sustain:if:able kiwi

missiology in the Uniting Church Preamble

Uniting Church in Australia has over the last few years, moved through a process. the outcome of which has been the addition of a new ‘Preamble’ to its Constitution. It emerged from discussion with indigenous folk (UAICC -Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress), and extensive discussion a various church gatherings

The new Preamble offers 10 paragraphs. They include a brief account of the role of the church in Australian (settlement/invasion) and then makes some declarations of the Indigenous experience of God. (The complete document is here. )

Here is paragraph 3:

“The First Peoples had already encountered the Creator God before the arrival of the colonisers; the Spirit was already in the land revealing God to the people through law, custom and ceremony. The same love and grace that was fully and finally revealed in Jesus Christ sustained the First Peoples and gave them particular insights into God’s ways.”

I have been sitting with these words and phrases over the last few months. What does it say about the mission of God? What does is say about the activity of the Trinity (Creator, Spirit, Jesus) in mission? What does it say for those who want to be participants in God’s mission today? What might we learn from the past, for a mission (especially when that mission includes talk of fresh expressions) going forward?

Warning: I am working on a journal article on this, so comments you make might (properly cited of course) be used in my research 🙂