On Being an Apostolic Church Endorsed by the ASC in July, 2010

1. The Basis of Union affirms, “The Uniting Church in Australia lives and works within the faith and unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” (BU par 2). It seeks to be an apostolic church by being true to the apostolic tradition and in relationship with other churches that are also seeking to do so. When the Uniting Church makes public statements it does so as a church that is endeavouring to be faithful to the way of Jesus Christ its Lord and Christian tradition in the context of contemporary Australia.

Belief, behaviour, relationships with other churches 2. Being an apostolic church involves beliefs, behaviour and connections with other parts of the Church. Right belief is important as it bears on the faithful way of discipleship and ecumenical relationships. Within the broad framework of orthodox conviction, the Uniting Church embraces diversity of theological expression. Elsewhere the Doctrine working group has pointed out that there are three kinds of theological statements with differing authority: dogma, doctrine and theological reflection.1 Some doctrinal beliefs are foundational and while they can be explored are not to be rejected. Other aspects of theology can tolerate very different positions or be issues that are still in the process of theological reflection and discussion.

3. There are nevertheless limits to diversity of belief within the Uniting Church once people make the basic confession “Jesus is Lord”, a confession that is guided by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). Christian faith holds that we know God through Jesus Christ and in the Spirit. We affirm that God is triune: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. People are baptised into the Christian faith and the one holy catholic and apostolic church using the standard Trinitarian formula. The ethos of the Uniting Church is to be inclusive of various Christian theological positions, accepting that there will not necessarily be agreement on contentious issues, while holding to Trinitarian faithfulness. The Doctrine working group has provided guidance in relation to how to deal with such issues.2

4. Liberation theologians in particular have pointed out that orthopraxis, right practice, is required. While the church is inevitably sinful for it is made up of sinful people in a sinful world, nevertheless the church is called to practice the way of Jesus. Assisted by the Holy Spirit, it is to endeavour to live by the way of love, justice and peace that Jesus exemplified and which characterise the reign of God Jesus proclaimed.

5. The Uniting Church is conscious that in being called to be an apostolic church it does so in relationship with other parts of the Church. It takes seriously its ecumenical relationships and partnerships knowing that the one holy catholic and apostolic church is greater than any particular church. It holds that the Uniting Church can both benefit from and contribute to the universal church as it gives contemporary expression to the apostolic tradition.

Founded on the apostles 6. Jürgen Moltmann makes the following point about being apostolic. The historical church must be called ‘apostolic’ in a double sense: its gospel and its doctrine are founded on the testimony of the first apostles, the eyewitnesses of the risen Christ, and it exists in the carrying out of the apostolic proclamation, the missionary charge. The expression ‘apostolic’ therefore denotes both the church’s foundation and its commission.3

7. As an apostolic church the Uniting Church acknowledges the foundational witness to Jesus Christ of the original apostles. They were the ones who experienced Jesus’ life and ministry first hand, who were devastated by the crucifixion, and witnessed him as risen. This was the criteria for selecting Matthias to replace Judas as one of the twelve (Acts 1: 21-22). Paul acknowledged his special place as an apostle. In writing to the church at Corinth he said that he handed on what he in turn had received concluding with these statements. “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain” (1 Corinthians 15: 8-10).

8. The Uniting Church holds the books of the Old and New Testaments “as unique prophetic and apostolic testimony, in which it hears the Word of God and by which its faith and obedience are nourished and regulated” (BU par 5). It says that when it preaches Jesus Christ, “its message is controlled by the Biblical witnesses” (BU par 5). The Uniting Church therefore as apostolic is not free to depart from the biblical witnesses to Jesus. They are the controlling basis for the church’s life and message.

9. Interpretation is required for different times and places but fidelity to the apostolic testimony is essential. With Moltmann we can point out that the church is to be faithful to the apostolic witness and needs to be in continuity with the original eyewitness of the risen Christ. This challenges the current liberal progressive Christian movement which has representatives who are weak on the resurrection, on the Trinity, and on appreciating the trustworthiness of the apostolic witnesses. In their desire to be modern or post modern they are in danger of undermining basic elements of the apostolic faith.

The missionary charge

10. As Moltmann states, being apostolic is more than being true to the original apostolic witnesses. It also involves the missionary charge to continue to witness to Jesus Christ by word and deed. The very word apostle implies ‘being sent’. It suggests being a commissioned messenger or ambassador of Christ. Paul captures this meaning in introducing himself to the church at Rome, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). Those who were apostles did not choose to be so, rather Jesus called and they responded. They were set apart for the gospel to serve Jesus Christ their Lord and were enabled to do so by the Holy Spirit.

11. As apostolic the Uniting Church does not exist for its own sake. It did not come into being as a purely human decision. The Basis of Union speaks of doing so “seeking to bear witness to that unity which is both Christ’s gift and will for the Church”, praying that it may be “to the glory of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” and declaring readiness to go “forward together in sole loyalty to Christ the living Head of the Church” (BU par1). It also says that it commits its members “to hear anew the commission of the Risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, and daily to seek to obey his will” (BU par 1). Geoffrey Wainwright says, “The apostolicity of the Church is ultimately grounded in God’s mission to the world.”4

12. The Uniting Church affirms that “the faith and unity of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic church are built upon the one Lord Jesus Christ” (BU par 3). The church is to proclaim the risen crucified Christ and confess him as Lord. The Basis of Union says that God in Christ has given the Holy Spirit to all people in the church as a pledge and foretaste of “that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation” (BU par 3). The church’s call is to serve that end. In its own life it is to be “a fellowship of reconciliation” in which the diverse gifts of its members are used to build up the whole, and it is to be “an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself” (BU par3).

13. So the church also needs to be apostolic in the sense of being a ‘sent’ church called to proclaim and live by Jesus’ message of the reign of God, God’s rule of love, justice, peace and reconciliation. It needs to be outward looking and not just inward looking. It is called to serve the mission of God. The conservatives in the church sometimes can be so concerned about upholding the tradition that they become focused on preserving the recent past rather than giving expression to the apostolic tradition. Energy is expended on this to the detriment of serving God’s mission and apostolic commission.

Marks of the church 14. In speaking of the church being apostolic, it is important to see this as one of the primary marks of the church used in the Nicene Creed. So we need to see the four marks in relation to each other. The church is “one, holy, catholic and apostolic.” Karl Barth makes the point that the fourth mark, the apostolic mark, “does not simply stand in a row with the other three expressions, but explains them.”5 Being based on the apostolic witness is what distinguishes the church from all other societies of a natural or historical kind.

15. In Missional Church edited by Darrell Guder, it is argued that the marks of the church are better put in the reverse order: apostolic – the church as proclaiming community, catholic – the church as the reconciling and reconciled community, holy – the church as the sanctifying community, and unity – the church as the unifying community.6

16. In relation to the classic marks of the church it is helpful to follow the reverse order proposed in Missional Church. Putting the ‘apostolic’ mark first results in having the foundation and commission as basic. The other marks then follow from this foundational one. The church is based on the apostolic testimony and is called to continue it by proclaiming Christ and witnessing to him. It does so as the catholic, holy and one church, namely the church which is meant to be universal, set apart and unified.

17. Note that Missional Church turns the adjectives into verbs: proclaiming, reconciling, sanctifying and unifying. That may be a Protestant bias towards ‘doing’ over ‘being’. The classic marks are descriptions of what the church is called to be. It is not helpful to set being over against doing or vice versa as both are important. The indicative calls for the imperative. What the church ‘is’ also is a call to become more fully that reality. Nevertheless, there is value in recognising the ‘apostolic’ mark as first and the others following from it. If the church is not apostolic then it cannot really be catholic, holy and one in any valid sense. It has to be faithful to the apostolic testimony and be conscious of being a sent community that is to be universal in scope, catholic in spirit, set apart to be holy, and unified in purpose and in its life.

18. Also the marks necessarily go together. You cannot have one without the others. Being an apostolic church requires seeking to be one, holy and catholic, to be a reconciling, sanctifying and unifying church proclaiming Christ. Failing to do so, results in departing from these historic and basic marks of the church. Furthermore we need to recognise that as the church of Jesus Christ, it is Christ through his Spirit who makes us holy, unified and would have us be universal.

19. It is worth noting as well that the classic Protestant marks of the church are that “the gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel” (Augsburg Confession). These two marks are connected to the apostolic mark in the sense that they seek to ensure that the church is true to the gospel, true to the apostolic witness to Jesus evidenced in the proclaimed word and the visible word (Augustine) of the sacraments. Luther spoke of other marks as well including ecclesiastical discipline, prayer and cross bearing. Lutherans held that these other marks stemmed from the first two which were sufficient. The Scots Confession of Faith (1560) did include as a third mark ecclesiastical discipline saying, “and lastly, ecclesiastical discipline uprightly administered, as God’s Word prescribes, whereby vice is repressed and virtue nourished”. Hendrikus Berkhof says that outreach into the world is one of the indisputable marks of the church in a post Christendom context.7 The word ‘mission’ is preferable to ‘outreach’ but the point is well taken. Mission should characterise the church and is bound up with being apostolic. In the second report of the Joint Commission on Church Union the authors say, “It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the Church exists to fulfil a mission.”8 Moltmann says that participation in the apostolic mission of Christ leads inescapably into “tribulation, contradiction and suffering.” The church witnesses to the glory of the risen Christ in its fellowship with those who suffer. The true apostolic church is “the church under the cross.”9

Orthodoxy 20. Being an apostolic church means affirming that the church is true to orthodox beliefs and has not been led astray into heterodox or heretical ideas regarding the faith. It involves conviction concerning the foundational truths of the Christian faith.

21. The root meaning of orthodoxy is belief in, or commitment to, the central truths of the faith. In the New Testament there are brief confessional statements such as ‘Jesus is Messiah’ (Mark 8:29, John 11:27), ‘Jesus is Lord’ (Romans 10:9, Philippians 2:11) or ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ (Matthew 14:33, Acts 9:20). There is also often expressed in the later writings of the New Testament a concern for sound doctrine and right belief (1 Timothy 6:3-4, 2 Timothy 1:13-14).

22. The brief formulae, which were used in baptisms, became longer and more detailed statements of Christian belief drawing a boundary between orthodoxy and heterodoxy or heresy. So in the early church we had the development of creeds such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. Also significant for upholding orthodoxy was the defining of the canon of scripture and the development of bishops as conveyers of the Christian tradition which later developed into the idea of the apostolic succession.

23. With the Reformation’s emphasis on faithfulness to the witness of the original apostles came a further series of confessional statements as churches felt the need to declare their beliefs, partly as a claim to being orthodox and partly as a way of defining their boundaries. Reformation confessions such as the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles (1563-71), the Scots Confession (1560) and the Westminster Confession (1647) define the churches which adopted them over against Rome and the medieval church. They do not intend to be propounding new doctrine but claim to be true to God’s holy Word.

24. The Basis of Union of the Uniting Church mentions the Scots Confession of Faith (1560), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) and the Savoy Declaration (1658). In broader terms the Basis of Union speaks of listening to the preaching of John Wesley in his Forty-Four Sermons (1793). It commits its ministers and instructors “to study these statements, so that the congregation of Christ’s people may again and again be reminded of the grace which justifies them through faith, of the centrality of the person and work of Christ the justifier, and of the need for a constant appeal to Holy Scripture” (BU par 10).

25. The most notable confessional statement in the 20th century was the Barmen Declaration (1934) in which the German Confessing Church declared the truths of the gospel over against the claims of Nazism. Thesis 1 declared: “Jesus Christ, as he is being attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death. We reject the false doctrine that the church could and should acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, beyond and besides this one Word of God, yet other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.”

26. There have been various dialogues between different churches which understand themselves to be apostolic but have perceived doctrinal differences. Very significant was the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” produced by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church in 1999 and endorsed by the World Methodist Council in 2006. This declaration stated what justification meant not just for some sections of the church but sought to express its true meaning that all could endorse as orthodox. It overcame a major point of contention at the time of the Reformation.

27. The word ‘orthodoxy’ not only carries the meaning of ‘right belief’ but also can mean ‘right worship’. The Athanasian Creed of the fifth century affirms that, “We worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity”. Orthodoxy is not only a matter of intellectual assent to certain beliefs. It involves the right intent of giving glory to God as revealed through Jesus Christ and in the Spirit in worship and life.

28. Liberation theology in particular has expressed the need for ‘orthopraxis’ and not only orthodoxy. This is a recovery of the early church concern for word and deed to go together. To follow Jesus as Lord is a way of life and belief which are interrelated. Catherine Mowry LaCugna says, “Christian orthopraxis must correspond to what we believe to be true about God: that God is personal, that God is ecstatic and fecund love, that God’s very nature is to exist toward and for another.”10 Orthodoxy then is not only a matter of ‘assent to’ but seeking to live according to the Spirit of Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Saviour in the fellowship of the church. It involves proclaiming Jesus and seeking God’s reign of love, justice, peace and reconciliation. In the Uniting Church the establishment of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress and work for reconciliation has been of great significance given Australia’s history.

29. As indicated earlier, the Uniting Church accepts diversity of theological expression but within the framework of orthodox belief. There are limits to how diverse people’s beliefs can be and still remain authentically Christian. Acceptable belief can be likened to a sports field. People can be in different positions on the field yet still be in the game and on the same team. There are, however, boundaries and some people do cross these. The New Testament was well aware of this danger as was the early church. We may decry the way some people were treated in the past because of their heretical beliefs. Earlier periods did take faith seriously and did not regard it as a matter of personal preference what one believed. Truth and salvation were at stake. Being true to the apostolic witness was not an optional extra to faith; it was fundamental if one was to remain true to both the content of the faith and to the community of faith.

30. The Uniting Church was the result of a coming together of three former churches not just out of practical considerations but with a fresh confession of the faith of the church, the Basis of Union. It was that statement which was the primary focus for the coming union. It continues to be a significant statement that guides the life of the Uniting Church. In the final paragraph it says the Uniting Church prays that, “through the gift of the Spirit, God will constantly correct that which is erroneous in its life, will bring it into deeper unity with other churches, and will use its worship, witness and service to God’s eternal glory through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. (BU par 18).

Relationships with other churches 31. Being an apostolic church implies being part of the church catholic and living within agreed understandings and practices of the church universal. The Uniting Church from its inception has been very conscious of the importance of ecumenical relationships and partnership arrangements. The Uniting Church rightly sees itself as part of the catholic, reformed and evangelical tradition. It is an apostolic church with those theological emphases. Hence membership of the World Council of Churches has been valued, as has connections with the World Alliance (now Communion) of Reformed Churches and the World Methodist Council. Representatives of the Uniting Church have been involved in these world Christian bodies. The Uniting Church has been very supportive of the National Council of Churches in Australia. Partnership arrangements with churches in other countries through UnitingWorld are of vital importance.

32. Given our geographical location in the southern hemisphere and missional links to nations in Asia and the Pacific, the Uniting Church has felt a particular responsibility to continue and to develop ties with churches in those areas. The Basis of Union says, “It believes that Christians in Australia are called to bear witness to a unity of faith and life in Christ which transcends cultural and economic, national and racial boundaries, and to this end the Uniting church commits itself to seek special relationships with Churches in Asia and the Pacific” (BU par 2). So the Uniting Church has links with the Christian Conference of Asia and the Pacific Conference of Churches.

33. The Uniting Church has been enriched by migration patterns that have resulted in many people from Asia and the Pacific and other areas of the world now living in Australia and have joined or formed churches that are part of what the Uniting Church has become, namely a very multicultural church. Being a welcoming and hospitable church is part of what it means to be an apostolic church. Just as the early apostolic church embraced Gentiles as well as Jews, so the apostolic Uniting Church includes indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse people. It also means being open to continual reformation under the Word and through the Spirit as the Uniting Church goes forward towards “the promised end” to which God calls the church (BU par18).

34. Being an apostolic church is therefore both a description and a calling for the Uniting Church as part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church.

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1. The Nature of Doctrine and the Role of the Assembly – Three Kinds of Theological Statements (received by the Assembly Standing Committee, March 2009)

2. Guidance for the Church’s Faithful Thinking (received by the Assembly Standing Committee, March 2009)

3. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit p.358

4. Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology p.135

5. Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline p.147

6. Darrell Guder (ed), Missional Church ch. 9

7. Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith p.418

8. “The Church: Its Nature, Function and Ordering” in Rob Bos & Geoff Thompson (eds), Theology for Pilgrims, p.99

9. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit p.361

10. Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God for Us p.383