This reflection is part of a series offered by the Assembly's Growing in Faith Circle to continue reflection and engagement on the Uniting Church's founding document, the Basis of Union, 50 years after it was first published.

The series was inspired by and is a response to "The Basis of Union at 50 - It's Present and Future" - an online conference hosted late in 2021 by Pilgrim Theological College, which brought together more than 70 people nationally across the Church. 

The intention in sharing these reflections is to continue and expand the conversation. These responses are looking for threads, themes, questions and possibilities weaving between, hiding amidst, and hoping across several of the initial reflections offered at the Conference.

Reflection 3: Rev Stu Cameron, CEO and Superintendent Minister, Wesley Mission, Sydney, and formerly Lead Pastor, Newlife Church, Gold Coast. 

Stu lives on the land of Darramuragal people of the Eora nation.

How does the Basis enable and/or limit the UCA’s capacity to develop forms of church, ministry and mission which engage the contemporary context?

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In February 2020 I recorded a video celebrating the impending launch, planned for two months later, of Newlife Church’s fourth church plant – Newlife Coolangatta. After almost a century of faithful service, Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Uniting Church had just that month closed, its last decision to invite Newlife to begin a new work in their facilities. From 20 km up the road, Newlife Robina sent 50 or so people – from kids through to retirees – to join those 20 or so remnant members of the now defunct congregation in forming a core team to pioneer a new expression of church, just a block back from the rolling surf.

The pandemic meant that Newlife-Coolangatta never celebrated an official opening, but, by God’s grace, that didn’t stop its progress. Today a thriving, multi-generational, multicultural contemporary Uniting Church congregation is actively engaged in serving its community and bearing witness to the gospel. It has grown to the point where two morning services are required to fit those who attend. At Easter, they baptised new members in the surf. A congregation that could no longer keep its doors open courageously chose to die to create space for something new to be given birth. And none of this, or indeed none of the other three churches pioneered by Newlife, would have happened without the catalysing support of a visionary Presbytery, and in particular, a succession of three visionary Presbytery Ministers.

The Basis of Union states that presbyteries will “in particular exercise oversight over the congregations within its bounds, encouraging them to strengthen one another’s faith, to bear one another’s burdens, and exhorting them to fulfill their high calling in Christ Jesus” (para 15c). As the “embodiment in one place of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, worshipping, witnessing and serving as a fellowship of the Spirit in Christ” (para 15a), Newlife Coolangatta is a community where people previously outside the church are responding in faith to God in Christ (para 3), thereby fulfilling its high calling in Christ Jesus.

Critical to pioneering Newlife Coolangatta, Newlife Brisbane, Village Church Burleigh and Uniting North were three different Presbytery Ministers whose vision was to see the church grow and flourish as it risked the way of Jesus. Each of them identified and embraced the unique charism that Newlife had and has, seeking to bring that gift to bear in growing the broader mission of the church. Those three Presbytery Ministers assisted our Church Council and me in navigating our way through the complexities of regulations which, in many ways, do not anticipate, let alone encourage pioneering ministry. There’s was very much a permission-giving, rather than permission-withholding style of leadership. And through their leadership, that was the posture of our presbytery. Was it always neat? Hardly ever. Were there challenges, disappointments and frustrations – both for us and the Presbytery? Yes. But none of this was enough to weaken the resolve of our Presbytery Ministers, nor that of our Presbytery to support Newlife in our unique calling.

Of particular importance to Newlife’s church planting work was the willingness of our three Presbytery Ministers to have an expansive and flexible hermeneutic when it came to regulations and their interpretation. Too often, it seems to me, the regulations interpreted and applied too narrowly kill rather than catalyse contemporary mission. The Basis is a wonderfully expansive, visionary document that we have too easily straight-jacketed with law that we do not sufficiently keep “under constant review so that (the church’s life) may increasingly be directed to the service of God” (para 17).

More than clearing the regulatory weeds and paving the way, the Presbytery provided substantial financial support that enabled these new works to be well-resourced and thrive from their first day. I often speak with leaders pioneering new expressions of church in other denominational settings. They are astonished at the opportunities we have in the Uniting Church, and the resources that were made available to Newlife through our Presbytery. All this is to say that the vision of the Basis of Union for faithful and thriving congregational mission, supported and oversighted by mission-driven Presbyteries is not only possible, I have experienced it.

One final, somewhat provocative comment, if I may. In writing this reflection I have wondered how things may have been different in the 15 years I served Newlife if we were not blessed with visionary, permission-giving Presbytery Ministers – leaders who, and I mean this very positively, in many ways served and operated like bishops without consecration. Their leadership was crucial in taking the wider presbytery on the journey with us. It does leads me to wonder how things may have been different for the Uniting Church had we chosen to embrace an episcopal form of government.

Rev Stu Cameron, CEO and Superintendent Minister, Wesley Mission, Sydney, and formerly Lead Pastor, Newlife Church, Gold Coast.
Stu lives on the land of Darramuragal people of the Eora nation.