Mr Emmett. "Uniting Education has a vision that congregations, councils and agencies of the church will use electronic media for more effective ministry and mission."
And miracles? UE chairperson Helen Rodd put it this way: "We have mourned the dying of past methods of national Christian education whilst acting as midwife to new ideas and concepts. Resurrection!"