Survey of Church Union Negotiations 1996-1999

Correspondent: Dr David Ross, Executive Officer, Forum of Cooperative Ventures, 75 Taranaki Street, Wellington / P.O. Box 9049, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, tel./fax +64.4 384.3587 (co-author Glen Robertson is a member of the Forum standing committee)

THE NEGOTIATING PARTNERS: Associated Churches of Christ; Congregational Union of New Zealand; Church of the Province of New Zealand (Anglican); Methodist Church of New Zealand; Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

ALISTAIR MCBRIDE

At present there is no activity within the negotiating partners in New Zealand that would lead to any form of organic union. Following the failure of the voting in 1977 to bring the five partners together in one church there were ongoing discussions at various levels in an effort to find a new way forward. All the negotiating partners subsequently reaffirmed the act of commitment 1967 which drew them together to work on the plan for union 1971, and all reached a common statement of accord in 1984.

At that time the Methodist and Presbyterian churches entered into dialogue to see whether a new model could be developed. This resulted first in a document entitled "Growing into Union" produced in mid-1985, which outlined a way of enabling the two churches to grow together within a new Uniting Church of New Zealand, and following the failure of this proposal, a fresh approach was looked for. One aspect of that was that in 1990 the Methodist and Presbyterian churches agreed on the mutual recognition of those ordained to word and sacrament, and this was extended to include the Associated Churches of Christ in 1995. This had long been observed between the Presbyterian Church and the Congregational Union. The Anglican Church has subsequently agreed to accept the celebration of the eucharist by ministers of the partner churches serving in cooperative ventures with an Anglican component where the bishop of the diocese gives approval.

In 1993 the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church issued an invitation to the negotiating partners to conversations which would lead to organic union of some form with a view to having a proposal ready for 1998, the centenary of the first discussions between Methodists and Presbyterians in New Zealand. Only the Methodist Church entered the discussions and a federal model was presented to both churches for consideration in 1996. However, the impetus had been lost and by 1997 it was obvious that energy for organic union was no longer present in any of the negotiating partners, due in part to internal or consuming issues in both churches. Organic union now seems unattainable, at least through the formal processes that have been tried over the last thirty years.

There has been a growing awareness and appreciation of how the various churches function organizationally, and what are their corresponding structures. As each denomination "rubs up against" the others, particularly in oversight of the cooperative ventures, they are learning to appreciate that they do not exercise power and oversight in the same ways. They need to find out which structures in the various partners deal with corresponding issues, and how they do so. This process brings a growing appreciation of the differences, as well as the similarities, which are being revealed.