The Theological Culture of the UCA: a starter

Some fairly disjointed first thoughts about the theological culture of the UCA, towards the work of the Act2 review within the life of the Uniting Church.

Culture has a texture. Before we can begin to unpick the theological culture of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) we must acknowledge the concrete ways in which we experience the texture of culture.

As I begin to write this I am sitting in the Dalton-McCaughey Library (DML): one of the great inheritances of the UCA, and the UCA’s history of ecumenical cooperation. Named after two significant figures in the Australian Jesuit and Presbyterian-cum-Uniting churches, respectively, the DML is arguably the most significant antipodean theological library. It sits on Wurundjeri land, between a stretch of residential colleges at the University of Melbourne: land whose legal ownership is derived from colonial law (in at least one case by a direct act of parliament). The building which houses this library also houses several offices for the Synod of Victoria & Tasmania; and the Synod’s theological college.

I sit down to write at the end of a work day managing a cafe in the city. And yet, though a hospitality professional, I find myself in a building I have frequented regularly for 12 years: as student, candidate for ordained ministry, a sometime preacher, no one in particular - perhaps as a member of the Synod Standing Committee, among other church hats.

All of this tells us something about the textural quality of the UCA’s theological culture: set in the context of indigenous dispossession; inheritors of a significant legacy, placed in antipodean context; open to lay and non-specialist voices who inhabit diverse and ambiguous places within the corporate life of the church. And I should not ignore the soundtrack fuelling this writing: the ex-evangelical music of Semler, who processes their move into a free and queer identity against their upbringing in songs that are poignant, and downright cool.

When turning our attention to the theological culture of the UCA, then, we should be attentive not only to the official statements of various councils of the Church, but to the dispersed ways in which theology is engaged, practised, tested, heard, spoken, enacted, challenged, approved: the joy and terror it brings.

A distinctive feature of Uniting Church theology is its catholicity. Not here a reference to Rome, but rather a recognition that the theological culture of the Uniting Church is done in "accordance with the whole." That is, it draws from anywhere and everywhere. At its best this enables a richer, and deeper theological landscape which takes seriously the insights of diverse perspectives, particularly those whose voices are often marginalised in mainstream theological discourse — both academic and ecclesiological. At its worst the Church can be robbed of common touch points and language for scaffolding healthy theological disagreement.

The seeds for this theological culture can be seen in the Basis of Union itself, particularly in the unhelpfully titled paragraph on "scholarly interpreters," which commits the Uniting Church to listening to contemporary scientific, and scholarly approaches to the world. Beyond that, however, the call here is also to diverse modes of witness with which the Uniting Church and its theologians ought to do business: prophets, evangelists, martyrs. This expression in the Basis is itself grounded in key decisions of the Joint Commission on Church Union (JCCU): namely, their refusal to partake in "ecclesial carpentry," and instead to embrace a kind of catholicity in the development of the Basis itself. The understanding of their task was not to adjudicate the hierarchy of authority given to the old official theologies in the new ecclesiological situation. Rather, they sought after the generous revelation of the Gospel in the faith of the Church itself (which is bigger than any given church, let alone the uniting churches). Insights into God's ways are given abundantly in the world, and the Christian theological task is primarily an act of witness to this beneficence of God to and through all of creation itself.

This cosmic scope of the theological culture of the UCA is all-encompassing. Against those who would paint the UCA in their own image, one can truly find the full spectrum of theological beliefs in the UCA - indeed multiple spectra, and beliefs which don’t fit neatly in any clear typology at all. Much of the reductionist accounts of the UCA and its theology say more about the theological and reputational commitments of the commentator than they do the textured, and lively reality of the UCA. It does not do justice to the UCA and its theological culture to simply name it as “diverse.” The visible diversity of the UCA - seen in the discussions of councils, pages of Synod magazines, and various committees and working groups - barely moves beyond the narrow-band of theological discourse which is thoroughly shaped by majority culture concerns.¹

The ongoing need for the UCA to listen to voices which pierce the veil of its majority culture theology also unsettles easy assumptions about the UCA’s commitment to be both “a counter-cultural prophetic voice” and “a contextual expression of church.” These two presumed identities within the UCA need not be inherently contradictory. There is no singular context, but only diverse frames of culture and meaning complexly related across any society; as such, counter-cultural voices address different publics, and cut across different contexts. Nonetheless, it is worth interrogating the legitimacy of the UCA’s sometimes claim to be a voice from the margins, given its disproportionately white membership and leadership, and the ongoing benefit of its dual heritage of colonial history and embeddedness within Australian civil society. If a prophet, perhaps the UCA takes more from the prophets who sought the Word of the Lord from within the courts of the king and temple; the truly counter-cultural word coming from those minority culture voices who upset the status quo, and find themselves too often in a place of response and not call in the church’s life.

This piece is really only meant as a kind of sourdough starter: it will need to sit around for a while, before being baked into something more fully formed. That will be the work of the coming weeks. But a beginning set of thoughts about the theological culture of the UCA.

1. The most striking example of this narrowness comes from the 15th Assembly in 2018. One of the key issues of discussion was the question of same-gender marriage. While this discussion received considerable attention, what received less attention was a comment in the out-going President’s address lamenting the church’s rejection of polygamy: thus ripping apart First Nations families and communities during the period of colonisation. These even deeper, more wide ranging theological engagements with the church’s history and cultural location are still a way off: the majority culture is not yet ready to listen through the full implications of decolonising the church.