planet telex

After watching Compass last night and their piece on the Uniting Church “a Church Divided” I was pretty miffed, it was lacking oh so much that they could have explored but chose not to in order to fulfill the initial premise, that our church, the Uniting Church is divided. After I calmed down a little I felt the need to respond to some points which I felt made the piece almost a complete waste of space, the following is my letter to Compass + an addition after an email conversation with a friend…

I’m writing to you in regards to the episode screened on November 11 2007 on the Uniting Church and it’s dis-unity as I feel there were a number of issues with the piece that I believe your show could pick up on future pieces, or keep in mind when doing articles on other churches or religious communities.

My first issue is that the piece seemed to have started with the premise that diverse = disunity and unity = conformity and went ahead to prove that premise true in it’s interviews and reporting. It is true that the Uniting Church is a denomination/movement that calls for the continuing process of uniting, the “ing” being the key part of it’s identity, that it never has really been united, but is always in the process of uniting. It is also true that it is a church that has in it a wide variety of theologies, views, people, ages, races, beliefs and ways in which that is lived out in and outside the worshipping community, this has always been the case, and continues to be the case with communities coming from a variety of cultures, but this is something that we as a whole have always celebrated as a part of our life. A family (we do call ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ) for example doesn’t normally choose it’s members, my biological brother and sister and I are very different, yet we’re still in the same family, our unity is in the fact that we continually struggle to be family, much like the UCA and it’s continual struggle to be that church that exhibits the characteristics of Christ in it’s ability to love and accept one’s neighbours not in spite of our differences, but because of it. I would have loved the piece to have asked the question of “what is the Uniting Church, and how have they lived out the Basis of Union over the last 30 years” or “what is the Uniting Church and how difficult/easy has it been for it to hold the Uniting as a part of it’s vocation and call” but instead we received a piece that assumed too much.

My second issue is that, in writing a piece on a national church/movement your article did not seem to venture outside of NSW/ACT (apart from old footage from the Assembly in Melbourne) and focussed it’s attention on only a couple of churches and images. Max Champion does live and worship in Victoria, however I don’t recall much footage of his faith community. To pick St James as one of the churches to use in the piece is to pick a church, which is at one extreme of the Uniting Church’s community, in fact I do not know many other churches similar to it in faith, community or style (and I’ve lived and been employed by the UCA in NSW, SA and the ACT). Similarly by basically comparing Rev Rex Hunt to that of the Reforming Alliance or Max Champion is choosing to listen to only two extremes of the church’s theological understandings, and as a result you’ve produced a piece on the National Church that has only chosen to represent a small percentage of it’s community. One of the major misunderstandings of many people is that there are only two points of understanding within the church, for example those strongly against homosexuality in leadership and those strongly for, the reality however is much messier and includes a massive percentage of it’s community that is still struggling with it and are not necessarily sitting in the middle, but instead are choosing to live in the mess together. To paint a picture of a national community in the way you did is like choosing to use the map of the board game Risk to teach 3rd year geography at university, it just doesn’t give you the full picture.

Thirdly I am concerned that in painting a picture of a national movement the piece did not talk with anyone from the National Assembly, no past or present Presidents were interviewed, nor were any past or present Moderators from any state, the clip from both our past General Secretaries were from old footage cut and pasted into the piece. Nor did your piece include the voices of any of our female leaders within the Uniting Church, there could have been a space for gaining a different point of reference, or another colour to the palate but you chose to primarily concentrate on the voices of males. Nor did your piece decide to interview any younger members of the Uniting Church, as a Children’s, Youth and Young Adults Worker within it I find it hard to believe that you couldn’t have used some younger voices to put alongside those of the older voices. Only a couple of weeks ago Compass replayed a piece that explored some aspects of the Café Church in Glebe, a Uniting Church community of mainly young adults and artists, yet you didn’t even try and reconnect with them, or any of our University groups full of young adults, or any other church community both rural and urban with a number of young people and families in it’s midst, at our last Synod there were a large number of members under 30 surely it wouldn’t have been hard to find young people to interview.

Fourthly I found that in painting a portrait of a Church/movement that has reached it’s 30th year anniversary the piece primarily focussed on our gathered worshipping communities with a small reference to our community, social and political connections, vision, action and communities. Sure, in a small piece it’d be hard to do much more, but I find it lacking to paint a picture of a national movement without dedicating that time to it is overlooking a large part of our life and faith, and without referencing the church’s first statement to the nation which affirmed these things:

1. We will challenge values which emphasise acquisitiveness and greed in disregard of the needs of others
2. We affirm that the first allegiance of Christians is God, under whose judgment the policies and actions of all nations must pass. We realise that this allegiance may bring us into conflict with the rulers of our day.
3. We are concerned with the basic human rights of future generations and will urge the wise use of energy, the protection of the environment and the replenishment of the earth’s resources for their use and enjoyment.
4. We affirm our eagerness to uphold basic Christian values and principles such as the importance of every human being.
5. We affirm … the need for integrity in public life, the proclamation of truth and justice.
6. We pledge ourselves to hope and work for a nation whose goals are not guided by self interest alone

My final point is from a conversation I had with a colleague this afternoon, one point that the program completely missed is that the UCA is not a Confessional Church. While the Confessions of its predecessors are acknowledged and honoured, and likewise the creeds of the past, the UCA is not tied to them as binding definitions of the Christian faith and its practice. The UCA is a contextual Church. Hence its Statement to the Nation (in 1977 and the follow-up some years later. Hence, its Basis of Union, which is not a definitive doctrinal nor a creedal / confessional document, but a narrative of a journey so far, expressed with due regard for the doctrinal diversity of the three churches about to enter union, as well as with sufficient openness to embrace its particular context (Australia) in a liberal inclusivity. In this, see Manifesto for Renewal by Andrew Dutney. This is also why from time to time a document on the State of the Union ought to e considered, updating and projecting the journeys travelled.

So Philip Hughes’ comments about this matter were crucial to the program, even though the interviewer failed to grasp their significance and follow-up on exploring that core characteristic more deeply. Seen in this Light, Max C’s comments hark back to the 19th / 20C reformed Christian confessions and traditions. And Rex Hunt’s comments and practices seek to initiate a dialogue between the ancient and the post modern.

As someone who continues to minister with, worship with, lead alongside, hope and prays with the Uniting Church in Australia, and is employed by them to work alongside communities and young people to build a better world and to help people on their faith/spiritual walk…

As someone who has also grown up within the UCA’s midst with a father (who is now a Reverend) who is a part of the Evangelical Members Union and RCC and shares different theological understandings than myself, yet continues to worship, minister, pray and hope with him within the UCA…

As someone who is now 32, but have grown up with in the UCA as young person, youth, young adult and found it a remarkable community to belong to…

As someone who works with young people, families and young adults within different communities and towns and connects with lots of young people within the church…

As someone who has worshiped in a large number of UCA communities in South Australia, Canberra, NSW and Victoria and participated a number of communities developing new models and visions of the Church and have seen a larger picture of the church…

And as someone who continues to believe in the call and vocation of the Uniting church in Australia I found the piece lacking in a number of ways, and although some are celebrating the way in which it showed dis-unity I would like to continue celebrating the life and call of the UCA to be a community of people who continue to struggle to love one another, who are always on the path of Uniting people together in God’s love.

If you’re wanting names of people to follow up on giving you a variety of pictures of the UCA I’d be more than happy to send you a list of communities and people to connect with from all over Australia and from a variety of perspectives and ages…

Thankyou for reading this,