Authority and role of the scriptures is central issue for the future of

Media release: 27 June, 2002

The Superintendent of Wesley Mission, the Rev Dr Gordon Moyes AC, has vowed to stay in the Uniting Church in Australia in an effort to reform it and to make it a "true church of Jesus Christ", committed not only to social action but the proclamation of the Gospel.

Speaking at a service at Wesley Theatre to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Uniting Church in Australia, Dr Moyes called on the Church to renew itself. He said while the Church was democratic, socially aware and committed to welfare and multiculturalism it lacked impetus for evangelism and a commitment to Gospel proclamation. An ideological and theological gap had developed between the laity and church leadership.

Members of the Uniting Church as well as Wesley Mission staff attended the anniversary service, which featured a special address by the Premier of NSW Bob Carr entitled, A Better Future for Australia.

"I love our denomination," Dr Moyes said. "I will spend the rest of my life within the Uniting Church in Australia. I have no intention of leaving, but I am not content to leave it as it is!

"I am working to improve it, to be a true church of Jesus Christ, obedient to His will and word. I am committed to remain within the Uniting Church and change it. This is a great time to renew our church!

"Everyone can have a place in the Uniting Church... we have domesticated leadership passing it round among a bunch of mates. We opened the doors to women in leadership completely. There is a strong community focus with service ministries to every kind of human need involving an army of staff and volunteers."

Dr Moyes said the major debate in the Uniting Church related to the authority and role of the Scriptures in church life. While the church was open to ideas, Biblical interpretation had been captured by ideology leading to an intellectual exclusiveness, which had distanced the laity from church leadership.

"Church leaders do not decide Church doctrine," Dr Moyes said. "We hold to the living word as revealed through the written word. The battle is: does the Bible have authority and significance today?

"Evangelicals present the intellectual and faith responses to the nature and place of the Scriptures in the church and our lives. We do not propose interpretations of the Scriptures: liberationist, feminist, post-modernist, or any other, which are available only to the select few with particular training.

"We simply state in advance: we commit ourselves to obey what the Bible says as can be understood by committed Christians. We believe, not what is new, but what is true.

"Many liberals talk about justice, but it is the evangelicals that do the work and give the money. Visit any of our caring centres for the aged, the sick, the mentally ill, the disabled, the disturbed, the homeless, the drug addicted and so on, and you will find evangelicals who express their faith in caring service. There is great community service being done in the Uniting Church, and the people who are active in personal service are the evangelicals. Liberal Christianity is indistinguishable from a dozen humanitarian causes. It may cease to be really Christian.

"The Uniting Church has undergone an intensive debate over sexual standards among church leaders, and the acceptance of homosexual activity as a Christian standard of behaviour. In the Uniting Church the weapons in such a debate are not Biblical arguments but slur words. Members who seek to uphold Biblical truth are called: fundamentalist, reactionary, sexist, homophobic, while critics describe themselves as inclusive, modern, liberated, victims."

Dr Moyes quoted results from the recent National Church Life Survey, which revealed that almost two thirds of UCA members were women over 60 years, one third being over 70 years of age.

"The Australian Christian Church, a network of Pentecostal, Apostolic and independent churches has replaced the UCA as Australia's third largest denomination," he said. "It has 1,000 churches and 180,000 members. Without a commitment to bringing people outside of God to faith in God, from sin to righteousness, from death to life, the (Uniting)

Church is already dead.

"The only way a church with membership decline, growing older and failing to retain its youth is to survive is to practice aggressive, intelligent and effective evangelism. Young adults respond to that enthusiastically."

A complete copy of Dr Moyes' sermon, What Must We Needs Do Now? can be found at http://www.gordonmoyes.com