Ecumenism

In the spirit of uniting, the Uniting Church is committed to dialogue and cooperation with other churches, and to participation in state and national ecumenical bodies and international bodies such as the World Council of Churches. It is willing to explore the implications of being in a community with people of many faiths, and what this means for the way it expresses and shares its faith.

The Uniting Church believes that the will of Christ is for the church to be one. The use of the word "Uniting" rather than "United" in its name declares its openness to further union or united activity within the whole Christian church.

The Uniting Church in Australia is not the end of a process but one step in a continuing process of uniting. The Uniting Church is committed "to enter more deeply into the faith and mission of the Church in Australia, by working together and seeking union with other Churches". Negotiations about official relationships with other churches are the responsibility of the national Assembly which assist the church to pursue at all levels of its life the practical implications of the commitment to union.

Links with other churches in Australia and abroad are maintained through a network of ecumenical bodies including state ecumenical bodies, local interchurch councils and ministers' fraternals, the National Council of Churches in Australia and the World Council of Churches. The Uniting Church in Australia is actively involved in the Christian Conference of Asia and with churches in the Pacific Conference of Churches.

There are also other "united" churches around the world with which the Uniting Church relates and "world confessional families" to which it belongs, including the World Methodist Council and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

The Uniting Church has special relationships with churches with which it has historic ties. Churches in Korea, Taiwan, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga are examples. The three uniting denominations had links with these and other countries. It sees these as "special relationships with churches in Asia and the Pacific" because of its regional context and because history and geography provide particular obligations.

The Uniting Church is not a sect, sufficient unto itself, content in its grasp of the gospel and enjoying its own Anglo-Saxon-Celtic identity. It is part of the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church". This phrase is from the Nicene Creed (4th century) and has been a guide, ever since, to the church's thinking about itself.

The name "Uniting" points church members toward fellow Christians in Australia and throughout the world. Congregations are encouraged to get to know members of other denominations and to pray for them. Even if they have no interchurch council or other such fellowship church members are encouraged to seek ways of witnessing to Christ together.

The major ecumenical decisions of the Uniting Church include a 1979 statement by the Doctrine Commission repudiating any kind of second baptism; the 1986 deletion of the words "and the son" from the Nicene Creed; the publication in 1988 of Uniting in Worship; the inauguration of the diaconate in 1991; the 1994 revocation of the method of "one ordination and two accreditations" for the ministry of deacon and minister of the word; and its continuing bilateral national dialogues with other denominations.

The Uniting Church is Uniting rather than United. It does not want to rest in the contemplation of its own identity; it is catalytic; its function is to encourage other churches to join with it in the mission to which God in Christ has called God's people.