Homosexual Ordination Prompts Church Defections

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Just days after Australia's third largest church denomination voted to allow the ordination of practicing homosexuals, a high-profile minister has become the first to announce he is leaving over the decision.

More departures from the Uniting Church of Australia (UCA) have been predicted as conservatives consider their future.

The Rev. Fred Nile, a UCA minister and an outspoken critic of the homosexual advocacy movement, said in a statement he had "no choice but to resign" over the decision taken by the UCA national assembly last Friday.

About 75 percent of the 260 delegates at the assembly voted to allow homosexuals and lesbians to become ordained as ministers, with individual congregations given the freedom to make their own decisions in this regard.

Conservative evangelicals within the denomination have been warning for years that the move could lead to an exodus.

The new policy places on an equal footing two positions on sexual ethics.

The UCA's traditional stance, known as "celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage," is the one held by evangelicals.

The other position says that if a sexual relationship is loving, faithful and committed, it is acceptable, whether the couple is married, unmarried or same-sex.

Friday's decision upholds the view that the "sexual orientation" of a candidate for ministry is no bar to ordination, and that "celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage" is not specifically required of ordained ministers.

"The national assembly has deliberately rejected the authority of the Holy Bible for faith and practice," said Nile, adding that he believed most members of the UCA and a large number of its clergy were against the decision.

The UCA had become "a man-based church instead of a Bible-based church," he said. "It has become a new sect."

Apart from being a UCA minister since 1976, Nile is also the leader of a small Christian political party, and serves as a lawmaker in the New South Wales state parliament. He is known for strong views on moral issues like pornography and his opposition to abortion.

In another state, South Australia, several UCA congregations have lashed out at the assembly's decision.

At Port Lincoln, the Rev. Rob Tann said his congregation felt "betrayed" and "isolated" and would pull out of some UCA activities.

A conservative grouping within the church called Evangelical Members of the Uniting Church (EMU) is mulling its options in the aftermath of a decision it fought for years to avert.

The group's chairwoman, Mary Hawkes, said congregations could show their feelings by withholding their money when the offering plates go around during services.

"This is a question of giving people who feel completely disempowered a means by which they can register their concern, distress, whatever you want to call it," she said.

Church leaders have argued that the decision merely retains the status quo, and reflects previous decisions on "unity and diversity" of the church.

UCA president Rev. Dean Drayton said the motion "simply clarifies what is already Uniting Church practice."

But EMU says the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in place for the past six years had been vague and unacceptable.

"I fear for the future of the UCA as we know it," Hawkes said in a weekend letter to EMU members. "We cannot go on mocking God and belittling his word with no consequences."

Hawkes urged the group's members not to rush into any decision about what steps to take, but to pray and to research the options open to them.

"A strong, united stand and action is very important. It is also vital that we act ethically and graciously in all that we do."

Among those options, she said, was staying in the UCA, but separating from the church hierarchy; leaving the UCA - either individually or as entire congregations - and joining another denomination; or leaving and setting up a new network of churches.

'Incompatible with Scripture'

The UCA was formed in 1977 as an amalgamation of the Methodist, Congregational and some Presbyterian churches. It has also been moving towards a merger with the Anglican Church.

But the Anglican Church in Sydney - a diocese whose archbishop is a leading conservative - has now warned that the homosexuality decision may jeopardize the merger plans.

A diocese spokesman, Bishop Peter Tasker, said it viewed with great concern a decision by the UCA that departed "from the teaching of Scripture and the ages-old moral tradition of the Christian Church."

"Homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture," he said. "Biblical teaching states clearly that a sexual relationship should be expressed between a man and a woman in heterosexual marriage."

A senior figure in the Presbyterian Church - comprising those Presbyterian congregations that did not become part of the UCA - asked whether a church that affirmed "the practice of homosexuality" could still be considered a church at all.

"The Bible condemns the homosexual lifestyle," wrote the Rev. John Wilson, the church's head in Victoria state, in a letter published in a daily paper.

"Nature teaches the same," he continued. "Even a common understanding of anatomy demonstrates the absurdity of it."

See earlier story:
Major Church in Australia Okays Homosexual Ordinations (July 17, 2003)

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