Editor’s note: A group of evangelicals and others in the Uniting Church have decided they need a separation of the Uniting Church in Australia. Hedley Fihaki, the national chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations of the Uniting Church in Australia (ACC), has written this statement for The Other Cheek describing their decision and what happens next. Bishop Richard Condie, national president of the conservative Anglican group GAFCON was the keynote speaker at the ACC’s national conference last week. The parallels between congregations leaving the Anglican Church of Australia for GAFCON’s “lifeboat”, the Diocese of the Southern Cross, and what ACC members may do was obvious. The Diocese of the Southern Cross is one of several alternatives ACC members might consider if their call for a negotiated separation fails.
The 350-strong Sunnybank Church recently dissolved by the UCA, is now meeting in the Southside international Church’s building 3 minutes away from their old home in Brisbane. The UCA is planting in the Sunnybank UC building with a group of 30 from the old congregation according to the UCA South Moreton Presbytery.
The Assembly of Confessing Congregations of the Uniting Church in Australia (ACC) held its Annual National ‘Assembly’ 9-11 September on the Sunshine Coast.
Theme of the conference: “In Christ alone”.
Keynote Speakers: Bishop Richard Condie (Bishop of Tasmania and Chair of GAFCON Australia), Liliane Tovo Siasau (ACC Young Adult leader) and myself as Chair of the ACC.
The aim of the conference, in the light of our belief that we had reached a kairos moment in time, was to ‘declare our faith and intent’ in terms of what it means to move forward together in sole loyalty to Jesus Christ the living head of the Church
In 1977 the Congregational Union of Australia, the Methodist Church of Australasia and the Presbyterian Church of Australia entered into union by declaring “their readiness to go forward together in sole loyalty to Christ the living Head of the Church” (Basis of Union paragraph 1).
The aim of Union was to ‘go forward’ together, not backwards.
Sadly, on the 13th July 2018 (Black Friday) the Fifteenth Assembly of the UCA brazenly made the drastic decision to redefine the Church’s biblical and historic understanding of marriage to include same-sex marriage under the guise of ‘religious and ethical diversity’ (R64). This despite the warning by past President of the Uniting Church, Reverend Professor James Haire, that “there is no overwhelming ecumenical, biblical or theological case in support’ of such proposals, and that ‘in this matter of same-gender marriage the UCA through its Assembly seems not to be empowered nor able to institute same-gender marriage ‘within the faith and unity of the one holy catholic and apostolic church’ (Constitution, Paragraph 2).
Rev. Dr. Max Champion, founding Chair of the ACC, had already made clear, that ‘by flouting Christ’s affirmation of marriage and its significance as the ‘central’ and ‘unique’ symbol of Christ’s relationship to the Church, the UCA’s acceptance of same-gender marriage embeds this heresy into the Church’s understanding of Christology and ecclesiology in a way that has not been directly stated previously. Adopting same-gender marriage completely alters the Church’s doctrine of humankind, grounded in the creation of male and female, united in one flesh as husband and wife, and signifying the union of Christ and the church, to a neo-pagan, nihilistic and Gnostic doctrine that views persons as self-choosing agents of desire’.
The UCA Assembly would like to us to believe that all the 15th Assembly did was simply add a second definition of marriage without changing our traditional biblical understanding of marriage, and that both definitions of marriage are ‘equal’ and ‘distinct’. The so called ‘two integrities’ model.
However, let us be very honest and clear: Two integrities is an illusion, i.e. a lie.
Both doctrines on marriage are mutually exclusive. Noting that Same-gender marriage is nowhere to be found in Scripture. It is also nowhere to be found in the UCA’s Basis of Union. Paragraph 10 of the Basis of Union only speaks of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
The 15th Assembly’s decision known as Resolution 64 (R64) is a departure from the ‘faith and unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church’ to which the Basis of Union (BoU) commits us.
We believe that by adopting a “diversity of religious beliefs and ethical understandings”
as defined in R64, the 15th Assembly has significantly altered the doctrine and the nature
of the Church from being a specifically and explicitly Christian One, to a ‘multi-faith
religion’.
R64 itself is the source of division and schism within the UCA, not the ACC and its ministers.
We humbly ask, that the National Assembly and the various Synods and presbyteries desist from the intimidation, bullying and vilification of our people, Ministers and Congregations who reject R64 and adhere to the historic one catholic and apostolic faith; nor try to closedown any more of our congregations unjustly and unfairly simply because of the position that we have taken.
The adoption of R64 has harmed ‘the eucharistic fellowship of the Church as the Body of Christ’. We are no longer a church in communion.
Redefining marriage has redefined the gospel and therefore redefined the mission of the Church. Hence why some congregations can no longer financially support any missional efforts of any council of the Church that accepts R64.
Some congregations can no longer allow anyone, including minister, pastor or layperson who accepts R64 to preach in their congregation(s) because of the significant difference in gospels that we now believe in.
It is clear that R64 with its so called ‘two integrities’ has created an ‘unworkable’ and an ‘untenable’ situation, and that the only way forward, therefore, is ‘amicable separation’.
This is necessary in order to release both the progressive stream and the conservative evangelical stream to live out peacefully each other’s respective faith in genuine freedom and without compromising their fundamental beliefs’.
The UCA needs to be honest and declare that we have two distinct and separate churches within the UCA.
To act justly and with compassion and love is to separate the two warring churches.
A model may be the one adopted by the United Methodist Church in America titled ‘Reconciliation and grace through separation’. https://www.gracethroughseparation.com/the-agreement
I pray for humility and grace to enable both streams to separate justly in order for each to live out their faith with true integrity and freedom.
Once again, Hedley Fihaki launches an assault on the church which has accepted him and nurtured him for years. I say ‘once again’ because this is his only topic of conversation. Given the gospel of Jesus Christ says zero about same-sex and much about how we treat the marginalised, why is that his sermons Sunday by Sunday [in my opinion] contain nothing of the good news to the poor but solely consist of accusing his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ of heresy and apostasy. Somewhat hilariously he points out that his church – the UCA – was explicitly born out of a desire to move forward and yet his sole energies are devoted to going backwards. The ACC, with him as their figurehead, constantly complain that they are bullied and yet have created their own charter in order to bully the vast majority of UCA members into doing what they want. I say, “Be gone and leave us alone.”
Editor’s note, Edited to make it clear this is an expression of opinion
Romans 1: 18-30. Do you not fear God?
Is your ‘progressive’ attitude to gay sex bringing those lost people to salvation in Christ?
ED, Note: Cathy, feel free to be critical of another comment but please lets be sure to direct the comment towards an idea or a theology, not a person