Uniting Church out of touch
In the TV news tonight it was reported that a Melbourne Uniting Church Minister refused to conduct a funeral service for one of his parishioners, a returned soldier, who wanted RSL involvement in the proceedings.
I’m not an expert and details are scanty, but my understanding is the request would have involved an Australian Flag being draped over the coffin and some words being read from the RSL memorials otherwise heard on Remembrance Day and Anzac Day. I also believe this is commonplace in funerals of all denominations for ex-servicemen who request it.
In this case, the local minister declined to conduct the service, stating it was contrary to the church’s mission of peace. He wanted the RSL component conducted outside his church.
As the family pointed out, there’s a memorial plaque on the church’s wall to soldiers from the First World War and the deceased man concerned had always been a parishioner.
The nearby Anglican Church agreed to perform the service as the deceased man and his family requested.
This incident makes me reflect on the decline of the Uniting Church.
When I grew up in the country town of Traralgon there were Methodist, Presbyterian, Wesleyan and Congregational churches. As far as I can recall from memory, they all combined to form the Uniting Church. I’m not sure about the Lutherans.
Anyway, these original churches were some of the most conservative in the Christian spectrum. Their Puritan founders opposed all indulgences.
Since the formation of the Uniting Church in Australia, many Presbyterians have split to reclaim their own denomination.
What’s left of the Uniting Church has ironically become the most radical in this country, with numerous remaining members in favor of gay marriages, women priests, bisexual bishops, etc.
It seems that exclusion of returned soldiers is also on the agenda for this unfavorable brand of liberal protestantism.
I'm a 41-year-old father of four working as a newspaper editor at Mount Gambier in South Australia.
