On what basis?
By Caro Field
Candidate for Ministry at Centre for Theology and Ministry
I am excited.
I am currently in the middle of the “Uniting Church Studies” intensive at the CTM, which started on Tuesday, with a brief introduction to the history of the three traditions (Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist) that formed the Uniting Church on 22nd June 1977. As someone who came into the Uniting Church fairly recently (only about 17 years ago) I only have experience of the UCA as it now exists, so the background on the history and the origin of some of our traditions was helpful.
But I have to say that my excitement reached a peak today, when our group had some input from Bruce Barber on the background of the history of the UCA’s Basis of Union, and its ongoing authority and relevance to the church today.
Having been an active member of the Uniting Church for about 15 years when I started my candidature, it’s almost embarrassing to admit that the first time I can remember actually reading the Basis of Union was during my Period of Discernment. I can remember thinking at the time, “Wow! This is amazing!” (…and later, after a bit of reflection, “If only the church actually DID all the things the Basis of Union says it’s supposed to do… maybe if more people actually READ it…”)
In our class today, as Bruce exegeted the Basis of Union for us, there were similar little gestalts happening around the room as we appreciated anew the level of detail and loving work that had gone into crafting the language of the Basis of Union. Bruce commented that he believes the Basis is the greatest thing the Uniting Church has going for it, and he certainly didn’t get any arguments from us!
Some of the things that Bruce pointed out that particularly stuck in my mind were:
* The language of the Basis is all in present tense, and as such makes the document dynamic and forward-looking.
* Whilst being a confessional document, the Basis is not a “Confession”, and so is more flexible to remain relevant over time.
* The Basis of Union calls us to have a focus on serving and confessing Christ. We live and work under Christ’s authority, and our primary allegiance is to him, not to the church, nor our particular tradition.
* “the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal” (para 3). So often we quote the first part of that statement: that “we are a pilgrim people”, or “a people on the way,” but neglect to mention that we DO actually have a goal or a destination towards which our pilgrimage takes us. (And if you don’t know what that goal is, why not check out the whole of paragraph 3 of the Basis of Union? You can read it on the Assembly website, or download it as a PDF from here: http://assembly.uca.org.au/resources/basis_of_union).
My colleagues and I came away from this morning’s session with a sense of excitement at the opportunity to rediscover the gift that the Basis of Union is to our church. We also experienced a sense of awe at the responsibility that will be on our shoulders as ministers, to share this gift (and convey our own excitement about it) with those we minister among in the future.