The ''Basis of Union'' (often termed the BoU) is the document which formed the basis on which most congregations of the

Congregational Union of Australia The Congregational Union of Australia was a Congregational denomination in Australia that stemmed from the Congregational Church in England as settlers migrated from there to Australia. Congregational Churches existed in all states and territo ...

Methodist Church of Australasia The Methodist Church of Australasia was a Methodist denomination based in Australia. On 1 January 1902, five Methodist denominations in Australia – the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodists, the Bible Christian Church, the United ...

and

Presbyterian Church of Australia The Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Australia. (The larger Uniting Church in Australia incorporated about two-thirds of the PCA in 1977.) History Beginnings When captain James Cook lande ...

united to form the

Uniting Church in Australia The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union ...

(UCA) in 1977. It was issued in nearly its final form in 1974. It continues to be regularly invoked in both the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

and the

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...

of the UCA, and has been updated on several occasions, most recently in 1992. In

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a pu ...

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorization, authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominational ...

, ordinands promise to adhere to the Basis of Union. As the document which was approved by a vote of the members of the three uniting churches prior to union, the Basis of Union is the UCA's statement of foundational spiritual beliefs, as distinct from the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, Regulations, by-laws, rules and standing orders which pertain to the government and administration of the UCA. Six state laws (all titled "The Uniting Church in Australia Act 1977") required the inaugural Constitution to be "consistent with the Basis of Union.". The union is notable in that the Congregational and Presbyterian churches came from a strong theological tradition of

Calvinism Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...

, while the Methodist tradition was

Arminian Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...

. The union of these churches therefore required a decision on the part of both sides that the issues underlying this difference were not vital to the life of the church. Expressing this in a form acceptable to the members of all three uniting denominations was one of the many challenges faced by the writers of the Basis of Union.

Provision for continuing churches

The ''Basis of Union'' provided for a continuing Presbyterian church, consisting of all members of the existing Presbyterian church who chose not to join the new UCA and all Presbyterian congregations which did not attain a required majority, and provided for the formation of new congregations to support these members in need. As a result, many formerly Methodist buildings were given to the

. Schools and other facilities were also provided to the continuing Presbyterian church. The governance of the Congregational church made this provision unnecessary and probably impossible, as an independent vote was needed for each congregation. Forty congregations elected not to join, and subsequently formed the

Fellowship of Congregational Churches The Fellowship of Congregational Churches is a conservative Congregational denomination in Australia. It was formed by the forty congregations of the Congregational Union of Australia who chose not to join the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977 ...

. No provision was made for a continuing Methodist church, with many former members who elected not to join the UCA subsequently joining the

Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia is a Christian denomination with its origins in Wesleyan Methodism. It is the organisational name for contemporary The Wesleyan Church in Australia. (The historic Wesleyan Methodist denomination in Austra ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Basis of Union (the 1971 text approved by the uniting Churches)Basis of Union (1992 version with gender-inclusive language)
Congregationalism in Oceania Methodism in Australia Presbyterian Church of Australia Presbyterianism in Australia Uniting Church in Australia 20th-century Christian texts 1974 documents

Provision for continuing churches

See also

References

External links