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Building One Another Up in Love
Life-giving Communities of Faith and Discipleship

Feedback on Direction 2: Align with the vision of Congregations in the Basis of Union

While this Direction gained a generally positive response it also spoke to the ongoing ambiguity and confusion that exists about local expressions of our life. Some people really appreciated the focus on the attributes of the Congregation found in the Basis of Union and felt it could free us from what we have tended to think constitutes a Congregation.²⁵ As one group put it, “Significantly it does not say much about many of the normative assumptions we have about what a Congregation looks like.” Some Presbytery leaders felt these attributes could help Congregations think differently about their responsibilities alongside an ongoing focus on the threefold description of ‘worship, witness and service’ contained in Paragraph 15(a) of the Basis of Union.

People had questions about how the Basis of Union describes Congregations in specific terms. Some pointed to the ‘in one place’ and questioned whether this would exclude online communities. Considering decline, others questioned whether the ‘congregation’ model had failed. Yet others pointed to new communities and experimentation with different forms of church that would meet the definition of Congregation as described in the Basis of Union. Some were concerned that embracing all manner of expressions of the Church as ‘Congregations’ will further exacerbate the pressure in areas of compliance and administration.

Despite some confusion about this Direction, we heard practical stories about how our current arrangements are impeding our life. The use of Faith Community Regulations (Reg. 3.9.2) has had a series of unintended consequences; Church members in Faith Communities being ineligible to serve on wider Church bodies, impediments to conducting baptisms, restrictions on accessing and managing bank accounts and ambiguity over whether Church Councils could oversee Faith Communities.

People recognised there are local expressions of the Church which did not meet the definition of Congregation as described in the Basis of Union. The work of agencies, schools, bush chaplains and other expressions do not readily meet this definition. Some sought to encourage an expansion of the definition of ‘Congregation’, particularly in the context of health and community service agencies.²⁶

“We need to get back to the core of what it means to be a Congregation. Many of the regulations exist to order the life of the Congregations as they were at foundation, but this is not who and what we are now. If we’re talking about re-aligning with the Basis of Union, the feeling was generally positive. This does not mean there was support for maintaining a status quo.”

Synod Response Form

“There was strong agreement in our Council that the vision of Congregations as described in the Basis of Union is powerful and compelling. It is important, however, that communities of faith receive adequate support to align with the Vision, not merely be expected to achieve this.”

Church Council Response Form

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