Assembly '97 News Home page Documents next story		That's it for parish councils Thursday, July 10 Parishes and parish councils will no longer be "required or essential parts" of the Uniting Church after early 1999 following a unanimous decision of the Assembly on Wednesday. Discussion of the report from the Task Group on Church Structures had focused almost entirely on elders. With time running out in the session, and no resolution in sight on elders, the Assembly seemed only too happy to make parishes optional. The debate on elders centred on whether the local "Church Council" proposed by the structures task group should have some members designated as elders and some not, or whether all people on the single church council should be elders. Rev Robert Johnson, general secretary of the Synod of Victoria, spoke for retaining elders as "those who are called to share with the minister in the spiritual oversight of the congregation. We should not be calling everyone an elder." But Malcolm Gledhill of Sydney spoke in favour of leaving the members of the Church Council unspecified. "There's a freedom within this [proposal] that allows us to do what we need to do locally." Dorothy Beare of South Australia agreed, citing the experience of her parish where "lay ministry teams" have replaced the elders and "we are just blossoming. Don't be afraid that you will lose eldership but you may lose the name 'elder'," she said. The fate of elders was not the only issue left dangling. The church's ongoing relationship to the Basis of Union also was not decided when time ran out during discussion of the place of the Basis of Union. The debate turned on whether the church shall live "as that way is described in its Basis of Union" (an amendment from the Victorian Synod) or shall be "guided by" the basis (a proposal from Assembly Standing Committee, but not the original recommendation of the Advisory Group on Church Polity). The debate seemed to divide along state lines with people from NSW arguing strongly for being "guided by" the Basis. Malcolm Gledhill said the Legal Reference Committee strongly opposed the Victorian amendment because "it ties the church too closely to the Basis of Union" and could result in legal action if someone felt the Assembly was acting against the Basis of Union. Denise Liersch of Victoria, and a member of the Advisory Group on Church Polity, said, "The central issue here is not the legal one. We should not be afraid of being tied to the Basis of Union. Do we think we can be the church without this commitment to our roots?" Stay tuned for developments.

"The Uniting Church affirms that it belongs to the people of GOD on the way to the promised end." Basis of Union, Revised edition published 1992