Covenanting Instruments

In 1994 the UCA entered into a formal binding Covenant with the UAICC. The words of the statements together with the painting form the ‘covenant instruments’.

1. Covenanting Statement
2. Covenanting Painting

Preamble

Preamble to the UCA Constitution, Assembly, 2009

“The Church celebrates this Covenantal relationship as a foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation.” These final words from paragraph three of the Basis of Union capture the why for the ten paragraphs that precede them in the Preamble to the UCA Constitution. The theology, particularly expressed in the first three paragraphs, is profound and warrants deep reflection and engagement. This theology beyond being about justice for First Nations Peoples and their cosmologies/theologies invites the breath of the culturally and linguistically diverse UCA into a profound conversation.

Uniting Church Studies – the New Preamble, June 2010

There is no doubt that the Preamble makes some bold claims, and raises significant theological issues that need further exploration in the life of the church. The essays in this volume touch on some of these issues, sometimes around the question of history and sometimes in terms of the theological conversation which shapes and influences the way we read that history and its place within the providence and life of God. They are offered as a serious exploration of some of the theological issues that confront the church as it decides how (if at all) this Preamble fits into its life.