Basis of Union:

Intensive Course Two:

Vicki Diprose:

Your commentary on one of the following extracts from the Basis of Union:-
“… On the way Christ feeds the Church with word and Sacraments, and it has the gift of the spirit in order that it may not lose the way.” [para 3] (Our sentence)
To take this sentence and look at it as an isolated statement would, it seems, be the same as buying a new electrical appliance, opening the instruction book, to find the first sentence tells you to plug it in at the wall, then nothing...
The rest of the manual is blank. The manual is of little use because it doesn’t tell you what comes next? To isolate the above sentence from the Basis of Union (Basis) and try to understand it would be the same as having a blank manual. The Basis is a living working document that could be likened to a manual for living, each sentence and paragraph gives us instructions on how to live our lives in the same way a manual helps us learn how to use a new appliance.
Our sentence could be said to be the foundation of the Basis, the one thing that keeps the Basis alive and breathing, because without feeding and the gift of the Spirit nothing can maintain life. Without direction, whether it is by using a compass or map, nothing can stay on track without losing the way. Therefore, to stay nourished and on track we need to go further into the Basis to understand why this sentence is our foundation.
Paragraph One of the Basis is telling us to 1 “seek(ing) to bear witness to that unity”, and to 2 “look for a continuing renewal in which God will use their common worship, witness and service to set forth the word of salvation for all people. To this end they declare their readiness to go forward together in sole loyalty to Christ the living Head of the Church; they remain open to constant reform under his Word:” We are guided to continue to grow without looking for a defined outcome, not to see the Basis as something for us to use to reach a goal, the journey is continuous- we will not determine the ending. Along the way we bear witness to unity, to look for constant renewal rather than looking back trying to ‘fix’ or recover from what has already/is happening. To go forward we need to be fed and guided to maintain our strength and keep us on our course (our sentence) of constant renewal and witnessing rather than seeking.

Paragraph Two reminds us that as 3 ”Christians in Australia are called to bear witness to a unity of faith and life in Christ which transcends cultural and economic, national and racial boundaries,” We are to continue to reach out to all people, to live with and witness together. The uniting of the three original churches was not seen as the only unity, it was the starting point for our journey of uniting of all God’s people. Here we need the Spirit to be our compass and the Word and Sacrament to feed us.

4”God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation. The Church's call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself. The Church lives between the time of Christ's death and resurrection and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring; the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal; here the Church does not have a continuing city but seeks one to come. On the way Christ feeds the Church with Word and Sacraments, and it has the gift of the Spirit in order that it may not lose the way. This extract comes at the end of paragraph three and brings us to our foundation sentence, (under lined). The basis does not go into what the church should be, but rather how we respond to the Word of Christ. We are being asked to recognise the gifts of all members and to work as pilgrim people journeying in the grace of God. As with any journey it is essential to be fed and have a compass to ensure we are on track, sustained and strong in our reconciliation with all members allowing us to be the hands of Christ.
For the Church to survive the constant changes that the years bring, paragraph four reminds us that the only way for survival is to keep Christ as our Head. 5 The Uniting Church acknowledges that the Church is able to live and endure through the changes of history only because its Lord comes, addresses, and deals with people in and through the news of his completed work. If we do not allow ourselves to be fed and guided by Christ we as a church will lose our ability to remain strong. Most importantly we also run the risk of not being the church because it’s only the church because Christ calls it into being. Without Christ as the head of the church, we might not be the church. By not putting Christ to the fore and preaching the scriptures, we will deviate from the mission that He has set for us. It would be like going to an Italian restaurant and ordering a Chinese meal. If we don’t keep Christ as the Head we will be fed and led by something that will weaken and distance us from God’s grace, good sustaining food and into an unsafe place.
Paragraph Five is guiding us to the right table in the right restaurant. 6 The Uniting Church lays upon its members the serious duty of reading the Scriptures, commits its ministers to preach from these and to administer the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper as effective signs of the Gospel set forth in the Scriptures. We are being led to where we will find what we need. The Scriptures are our authority as ministry agents to share the word of God.
Paragraphs Six, Seven and Eight explains what our needs are for our pilgrim journey together. In Paragraph Six it says 7 “The Uniting Church acknowledges that Christ has commanded his Church to proclaim the Gospel both in words and in the two visible acts of Baptism and the Lord's Supper”, and paragraph seven goes onto 8 The Uniting Church acknowledges that Christ incorporates people into his body by Baptism. In this way Christ enables them to participate in his own baptism, which was accomplished once on behalf of all in his death and burial, and which was made available to all when, risen and ascended, he poured out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Paragraph Eight 9 acknowledges that continuing presence of Christ with his people; we will not be deserted, left hungry or lost. Having laid our foundation we find in these three paragraphs where our food is, what it is we need, and where our direction comes from and that it is forever more.
As we continue our journey through the Basis we are reminded that it is a living document, for a church that is alive to the work of the Spirit, thus making it open to change and renewal. We are encouraged to seek out and recognise it is for all members of the body, all have gifts: to accept the Creeds as 10authoritative statements of the Catholic Faith… to declare and to guard the right understanding of that faith”. We are assured that we will not be left alone in Paragraph Eleven; 11 “God has never left the Church without faithful and scholarly interpreters of Scripture, or without those who have reflected deeply upon, and acted trustingly in obedience to, God's living Word.” And what this paragraph is telling is that because God always provides us with faithful and scholarly interpreters, the Basis lays out a commitment for the church to listen to scholarship (both old and new) and adjust its understandings on the basis of that scholarship. In other words it’s saying that if we discover that the earth is not flat – which is what they understood when the scriptures were written – we will adjust our understanding of scripture to reflect that new understanding.
As we continue reading the Basis we read in Paragraph Sixteen 12 “The Uniting Church recognises the responsibility and freedom which belong to councils to acknowledge gifts among members for the fulfilment of particular functions”.
Dutney suggests that this 13’deliberately leaves considerable room for the creation of new forms of ministry according to local or regional need”. Paragraph Seventeen commits the Uniting Church to 14keep its law under constant review” to 15“ensure that it facilitates and does not impede mission and evangelism”. Also, 16‘through the gift of the Spirit, God will constantly correct that which is erroneous in its life’ as written in Paragraph Eighteen. One of the characteristics that helps us know we are the church is that we are conscious of keeping the church open to reform in all areas of its life.

It is a difficult job to feed those that do not recognise their hunger, just like trying to get a Chinese meal in an Italian restaurant, and it’s even harder to give directions to somebody who believes they are not lost. However, using the Basis as our manual for living, with our sentence as our foundation we can lead by example by allowing ourselves to be fed by Christ and open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we journey to The Promised Land.

1 Basis of Union: Paragraph 1. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

2 Basis of Union: Paragraph 1. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

3 Basis of Union: Paragraph 2. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

4 Basis of Union: Paragraph 3. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

5 Basis of Union: Paragraph 4. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

6 Basis of Union: Paragraph 5. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

7 Basis of Union: Paragraph 6. Published by Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

8 Basis of Union: Paragraph 7. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

9 Basis of Union: Paragraph 8. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

10 Dutney, Andrew: Manifesto for Renewal, page 104. Published by The Joint Board of Christian Education 1986.

11 Basis of Union: Paragraph 11. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

12 Basis of Union: Paragraph 16. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

13 Dutney, Andrew: Where did the joy come from? page 28. Published Uniting Education, 2001.

14 Basis of Union: Paragraph 17. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

15 Dutney, Andrew: Where did the joy come from? page 28. Published Uniting Education, 2001.

16 Basis of Union: Paragraph 18. Published by MediaCom Education Inc 1992 Edition

Research/Readings:

Basis of Union, 1992 Edition,
Class handouts, (Extensive 2),
Bos, Rob & Thompson, Geoff (eds), 2008, Theology for Pilgrims: Selected Theological Documents of the Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church Press, Sydney
Dutney Andrew, Manifesto for Renewal, 1996, The Joint Board of Christian Education, and
Owen, Michael, Back to Basics, 1996, The Joint Board of Christian Education.