SCHOOL OF FAITH

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CONFESSING CHRIST FROM THE BASIS OF UNION

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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.