CONFESSING CHRIST FROM THE BASIS OF UNION
Leader:
Within this fellowship of the Uniting Church in Australia, and as part of the Christian church around the world, let us confess Christ in the following words from the Basis of Union.
Reader 1:
Today we ‘confess Jesus as Lord over (our) own life’ and ‘Head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity’.
Leader:
We rejoice that the Uniting Church ‘preaches Christ the risen crucified One
Reader 2:
and confesses him as Lord to the glory of God the Father’.
Leader:
Let us proclaim ‘the grace which justifies through faith,’
Reader 3:
and uphold ‘the centrality of the person and work of Christ the justifier’.
Leader:
We joyously proclaim that ‘in Jesus Christ "God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19 RSV)’,
Reader 4:
and that ‘in love for the world, God gave the Son to take away the world's sin.’
Leader:
We confess that ‘Christ…is the Word of the God who acquits the guilty,
Reader 1:
who gives life to the dead and who brings into being what otherwise could not exist.’
Leader:
Let us reaffirm our desire ‘to live and work within the faith and unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church’.
Reader 2:
We joyously ‘acknowledge that Christ alone is supreme in his Church’ and declare our ‘readiness to go forward together in sole loyalty to Christ the living Head of the Church’.
Leader:
We acknowledge ‘the need for a constant appeal to Holy Scripture’,
Reader 3:
and declare ourselves ready to ‘hear anew the commission of the Risen Lord to make disciples of all nations’.
Leader:
With the gracious help of God our congregations are committed to serve the world for which Christ died, and…await with hope the day of the Lord Jesus Christ
Reader 4:
on which it will be clear that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of the Christ, who shall reign for ever and ever.’ Amen.
Nb. The words in quotation marks are direct quotes from the Basis of Union
Prepared by Rev Rod James.
Final Prayer