1. The DNA of the Uniting Church Thursday May 30, 2019
Urban Mission Network
The DNA of the Uniting Church
Thursday May 30, 2019

2. Acknowledging our heritage

4. The DNA of the Uniting Church
Vision

5. The DNA of the Uniting Church
Vision
The Uniting Church confidently believes that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God brings us into right relationship with God, whereby in faith we can:
live in a close, loving, personal, dynamic relationship with the living God;
participate in the worshipping, caring and serving community of Christians;
receive God's gifts so that life can be what God means it to be - loving, purposeful, joyful, eternal; and
tell others of this good news and live it out in acts of compassion, service and justice in the community.

6. The DNA of the Uniting Church
Vision
The purposes of the Church are
to provide for the worship of God,
to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to promote Christian fellowship,
to nurture believers in the Christian faith, to engage in mission, to assist in human development and toward the improvement of human relationships,
to meet human need through charitable and other services and to do such other things as may be required in obedience to the Holy Spirit.
UCA Constitution (4)

7. The DNA of the Uniting Church
Vision
The Basis of Union Para 3
A fellowship of reconciliation
An instrument of Christ (Word-centred)
Reformed and Evangelical
Ecumenical
Christ-centred: In Jesus Christ “God was reconciling the world to himself ” (2 Corinthians 5:19 RSV).
God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation. The Church’s call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself.

8. The DNA of the Uniting Church
Values
The Basis of Union Para 11 & 13
Discerning
Covenanted with First Peoples
Scripturally informed
Cross-cultural and multicultural
Inclusive: all ages, genders and races
Gifted ministry (lay and ordained)
Oriented toward justice
Particular concern for the poor and marginalised
Missional
Engaged with the world
Evangelistic
The Uniting Church thanks God for the continuing witness and service of evangelist, of scholar, of prophet and of martyr. It prays that it may be ready when occasion demands to confess the Lord in fresh words and deeds. The Uniting Church affirms that every member of the Church is engaged to confess the faith of Christ crucified and to be his faithful servant.

9. Groups of three:
What aspects of the UCA’s Vision and Values do you hold most dear?
(2-3 minute discussion)

11. Resisting Dualism

12. Practicing Polarity Management
Working
with both – and
Not with either- or

13. The DNA of the Uniting Church
Practices
The Basis of Union Para 15
Inter-conciliar
Consensus seeking
Male and female: all ages
Discerning
Prayerful
Manual for meetings: Worship; education; discernment
Collaborative
The Uniting Church recognises that responsibility for government in the Church belongs to the people of God by virtue of the gifts and tasks which God has laid upon them. The Uniting Church therefore so organises its life that locally, regionally and nationally government will be entrusted to representatives, men and women, bearing the gifts and graces with which God has endowed them for the building up of the Church. The Uniting Church is governed by a series of inter-related councils…

14. Continuing the work of Biblical scholarship

15. Valuing collaboration and compromise as roads to consensus

16. Attention to inclusivity
Upholding the equal place
of women and men
Multi-cultural focus
The child’s voice

17. A Pilgrim People – pushing boundaries with discernment

18. A Prophetic Church – prophetic by its witness to what is possible

20. Stories to live by

21. Discovering and re-discovering the stories
Making the stories
Telling the stories

22. Groups of three:
What aspects of the UCA’s Practices do you hold most dear?
(2-3 minute discussion)

23. The DNA of the Uniting Church
Mission
To be an Australian Christian Church
Live out the covenant with UAICC
Respectful international partnerships
Reconciliation of all things
Justice oriented
Stand with marginalised

24. What is your ‘take-away’ from the presentations and discussions of the Values, Vision, Practices and Mission of the UCA?
(2-3 minute discussion)