A PROCESS OF EMBRACE ©
Living with diversity has not been easy and recovery from disunity may
be a long process. It will mean building the community again, recognising
an inclusive fellowship (koinonia) that does not destroy the lives of other people.
In essence, it requires interpreting again the new covenant of love in
our time, in our place and from our experience. As a guide, I offer
a process of embrace in the affirming love of God. Entering unity
in Christ is the basis upon which this process is built, recognising the
sovereign grace of God and the active call of Christ to respond in faith
with love. As an act of community-building, reconciled in Christ,
this process is consistent with paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Basis of Union,
as part of Christ’s "strange way".
What would be involved in a process of embrace?
It would involve opening our arms as we reach out to each other
in love, to express a desire to create space within the self and the Church
for the other, and a capacity to seek to actualise that space as a safe
place. It would involve honesty and an openness to many dimensions
of Christian being. It would reach beyond the confines of our own
immediacy, through reflection and renewal, and a will to bring Christ into
the world as a diverse expression of the fecundity and faithfulness of
God. Opening the arms in a process of embrace is a vulnerable thing to
do. It is risky business, as risky as the open arms of the Crucified
One in that basic act of self-giving through which all reconciliation is
made possible. It would involve advocacy and risk taking as we share
experiences and seek to affirm both separation and binding. We have
already begun this process by listening and waiting, revealing and turning
towards each other.
The waiting needs to be engaged actively, as a movement
towards the other through respect for the love of Christ in each other.
It would involve the respecting of each other’s differences and participation
in a process that will not tolerate further rejection, violation, social
denigration and the seeking to convert others to mirror images of one’s
self. The waiting would also face the dangerous, afflicting memories
of past injury, isolation, injustice, fear, suspicion, abuse and rejection.
It would recognise that past experience will leave some poised ready for
further injury or flight. It would seek to give access to past expressions
of dissent while it attempts to move in faith towards reconstructing a
lasting unity. Revisiting the parable of the reign of God in Matthew
13:24-30, of the wheat and the tares, may give spiritual insight here.
In closing the embrace, we experience reciprocity, hosting
the other in love while being hosted in love. This would be
our first sense of oneness! It may overpower us, at first, releasing
tears of pain and joy. The awakening compassion will, in turn, empower
us as we engage renewal and enter covenant relationships that are unconditional
and open to mutual and reciprocal ministry. It would not mean negating
the other but embracing the other with compassion and not judgment.
It would seek to build trust, to repair wounds and to leave others touched,
affirmed and recognised. It would involve engaging protective behaviours,
as well as reconciliation, forgiveness, new beginnings and hope.
In opening the arms from the embrace we would not be
released from the covenant of love. Each would remain differentiated
but bound by compassion and mercy to seek deeper understanding and peace.
Each would know something of the other and through contemplation seek transforming
action that preserves the other while working liberation and moving towards
futures not yet determined. Perhaps we may see the face of God in
the other and live liberated lives.
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The following notes link this vision statement to the Basis of Union.
NOTES On The Affirming
Love of God
We are called to re-enter a process of union. To that end, the
Basis of Union is our guiding instrument. We seek a way forward that
both acknowledges all that is past and looks for a continuing renewal.
I draw heavily upon the commitment "to acknowledge one another in love
and joy as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ". (Basis, Paragraph 1.)
By embracing a living diversity, we enjoin disparate understandings of
affirmation and, like the original churches of Union, we seek to be a people
who "continue to learn from witness" and to be "strengthened by their fellowship"
in "unity of faith and life in Christ". (Basis, Paragraph 2.) Transcending
cultural, economics, national and racial boundaries through unity in Christ
was part of the original approach to union. We now understand that
other differences based on ethnicity, gender and sexuality exist and that
those differences cannot all be contained behind the cultural, economic,
national and racial barriers that are identified in the Basis. The
principle of "unity of faith and life in Christ" remains operative as we
seek to live with diversity. It also calls for us to transcend boundaries
of ethnicity, gender and sexuality.
The Basis of Union declares that "to God in Christ all people are called to respond
in faith" and that this work is "effected by the sovereign grace of God
alone". In this is our participation determined, through the use of the
diverse gifts that God has given us. God’s grace places no limits upon
participation. It defines no partial membership and affirms all through
faith in Christ. The Basis of Union states, that …
"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.
(Basis Para. 3; my emphasis)
As people "called by Christ" we participate "in his own strange way"
in the reign of God, called, ruled and renewed by Christ. In
this, the UCA is an open and affirming church: made open through the all
inclusive grace of God in Christ and made affirming through the diverse
gifts that God has given so that each member may act in fellowship.
As paragraph 13 of The Basis of Union states, "there is no gift without its corresponding
service: all ministries have a part in the ministry of Christ." Note,
there are no barriers of distinction …
"The Uniting Church will (thereafter) provide for the exercise by men
and women of the gifts God bestows upon them, and will order its life in
response to God's call to enter more fully into mission." (Basis Para.
13)
By The Basis of Union we are an open, welcoming and affirming church
that acknowledges a diversity of gifts among its members and is directed
to the service of God and humanity. Barriers of distinction that
focus on sexuality and aspects of gender identity would limit the church’s
ability to serve humanity and introduce worship of a God of limits, in
the same way that cultural, economic, national, ethnic and racial barriers
of distinction limit mission. In Christ we are one. God admits
all, gifted by grace through faith in Christ and empowered by the Spirit
to serve all. The affirming love of God knows no limits.
W. L. Anderson B.A., B.Ed, B.Th(Hons), Dip. T.
Monday, 26 May 2003.
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