AN INITIAL EMU RESPONSE TO ASC DECISION OF 22-24 AUGUST 2003. http://www.emu.asn.au/assembly2003/emu_mary_hawkes_response_2.html
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Those of you in ministry positions will have received a copy of the President's letter and the decisions of the Assembly Standing Committee (ASC) from it's meeting on the 22-24 August.
These decisions suggest that the ASC were not sufficiently moved by over 20,000 signatures on a petition to recall Assembly to revisit and reverse Resolution 84. According to the ASC media release, the reason they did not recall Assembly was that they felt that Assembly had not endorsed or approved "right relationships" and therefore had not introduced "new policy for the church" that needed to be reversed.
The ASC reworded resolution changes very little of the essence of Resolution 84. It removes the phrases "right relationships" and "celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage" which, it says were merely examples of the sexual behaviour of ministers and leaders that can be permitted by Presbyteries and congregations. By not actually writing down details of the behaviour allowed, it is somehow supposed to make it acceptable to the church.
The ASC also state that congregations and councils of the church can, after prayerful consideration and study of the Scriptures, state a required sexual ethic of their leaders. However, the significance of this is called into question by the fact that they are still required to consider every individual on a case by case basis.
ASC still clings to its conviction that nothing has changed and that Assembly simply maintained an official position of not making a decision on what the right sexual ethic was for ministers and leaders. Meanwhile practising homosexuals can continue in leadership in the Uniting Church.
It is extraordinarily reckless to allow this contentious behaviour when it goes against the orthodox Christian understanding of 20 centuries and the expressed wishes of an overwhelming majority of Uniting Church members. Normally, a denomination would make no move to change such a significant understanding without massive support from its members. However, the disenfranchisement of Uniting Church members has been extraordinarily complete. The results of the 1996 sexuality survey were ignored, Paragraph 15 e of the Basis of Union (which obliges Assembly to return significant decisions to the congregations of the church) was ignored, and now a record sized petition to ASC had been accorded scant regard.
The ASC also hold to a continuing fiction that any behaviour (provided it is loving) can be sanctioned because the church never had a sexual ethic written down. The church did not have a sexual ethic written down because its ethic was perfectly clear, and had been for centuries. They no more felt the need to write that homosexual acts by its leaders were not acceptable, than to write that greed and murder were not acceptable. Scripture has always been, and should still be our guide in such things.
The ASC asks us to "seek to live together in peace as people of faith, notwithstanding differing views in the matter of same gender sexual relationships." Unfortunately, this places many people, particularly ministers with an orthodox faith, in an impossible position as the Code of Ethics obliges them to accept practising homosexual leaders without question, even though they believe such behaviour to be sin. As such, orthodox Christians will need to deny the foundational values of their faith in order to accommodate the Assembly directive.
Sadly, orthodox Christians living out the evangelical traditions of St. Paul, and John Wesley are finding themselves increasingly alienated by the culture of Assembly which feels able to sacrifice orthodox biblical understandings of holiness, the wishes of congregational members, the orthodox/ evangelical churches, their covenant with UAICC, the respect of other religions, and unity with the Church universal for the cause of liberal inclusivism.
So what are we to do?
The first thing to be stressed is to ask you please to not leave the Uniting Church at this point in time. If you leave now individually or even as congregations, it will be difficult for us to be an influence for reform. (If we do leave, we need a place to go, and if possible, we need to leave with the properties we have built. This will take a bit of time or organise). But first we need to pray.
I therefore ask everyone to take the month of September to join with other UCA members around Australia to pray, fast and repent. The first part of the prayer resource for September will be on the EMU website this week (www.emu.asn.au). I firmly believe that we must first spend a season humbling ourselves before the Lord in repentance (2 Chron.7:13 -14) before God will show us the way forward. It has take a long time for our church to reach the state it is in, and so much will first need to be dealt with by prayer and repentance.
We are in the process of calling a National Consultation of evangelical/orthodox people who are representative of the different groupings around in the UCA. We hope that this group will meet in mid September to seek the Lord regarding the way forward. Please include this group in your prayers. As soon as we know who they are we will let you know who will be there.
None of us want to split the church. It is not our first wish. That is why we must be very careful to listen to God and know his leading. If God wants to use us at this point of history to refine and reform, we must be ready. Whether we remain a part of the Uniting Church or whether we leave and form a "Reformed Uniting Church" I don't yet know. What I do know is that the leadership of whatever eventuates (be it the Uniting Church or a new organisation) will have to have a very different structure to that which currently exists.
May God bless you all as you seek His face in September. I pray that this will be a rich time of intimate fellowship with God for all of us. I don't expect it to be a comfortable time but "if we ask it will be given to us, if we seek we will find and if we knock the door will be opened to us" (Mt.7:7-8).
Take courage, if we seek God, God will lead us. These are the birthpains of new beginnings.
Mary Hawkes (National Chair of EMU)
26th August 2003
http://www.emu.asn.au/assembly2003/emu_mary_hawkes_response_2.html
[end]
------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/lists.htm ------------------------------------------------------
