I am
seeing a growing number of emails and letters expressing dissatisfaction and
alarm over the way discussion and decisions are being taken in
presbyteries and congregations in relationship to proposal 84 and the assembly
processes. This correspondence indicates poor chairing,
I think that it is actually very
difficult to chair this kind of meeting, but NENW seems to be doing fairly
well on it. Don't know about individual congregations.
alternate voices not being
heard,
Yes, and I see a number
of reasons for this.
One is that it is scarey to be an
alternate voice, probably more so when you're a pro-84 alternate voice than an
anti one. When people are standing up and saying loudly that they
are right because they have the Bible and church tradition on their side,
it is difficult to counter it in ways that can be heard without being loud and
strident, too. It is difficult to create a forum where this can be
overcome. In a large group, the intimidation factor is high, but if you are in
a small group and you feel that you are the only one who feels like you do,
the intimidation factor is probably just as high! I certainly felt
rather intimidated in a group of three that was instructed to talk about how
we felt when the other two in the group were male and significantly taller,
heavier and louder than me, coming from a very different perspective and
refusing to follow the instructions to talk about feelings. I had being
ordained (and therefore theologically educated) and articulate on my side, but
still found it heavy going.
Another is that the different
approaches to Scripture which allow the different conclusions also tend to
lead to different methods of operating that don't work well together.
One seems to say "the Bible says x and the church has always done it this
way", with a strong emphasis on the authority of the words and the
tradition. The other says "that's not how I understand Scripture - if
you take into consideration the context..." and "well, now, if you look at the
Reformation period, I think you'll find that the church wasn't doing that at
all..." which tends to evoke one of two responses; either a criticism of
the subjectivity of the statement or "I don't have any of your fancy education
but I know what the Bible says". The latter is very difficult to
argue against when the person you're talking to has no idea about the problems
of translation from one language to another and only the vaguest notion that
the Bible was originally written in languages other than English. So
these alternative voices need far more time to be heard if they are going to
be able to explain why they believe what they believe and that doesn't look
like a fair allocation of time.
And a third is the
deliberate gagging on the grounds that "if we say x, it will upset people, it
may destroy their faith" - ignoring the fact that not allowing the other side
to be heard will also upset people, but not the vocal
ones.
poor wording of proposals that are
unclear but not allowed to be clarified, lack of time to read wording,
lack of discussion, rushed meetings,
Yes - we're having a special
meeting on 13 Sept to discuss our response to the proposal. It will be
an open meeting for all interested church members followed by a meeting of the
presbytery and those who wanted it called (the EMU-sympathetic group) wanted
it all to take place between 10 am and 2 pm which they felt would be heaps of
time to get everything through.
generally not following the process laid
down in the manual for meetings, assumptions that people should already have a
mind about the proposals being put forward,
Yes. And some people are
actually trying to be open to hearing God in the
process...
some congregational meetings not really
representing the total membership as some people avoid the conflict, or do not
get notice of the meeting. This would seem to be at odds with much of
the content of the letters from congregations and presbyteries sent to us who
criticize the assembly for its processes. Is this a pattern others see or is
it not really representative of what is happening?
I suspect it's worse in
some places than others. But when you try to take things slowly, you
leave yourself open to criticism that you're trying to delay making a
response....
Wendie Wilkie
Associate General Secretary
ph 02 8267 4203
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--
"Politics is the work we do to keep the world safe for
our spirituality" - Judith Plaskow
Rev Judy Redman
Uniting Church
Chaplain
University of New England
Armidale 2351
ph: +61 2 6773
3739
fax: +61 2 6773 3749
web: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/
action
for peace: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/links/peace.html
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