The Uniting Church In Australia – Champions of Religious Pluralism

From the website of the Uniting Church in Australia’s Relations With Other Faiths:

 

Interfaith Peace Service celebrated at St. David’s Uniting Church

On Monday the 21st September 2009 in St. David’s Uniting Church hall (Sydney), in the presence of more than 200 people, a most noteworthy example of truly fine multifaith/cultural activity was witnessed in the form of a rare, if not unique, Peace Service to honour the United Nations Day of International Peace.

Conceived and led by the Rev’d. Manas Ghosh in the presence of leaders and dignitaries from an abundance of religions and denominations, a wonderful atmosphere of Peace and Unity was created by the realisation of the presence of that Universal Spirit of God, the Great Creator of this world and of all humankind. Indeed, beautiful prayers were offered by representatives from the Aboriginal, Bahai, Brahmakumari, Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Mandaean, Sikh, Sufi, Uniting Church and Zoroastrian faiths with the congregation responding in each case, “Let peace fill our heart, our world and our universe.”

At the beginning of the service the Terramarragal band of Gu-ring-gai people, the original custodians of the land were gratefully remembered. At his introduction Rev’d. Manas Ghosh reminded that in 2001 the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution designating September 21st of each year as the International Day of Peace. At the United Nation’s Building in New York and in different parts of the world prayers are offered by different religious groups on this day for peace and the Peace Bell in New York is rung at 12 noon.

He also reminded all participants that “we are not here to engage in theological debate or discussion. Neither are we here to promote or establish the superiority of any particular religion, nor to proselytise anyone. But we are here to affirm our common humanity; to assert the supremacy of love in all human beings; and to express our longing for peace in and through the prayers of our faiths.”

Students from Newington Preparatory School Lindfield and the Seniors’ campus at Stanmore offered two wonderful pieces of music on the theme of peace. Five Killara High School students lit the Peace Candle, from which the congregation lit their own candles and placed them on a table covered with a sheet of paper that had the flags of different countries printed on it.

The church was crowded with people of many different faiths attending. Attendees also included students and teachers from Ravenswood Girls School and Knox Grammar School, as well as the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Ku-ring-gai council. After the service, a great fellowship was enjoyed by everyone over a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian foods.

 

Roger’s comment:

I have previously discussed the Interfaith Movement here and here. The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was formed in June 1977 as a union of some elements of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Church denominations. While there are certainly evangelical Christians still within the UCA – possibly even the silent majority – the hierachy of the UCA seems in recent decades to have prided itself on leaning towards the liberal end of the spectrum. Like other liberal denominations such as the North American Episcopal Church, PC USA, and elements of the Church of England, the UCA has embraced the social gospel, left-wing political causes, homosexual ministers and the interfaith movement. For my part, I was raised and confirmed in the UCA, but have not attended a UCA church for over 17 years. Even seeing the UCA logo (above) stirs deep, but mixed, emotions in me.

Now, let me make it clear from the outset that I fully support interfaith dialogue and any intiative where people of various faiths come together to get to know each other’s beliefs, break down barriers caused by ignorance and fear, and work together for the common good. This can be done effectively without any naive and misguided attempts to deny or compromise the distinctive beliefs of individual faiths. In particular, from my perspective, interfaith dialogue and friendship can be successfully achieved without the need for denial, compromise or syncretism of distinctive Christian beliefs, theology or truth claims.

There are a number of clues in this article that the Relations With Other Faiths movment in the UCA has made the common error of moving from simple interfaith dialogue to lowest-common-denominator, syncretistic pluralism.

1. The first paragraph is a dead giveaway when it mentions the links with the United Nations. The priority of the UN from what I see is the homogenization of all cultures, races, nations and religions. I’m not suggesting any hysterical notions of a “One World Religion” scenario, but the UN seems to put a priority on pluralism and the breaking down of religious distinctives and exclusivity truth claims. Any time that a UN initiative is mentioned, I am immediately suspicious.

 

2. “A wonderful atmosphere of Peace and Unity was created by the realisation of the presence of that Universal Spirit of God, the Great Creator of this world and of all humankind.”

Lovely and cuddly, but naive religious reductionism in the extreme. This epitomises the basic mindset of religious pluralism – that all religious faiths ultimately lead to one God – the “Universal Spirit of God”, as it is put in this article. This seems to ignore that fact that most of the major faiths that bother to make any truth claims about the nature of God or gods are, by and large, mutually exclusive. Thus the assumption that all faiths can be lumped in together to worship the “Universal Spirit of God” is both ignorant and plainly contradictory. It didn’t escape my attention either that when the author was going through the list of those who offered prayers for peace (which incidentally was in alphabetical order in the true spirit of unity and equality), it was noted that there was a representative from “the Uniting Church” rather than from “the Christian faith”. A Freudian slip perhaps?

 

3. “At the beginning of the service the Terramarragal band of Gu-ring-gai people, the original custodians of the land were gratefully remembered.”

This is very trendy in Australia at the moment and is enforced by the left-wing political correctness thought police. I don’t have a problem per se with acknowledging the indigenous people of this Great South Land, but whenever I hear this these days I have a compulsion to stand up and yell out, “Yes, let’s do that. And then let’s give thanks to to the Living God who created this land and the indigneous Australians who walked upon it”. I guess I probably wouldn’t get much of a hearing. I’d probably be labelled an intolerant Christian fundamentalist.

 

3. “He also reminded all participants that “we are not here to engage in theological debate or discussion. Neither are we here to promote or establish the superiority of any particular religion, nor to proselytise anyone.”

Read – “Hey you evangelical Christians. Don’t you dare start on about the uniqueness of Christ or the exclusivity truth claims of the Christian faith. Tow the line or pipe down.”

 

4. After the service, a great fellowship was enjoyed by everyone over a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian foods.

Why that bears mentioning, I have no idea. Actually, come to think of it I struggle to think of what other kinds of food there are other than vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

Read – “We here at the UCA Interfaith gathering are very politically correct and very progressive, and cater to all dietary whims, particularly those of our vegetarian Hindu and Buddhist friends. Please like us.”

 

Once again, let me make it painfully clear – I fully support people of all faiths taking the opportunity to fellowship, learn about each other’s beliefs, break down barriers that are caused by ignorance and fear, and discuss ways to combine efforts to improve the lot of those who are suffering in this world. This can be done effectively without glossing over, watering down, denying or compromising the distinctive beliefs and truth claims of those present. The attempt to reduce all faiths to the lowest common denominator is ignorant or dishonest (or both) and serves no useful purpose.