Assembly recognises continuing witness

The 17th Assembly has agreed to recognise three ecumenical documents as “continuing witness” to the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. 

The Belhar Confession, The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and Laudato si’ have been recognised as part of a new category of statements or confessions of faith from other churches which we might receive and learn from. 

A Task Group will be appointed to explore recognising further Continuing Witness documents, with hopes for the ongoing work to consider documents in different forms and from new parts of the world.

The term “continuing witness” comes from paragraph 11 of the Basis of Union, and this decision reflects the commitment of the Uniting Church to “sharpen its understanding of the will and purpose of God”.

Presenting the report and the proposals to the meeting, Convenor of the Continuing Witness Task Group Rev Rachel Kronberger said each of these documents spoke to how fresh insights emerge within Christian churches at times of conflict and in changing context.

“The task group believes that in studying and praying with these documents we would find in them words with which to express our faith, or be inspired by them to find new words of our own.” 

“The Confession of Belhar emerged in South Africa in the 1980s, and speaks of our common humanity in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” 

Study of the document could “push us to a deeper integrity, in areas like living out the covenant and being an intercultural church.”

“The Joint Declaration is a product of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue and seeks to find peace after 500 years of conflict. The history of this work, as well as its outcomes, could challenge our expectations about the way we deal with division, including within the Uniting Church.”

“Laudato Si is an encyclical of Pope Francis from 2015 using the Christian faith as a foundation for addressing climate change and could help us discover a renewed theological vocabulary for this urgent work.”

In responding to questions from the meeting, Rachel explained the documents were an opportunity for us to learn more about our own faith as we engage with them.

“We might read them and say, ‘well that’s not how I would say that, that’s not how I would express my faith, that’s not my experience of the church, of God, of Christ. So then, what do I think? What do I believe? What is my experience?”

“Our dialogue with these documents provokes us to find our own words. The idea of these documents is that they would be alive among us. We are not endorsing or subscribing to them, but listening to them and entering into a conversation with them.” 

Rachel acknowledged that many ecumenical documents such as these three are accessible to us because they are the product of well-resourced institutional churches. It is hoped the work going forward, new continuing witness will come in different forms and from less well-resourced settings. Specifically, the Task Group will have a special focus on the variety of forms of witness from Asia and the Pacific. 

This work began when the 15th Assembly appointed a task group to select potential documents for consideration. The three documents were presented to the 16th Assembly with the recommendation they be offered to presbyteries for study, reflection and feedback. With the support of the Assembly Standing Committee, they were brought to the meeting. 

Seconding the proposal and responding to questions from the floor, Rev Dr Geoff Thompson identified the distinction between the continuing witness documents and the statements that the Uniting Church adopts to direct, prescribe and define its own life. Specifically, the continuing witness documents “serve to teach us in ways that mean we can learn from them”.

“They come to us from outside (the church) and we decide to give them a particular purpose, to ‘sharpen our witness’.”

“We can receive them as gifts from which we can learn.”