A pastoral letter from Rev Dr Dean Drayton, President of the Uniting Church Assembly. Also posted on The Assembly Website

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one … that he might … reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it (Eph 2:14-16).


Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

The early church faced what they saw as insuperable difficulties. But two groups of people, who thought they could never be one, became one people through Christ.

These two groups found their common faith in Jesus Christ. Our unity is based on our faith in the Triune God – and on our determination to carry out the work of Jesus Christ in our community.

Yesterday the Uniting Church’s national Assembly reaffirmed presbyteries’ role in determining who is suitable for ordination, candidature for ministry or placement in ministry on a case-by-case basis.

The real issue is how we get along with others who believe in Jesus Christ but who hold different points of view.

We made the decision after a great deal of prayer and reflection – and after a gracious debate in which people spoke and listened to each other with respect.

We are a diverse church. We have a whole variety of congregations – largely Anglo-Celtic churches, big city ones, small rural communities, the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, and migrant-ethnic congregations. Our diversity is a blessing from God.

Some media reports have given the impression that Assembly has done something dramatically new. The proposers of the motion stressed that the decision is not really new. It simply clarifies what is already Uniting Church practice.

I urge all members of the Uniting Church – and all people of goodwill – to continue to pray for our church.

I encourage people to read the actual words of the Assembly’s decision – and to read them carefully. I enclose them with this letter. They are also on the Assembly’s website.

The decision affirms the integrity of what you hold – and it invites you to respect the integrity of those viewpoints which are different from yours.

It invites you to discover the depths of what Jesus Christ makes possible as he holds us together as a uniting people.

My prayer for our church is that God will grant healing to those who have been hurt in this debate – and that God will grant us grace to live together in unity as we work to carry forward Christ’s mission in the world.

Grace and peace


Dean Drayton
Assembly President
July 18, 2003