The following is a record of the reports of the Committee and decisions of the Assembly

Reports and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia  from 1979-2007

1979
Unemployment
Women in the Service of Christ
The Eldership Today
Whither Australia

1982
The Peace Movement
Nuclear Armaments Review
Australia’s Proposed Domestic Satelite, the Church and the Community
Impact of Technology
Poverty in Australia

1985
Human Artificial Insemination
In Vitro Fertilisation and Related Procedures
Abortion and Human Engineering

1988
Environmental Stewardship
Australian Federal Constitution

1991
Towards a Christian Approach to the Environment

1994
Abortion
Homosexual Practices
Concerning a Proposed Republic

1997
Wik and the Australian Parliament

2001

2004
Revised Regulations

2007

2010
Policy on Responsible use of Alcohol.
Policy on Marriage
Freedom of Religion in Australia
Canberra Declaration on Christian Values in Society

General Assembly of Australia
Sydney 2007

Church And Nation Committee
Report to the 2007 Meeting
Of the General Assembly of Australia.

Meetings and Personnel. The committee met on nine occasions, since the last Assembly, three of which were face-to-face meetings during Standing Committee week the rest being via telephone conference.

Due to his acceptance of a Call to a parish in another State, the previous Convener became ineligible to continue serving on the committee hence to serve as its convener. At its first meeting after the Assembly, therefore, the committee appointed the Rev. Stefan Slucki as its new Convener.

There has only been one change of members actively serving on the committee during the triennium; namely, Rev. Rod Waterhouse replacing Rev. Neil McKinley as representative from Tasmania. The committee thanks Neil for his contribution.

Current members – David Crawford (N.S.W.), Rev. David Palmer (Vic), Rev. Les Percy (Qld), Rev. Stefan Slucki ConvenerSecretary  (S.A.) and Rev. Rod Waterhouse (Tas).

At the face-to-face meetings both the Moderator-General and Clerk of Assembly have attended for as long as time would allow. The committee thanks them for their helpful imput to its discussions.

Business Arising From the Last Assembly.

 [1] The “Issuing” of “Statements” between meetings of the Assembly.

At the last Assembly, the Moderator-General was requested to “act as publicity officer” for the “issuing” of the “Statement” on same-sex relationships [BB 2004 Min 54.2-3].

In the deliverance, the Committee will propose that the Assembly Moderator be the Assembly’s “spokesman”.

The discussion has continued, among members of the committee, as to   who has the constitutional authority to “issue” “statements” between meetings of the Assembly on matters falling within the committee’s sphere of responsibility.

This “discussion” has not been pragmatic (here is a “statement” who is going to “issue” it) but has been constitutional/philosophical in character, addressing such questions as ‘should the Federal Committee “issue” Statements purporting to express the mind of the entire national church? Is not it’s role simply as an information-gathering/disseminating body? Is not the Moderator-General the only appropriate authority to “issue” “statements”?’.
There is general agreement as to the answers to these questions but not unanimity.

The committee  would appreciate a declaration from the Assembly clarifying its right and pastoral responsibility to “issue” “statements” in the light of Regulations 6D and 7 which govern its operation and which were adopted at the last Assembly.

The committee approached the Office Manager of “The Australian Presbyterian” requesting him to act as its publicity officer and is glad to report his willingness to do so.

  [2] The designating of a “period” of “fasting and prayer” so that the church might “seek the Presence of God” [bb 2004 Min 54.7].

The committee resolved to designate the “period” as being from Sunday October 1st to Reformation Sunday October 29th 2006, recommending that those able to do so combine fasting with this daily focus on prayer for the Church and Nation during the “period”. It produced a leaflet introducing the biblical practice of fasting and also a prayer calendar containing prayer-points for each day of the “period”.

Reports coming back to the committee indicate that many in the church found this four-week “period” helpful.

In the deliverance, the committee will propose that it make available an annually updated prayer calendar and that the various State Assemblies be encouraged to arrange further regular, annual, “periods” of fasting and prayer, appropriate to their circumstances but culminating on Reformation Sunday.

“Statement” on Abortion.  The committee adopted the following “statement” on abortion:  advised the State Assemblies and the Federal Government and opposition  of this, and; resolved to “issue” it as a media-release:

“Affirm the Biblical teaching of the Right to Life, especially as this applies to the unborn child, that all life is sacred to God, and that human life is a gift of God from conception.

Affirm that abortion is always unacceptable – except where two competent medical practitioners (other than the one under consideration to perform the abortion) deem the abortion essential to protect the life of a mother or of her prenatal child (or children), when threatened with immediate death, should the pregnancy continue.

Affirm if and when the rare contingency mentioned in the above clause should ever arise, everything medically possible should also be done to try to ensure the continuation of the lives of all that are thus being threatened.”

It proposes that the Assembly adopt the above “statement”.

Establishment of Web Page.  As part of the development of the Church’s online communication, the committee resolved to establish a web page [www.canfederal.presbyterian.org.au]. It gratefully accepted help from both the Federal Webmaster and the offer of its New South Wales member, David Crawford, to manage and update the site.

Progress has been slow to develop the page; due, in part, to ongoing discussions as to whether to adopt a limited or inclusive approach to the display of links and/or information.

The committee did resolve, however, that the first important goal to be reached is the displaying of the Assembly’s resolutions relating to its sphere of responsibility from 1977 to the present day. It is very grateful to the archivists at the Ferguson Memorial Library for facilitating the achievement of this goal; in particular to Mr. Donald Goudie for manually scanning and presenting the various Reports and Deliverances.

Stem-Cell Research Debate.  Along with many other interested persons, the committee contributed to the public’s submissions to members of Federal Parliament prior to the conscience vote on the expansion of research using embryonic stem-cells.

It did this by formulating a letter addressed to each member of both houses of parliament, signed by the Moderator-General on the Church’s behalf. Thanks are extended to Rev. David Palmer and the Rt Rev. Bob Thomas for facilitating this.

In addition, letters were sent to congregations, via pres e-news, encouraging members to get personally involved by contacting their own member of parliament.

The committee is grateful for the facility of pres e-news as a means to rapidly disseminate such campaign materials to the whole Church.

Communication with Government. The committee wrote to the Federal Government and opposition on the following issues:

1. Commending the reaffirmation of the definition of marriage as found in the Marriage Act 1961.

2. Observing that ‘evidence’ gained under torture is both repugnant and ought to be inadmissible in a civilized court of law.

 3. Endorsing the argument of the International Council of Jurists (Australian Branch) concerning the undermining of the legal principle of the “Rule of Law” at Guantanamo Bay inherent in David Hicks’ case.

Archives’ Storage. The Committee is again grateful to the Ferguson Memorial Library for agreeing to store its archive materials.
Australia’s Christian Heritage National Forum [www.achnf.org.au].  The Christian Heritage Forum is designed to celebrate both the historical impact and the current influence of Christianity in and on Australian culture. The inaugural meeting was held in Parliament House Canberra in August 2006 and a follow-up meeting is planned for March 2008. A number of members of the Church attended including the Moderator-General, Clerk of Assembly and this committee’s Convener and Mr. David Crawford the current President of the N.S.W. Council of Churches.

The committee would recommend that members of the Assembly and the Church be encouraged to study and consider papers from the Forum as displayed on the above-mentioned forum website.

The Subject of Climate Change. The committee was invited to submit a statement of support for the need to urgently  address “global warming” to be included in a campaign by the Climate Institute. It resolved not to do so but did resolve to investigate the matter given its being such an issue of importance. David Palmer, our Victorian member, has produced the comprehensive report which appears as appendix 1 to this report.

The committee commends it to the study of the Church and the wider community.

Welcoming the Involvement of Christian Bodies in the Political Process. The committee is glad to report that David Palmer, its Victorian member, was able to take part in two forums  at Parliament House during 2006 one with government parties and the other with the Labor Party. The purpose of such forums organized by the Australian Christian Lobby [A.C.L.] has been to provide both Government and Opposition with Christian input on a broad range of issues prior to both sides of politics formulating their policy platforms in preparation for the 2007 Federal election.
Both the Government and the Opposition were represented at the forums by senior ministers and shadow ministers with the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition welcoming the attendees with speeches expressing their respective appreciation for the input from “the Church”.

UsefulChristian Ethics Updates. One very helpful regular email “social issues” newsletter is that produced by the Sydney Anglican Diocese [http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/socialissues] where a whole variety of issues are discussed at a man-in-the-pew level.
The committee commends these ‘briefings’ to the Church.

Items of Continued Interest for the Committee’s Attention.  Apart from the obvious issues of ongoing business, the committee recognises that the following may require it’s attention in coming months:

1. The proposed implementation of the “same sex same entitlements” recommendations following a report from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, requested by the Federal Government.

2. The possible introduction of a private members’ bill by Senator Bob Brown promoting voluntary euthanasia.

 3. Possible recommendations within the Dealing with Diversity framework viz. a network of Christians concerned to inform both sides of politics at Federal and State levels concerning the nature of Islam, especially as experienced by Christians from the Middle East, but with relevance to the present situation in Australia, including analysis of the possible future trends.

Rev. Stefan A.J. Slucki
Convener                               

Resolutions of the 45th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia held at Scots Church Sydney September 2007.

Min 95

That the Assembly:
(1) Request the Moderator to act as spokesman for the General Assembly in a way which seeks to apply the mind of the Assembly, as expressed in the church's Standards and its decisions over the years, to the issues of the day.
(2) Request the Convener of the Church and Nation Committee, the Editor of the Australian Presbyterian and the webmaster to assist the Moderator and Clerk of Assembly as requested in publishing any statements they make on behalf of the Assembly on matters relating to the Church and Nation Committee.
(3) Encourage all State Assemblies to:
(a) Consider adopting a regular, annual, "period" of prayer and fasting culminating in some form of celebration of Reformation Sunday.
(b) Direct the Federal Church and Nation Committee to produce an annually updated prayer calendar for use in such a "period".
(4) Adopt the following "statement" on abortion: We the commissioners to the 2007 meeting of the Presbyterian Church of Australia General Assembly.
(a) Affirm the biblical teaching of the right to life (especially as this applies to the unborn child) that all life is sacred to God, and that human life is a gift of God from conception.
(b) Affirm that abortion is always unacceptable except where two competent medical practitioners (other than the one under consideration to perform the abortion) deem the
abortion essential to protect the life of a mother when threatened with immediate death
should the pregnancy continue.
(c) Affirm that if and when the extremely rare contingency mentioned in the above clause should ever arise, everything medically possible should also be done to try to ensure the continuation of the lives of all that are thus being threatened.
(5) Affirm the Church's commitment to provide appropriate pastoral care and gospel ministry for unmarried mothers, women considering an abortion, women who have had an abortion, and their families, and wherever possible to offer referral to appropriate specialized Christian support agencies.
(6) Record its thanks to the archivists at the Ferguson Memorial Library for their agreement to facilitate the compilation of the past resolutions bearing upon the work of the Church and Nation Committee: in particular, to Mr. Donald Goudie for his volunteering to carry out the work.
(7) Thank the staff of the Ferguson Memorial Library for making space available to store the Church and Nation Committee's archives.
(8) Commend the study and consideration of the papers, given at the inaugural meeting of the Australian Christian Heritage Forum, to the members of Assembly in particular and the Church in general [note the papers are either available in the book "Shaping the Good Society" edited by Stuart Piggin or online www.achnf.org.aul.
(9) Commend the report on Climate Change, to the study of the members of Assembly in particular and the wider Church.
(10) Commend the email newsletter "social issues briefing" produced by the Sydney Anglican Diocese as a helpful source of Christian thinking on tough issues of the day [http://yoursydneyanglicans.net/socialissues].
(11) Recognise that same-sex domestic partnership arrangements are neither legally nor technically 'lamilies" and therefore entitlements properly belonging to families should not be extended to participants in such arrangements.
(12) Request the Federal Government and Opposition not to extend entitlements which properly belong to families to same-sex domestic partnerships.
(13) In particular, request the Federal Attorney General and the shadow Attorney-General, to move to amend the Sex Discrimination Act in such a way as to prevent same-sex partners and singles from continuing to access artificial reproductive technology.

General Assembly of Australia
Sydney 2004

Minute 54 pp 135-136
Report pp 16 – 18

Report of the 45th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 2004

 Committee Personnel Changes Since 2001  Since the 2001 GAA, the committee has met by telephone conference on four occasions and once face-to-face. Only Rev. D. Combridge (TAS) and Rev. S. Slucki (formerly NSW and now SA) have continued as members of the committee over those 3 years. These changes have occurred for various reasons and should in no way be misunderstood as disillusionment with the work.

The committee thanks Rev. J. Stasse, S. Teale, and R. Waterhouse for their contributions to its work.

Main Work Undertaken  There have been a number of issues on which this committee could have spent much time during the last three years. It is gratifying to report that the various State committees have made representations to the relevant authorities on topics such as stem-cell research and proposed same-sex cohabitation-status law reform. Moreover, representations have been made concerning the persecution of Christians in various countries.

Nevertheless, this committee has felt it to be vital to spend the majority of its energy in preparing a draft revision of the regulations governing its operation in preparation for this Assembly. In so doing the committee believes that it is time for the Assembly to decide whether it wants this committee to continue functioning as a national committee or opt to totally devolve the responsibility for both educating the church and engaging with government and other authorities to the States’ committees, by abolishing this committee.
Resolving this subject is essential since there seems to be confusion as to the legitimate role of the committee and conjecture as to the validity/appropriateness of either the Moderator-General or the committee issuing “statements” on issues that emerge between meetings of the Assembly regarding which the committee has not been specifically authorised to speak.
The committee hopes to persuade commissioners, in what follows, of the rightness of adopting its proposed revised regulations.

Proposed Revised Regulations  The proposed revision of the regulations is designed to clarify both the committee’s and the Assembly’s understanding of the committee’s tasks in order to help the committee to function most effectively in the contemporary context.

 1. Name
 There shall be a committee of the General Assembly of Australia known as the “Church and Nation Committee (for Social Issues)”.
The proposed inclusion of the qualifying statement “(for Social Issues)” is intended to make the purpose of the committee clearly understandable to those outside our church.

 2. Membership
The membership of the committee shall consist of a representative from each state’s corresponding committee.
Currently, the Moderators of both the Victorian and Queensland committees are, automatically, supposed to represent their state on the federal committee. Moreover, the NSW representative is currently appointed by its Assembly; although, by convention, this is usually a member of the state committee. The proposed change defines the membership base most helpfully and consistently.

 3.  Quorum
 The quorum for any meeting of the committee shall be any three members.
Currently, there is no guideline as to what constitutes a quorum in the committee’s regulations.

 4. Consultant Advisers
The committee shall have discretion to co-opt qualified/gifted people to help with the committee’s research work, preferably possessing a good knowledge of the Scriptures and in sympathy with the teaching of the Church’s subordinate standard.
All Church and Nation committees face the challenge of contributing carefully researched papers on often complex subjects in a whole variety of areas. The suggestion of authorizing co-opted (non-voting) adviser-members is a positive directive to future committees. Currently, there is nothing to forbid the practice but nothing to encourage it either.

 5. Office-Bearers
The General Assembly shall elect a convener, usually proposed by the committee, whose term shall expire at the following Assembly. The committee may appoint additional officers such as an honorary secretary.

 6. Meetings
The committee shall meet at least twice a year by the most cost-efficient and expedient means technically possible.
This proposal simply aims to reflect and endorse the committee's current practice and frequency of meeting.

 7. Responsibilities
 The committee's responsibilities are:
A. To ensure the detailed exchange of information regarding the activities of the corresponding state committees.'
B. To promote the optimum co-ordination of, and co-operation by, the corresponding state committees as they address issues of state, interstate, national, and international concern.
C. To present reports to the General Assembly, outlining the work undertaken, suggesting matters on which the Church take action, and recommending appropriate strategies for the Church to adopt as it addresses issues of significant national and international concern.
D. To compose and issue statements, both at and between meetings of the General Assembly, containing pastoral advice, denominational policy-positions and/or considered opinion on issues of significant national and international concern.
Responsibilities A, B, and C substantially reflect both the committee’s current function and the Assembly’s apparent expectation of it.
Proposed responsibility D concerning the issuing of statements is the one which the committee believes especially needs resolving.
The committee has received advice from the current Deputy Prime Minister’s Office that well researched and thoughtfully written submissions, whether they come from a state or federal committee, are taken seriously by government. Nevertheless, the committee does believe that federally-issued statements will attract greater media attention.
There is no doubt that issues upon which the Church’s viewpoint ought to be heard do emerge between Assembly meetings and it is a significant loss of opportunity not to provide relevant input and even leadership on such occasions.

 8. Statements
Statements may be issued with the aims of:
A. Equipping Church members and other Christians to make an informed contribution to the discussion/debate on issues concerning the nation's life from a Christian, Biblical, Reformed position.
B. Informing government and other appropriate authorities of the Presbyterian Church’s approach to issues of significant interstate, national, and international concern.
C. Liaising with others of like mind in contributing to the discussion/debate on issues of significant interstate, national, and international concern.

9. Procedure for Issuing Statements  Statements may be issued, on the Church’s behalf, either by the Moderator-General, the Convener, or jointly by the Moderator-General and the Convener together.
Such statements require authorisation:
A.  By direct resolution of the General Assembly
B.  Between meetings of the General Assembly, by a majority of the committee, in which case they are formulated in consultation with the Moderator-General, at his request or at the initiative of the committee.
The committee believes that the proposed safeguards surrounding the issuing of statements will sufficiently protect against unwise or eccentric comments. It also places great confidence in the self-discipline of both Moderators-General and future members of the committee not to mistake deeply-held personal views for generally-held denominational ones.

 Inter-Denominational Involvement at Federal Level
A related matter, raised with the committee by the Moderator-General himself, is that of how much involvement the Assembly wishes our denomination to have in inter-church bodies such as the Heads of Churches at federal level.
 The committee resolved to recommend to the Assembly that it encourage Moderators General at their discretion to participate regularly in the activities of the Heads of Churches whilst not authorising them to participate in multi-faith services.

 Defence of Marriage
 Along with the entire Church, the committee gives thanks for the apparently bi-partisan Federal Parliamentary acknowledgement that “marriage” is rightly understood as a distinctly, heterosexual relationship between one man and one woman – ideally for life. At the time of writing, concern still remains as to the attempt by homosexual/lesbian advocates to win adoption rights and access to I. V.F. services for same-sex partners.

 Homosexuality and Ordination
 Recent developments in the Uniting Church in Australia and, on the international scene, in the Anglican Communion have drawn unprecedented attention to the way churches view homosexuality and the ordination of homosexuals. The Committee believes it would be very timely for the General Assembly of Australia to make a statement in response to these developments and proposes the one adopted by the Victorian Assembly.

 Budget for the 2005-2008 triennium
 The committee has requested a budget of $2,000.00 be allocated to the committee for the 2005-2008 triennium.

 Recommended Convener
 The committee recommends that the Assembly elect the incoming convener of the Victorian Assembly’s “corresponding” Church and Nation Committee to serve as the Federal committee's convener until the next General Assembly of Australia.

 Special Thanks
The committee conveys special thanks to Rev. Stefan Slucki for the continuity he has provided. Though no longer a member, he continues to serve as honorary secretary and was primarily responsible for the preparation of this report. The committee is also grateful for the assistance of Rt. Rev Jack Knapp for convening a meeting of the committee at a time when it had no one to fulfill that role.

       A.M. CLARKE, Convener

Resolutions of the 45th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 2004

54. Church and Nation:   The report of the Church and Nation Committee was laid on the table and received.
The Rev. A.M. Clarke submitted the deliverance.
Clauses (1) to (5) were approved.
Pursuant to notice the Rev. M.S. Jensen moved:
That the Assembly:
(1) Give thanks to God for the ministry of the Church and Nation Committee in addressing important issues of righteousness in the nation.
(2) Encourage the Church and Nation Committee to recognise the principle of national restoration given in 2 Chronicles 7 and Joel 2 with its call for prayer and fasting among the people of God.
(3) Request the Church and Nation Committee to call for a National Day / Period of Prayer and Fasting to seek the presence of God in keeping with the teaching of 2 Chronicles 7 and Joel 2.
Clause (1) was seconded and approved.
Clause (2) was seconded.
The Previous Question was moved, seconded and approved.
Clause (3) was seconded.
By Leave of the House the Rev. J. McClean moved as an amendment that all words after “God” be deleted.
The amendment was seconded and approved.
The deliverance as a whole was approved as follows:
That the Assembly:
(1) Approve the regulations for the Church and Nation Committee.

1. Committee:  There shall be a committee of the General Assembly known as the Church and Nation Committee dealing with social issues.

2. Membership:  The membership of the Committee shall consist of a representative from each State’s corresponding committee.

3. Consultant Advisers:  The Committee shall have discretion to co-opt qualified and gifted people to help with the Committee’s research work, preferably possessing a good knowledge of the scriptures and in sympathy with the teachings of the Church’s standards.

4. Convener:  The Committee shall elect a Convener from amongst its own members.

5. Meetings:  The Committee shall meet at least twice a year by the most cost-efficient and expedient means possible.

6. Responsibilities:  The Committee’s responsibilities are:
(a) To ensure the detailed exchange of information regarding the activities of the corresponding state committees.
(b) To promote the optimum co-ordination of, and co-operation by, the corresponding state committees as they address issues of state, interstate, national, and international concern.
(c) To present reports to the General Assembly outlining the work undertaken, suggesting matters on which the Church take action, and recommending appropriate strategies for the Church to adopt as it addresses issues of significant national and international concern.
(d) To compose and issue statements, both at and between meetings of the General Assembly, containing pastoral advice, denominational policy/positions and/or considered opinion on issues of significant national and international concern.

7. Statements:  Statements may be issued with the aims of:
(a) Equipping Church members and other Christians to make an informed contribution to the discussion/debate on issues concerning the nation’s life from a Christian, Biblical, reformed position.
(b) Informing government and other appropriate authorities of the Presbyterian Church’s approach to issues of significant interstate, national and international concern.
(c)  Liaising with others of like mind in contributing to the discussion/debate on issues of significant interstate, national and international concern.
(d) Statements may be issued on the Church’s behalf either by the Moderator-General, the Convener, or jointly by the Moderator-General and the Convener.
(e) Such statements require authorisation by direct resolution of the General Assembly or between meetings by a majority of the Committee in which case the statements are formulated in consultation with the Moderator-General at his request or on the initiative of the Committee.
(2) Declare:
We, the Commissioners of the 2004 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, affirm our commitment to the Bible's message of the love of God for sinners and the good news of the forgiveness of sin, of a new beginning, and of eternal life. This is God's gift to those who repent of their sin and trust in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We affirm our commitment to the Bible's message that those who experience this forgiveness and new beginning gladly seek to live a life that pleases God. This means choosing a lifestyle that conforms to God's standards, which includes abstinence from sexual intercourse before marriage and faithfulness within marriage. Marriage consists of one man and one woman in a lifelong and exclusive commitment.
We affirm our commitment to the teaching of the Bible that condemns homosexual activity and desire, and therefore absolutely precludes the ordination of those continuing to practice or endorse homosexual activity and desire.
We express our deepest regret at the decisions of other denominations that allow for the ordination of those continuing to practice or endorse homosexual activity and desire, and we declare this to be a most grievous departure from the Bible's message concerning the nature of sin and the repentance necessary for salvation.
We believe that Jesus Christ is the answer to the underlying problems of those who struggle with homosexual activity and desire - such as the problem of loneliness, the longing for loving relationships, the meaning and control of our sexuality, and the quest for personal identity. As our Creator-God Jesus Christ is also our Saviour and Friend who is able to restore our humanity at every level by healing us in our inner dispositions and social relationships.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon all those who profess faith in Him to stand with us in this commitment to God's Word and we offer any assistance that we are able to give to this end.
(3) Publish the preceding declaration for the information of all members of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, other churches, and the general public; requesting the Moderator-General to act as press officer, as necessary, in relation to this declaration.
(4) Encourage Moderators-General at their discretion to participate regularly in the activities of the Heads of Churches but not authorise them to participate in multi-faith services.
(5) Thank Rev. Stefan Slucki, the Very Rev. Jack Knapp, and all past and present members for their contribution to the committee.
(6) Give thanks to God for the ministry of the Church and Nation Committee in addressing important issues of righteousness in the nation.
( 7) Request the Church and Nation Committee to call for a National Day / Period of Prayer and Fasting to seek the presence of God.

Sydney July 2001

Minute 57  p 137
Report pp 28 - 29

Reports of 44th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 2001

 MEMBERSHIP: Since the 1997 meeting of the Assembly, the committee has experienced almost a total change of personnel, and this fact, together with the decentralised nature of our denomination’s constitution, is reflected in the limited amount of work it has undertaken.

 BUSINESS ARISING: The substantial business arising from the 1997 Assembly was the need to clarify if our denomination owns land which could possibly be the subject of a ‘Native Title’ claim. Your committee consulted the various State Assemblies, wherever possible though the State committees, and found that no such land exists.

 MATTERS REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE BY STATE ASSEMBLIES: In 2000, the New South Wales Assembly requested the committee to further investigate the growing incidence of the use of gratuitously blasphemous language in the media. As a member of the N.S.W. committee (which has been working on this for a time) I am extremely disappointed at the often apathetic response of Christians to the blatant misuse of our gracious God’s name.
The committee has contacted the various media regulatory bodies both to make the Church’s view known and to ask how best it can suggest constructive changes to the existing regulations and complain against specific breaches. The following picture emerges:
1.  Australia’s media is supervised by the Australian Broadcasting Authority which members of the public can contact to register complaints about particular programmes on 1800 226 667 after contacting the particular outlet on which the programme was aired.
2.  All authorities consider “current community standards” as a guide to determining their particular policy, at any given time, and so the more ‘feedback’ they receive from ordinary citizens the better.
Please make use of your opportunities as a responsible citizen to recommend the restraint of the increasingly foul content of widely-publicised programming!

COMMITTEE REGULATION CHANGES: Because of both the undeniable state based nature of our federal Church constitution and the practical realisation that constructive action more easily occurs through state committees, this committee wishes to clarify its role and invites the Assembly to consider whether the current regulations governing this committee could not be more clearly drawn.
Your committee will seek to clarify its suggested amendments of the regulations with the Code committee and hopes to be able to comment at the Assembly.

PROMOTING “OPTIMUM CONSULTATION AND CO-ORDINATION”: Your committee certainly desires to further the influence of thoughtful, Godly research into important public issues facing us all and so has resolved to list the current publications available from the various State committees urging church members to use the information contained in these publications.
1.  Victoria. The Victorian committee has the following titles available at $5.00 per copy plus 50c G.S.T. (congregations providing their A.B.N. are exempt) and $1.00 per copy postage to: Church and Nation Committee, 49 Worthing Road, Burwood Vic. 3125.
Homosexuality, “a life worth changing”;
Euthanasia, “a life worth living”;
Gambling, “gambling-led recovery? Don't bet on it” (available electronically);
Australian Constitution, “democracy down under”;
Membership of secret societies, “Christianity and freemasonry”;
‘The fellowship’ examined, “fractured fellowship”.
2. Queensland has an A4-sized leaflet priced 30c per copy on euthanasia available from Queensland Convener, Mr. D. Gallagher (Home Missionary).
3. New South Wales has its publications available on its website.
http//www.churchandnation.pcnsw.org.au
Investment, “the ethics of investment: some principles”;
Gambling, a leaflet outlining principled opposition.

COMMITTEE CONTACTABLE: Your committee feels it worth reminding the Church that it’s the privilege of every church member to express their concerns/suggestions for action/requests for information to this committee. We would suggest that the most helpful way of doing this would be to take the matter to their local Session, then have it referred to the Presbytery and so to the relevant State committee but also to the committee. It is our conviction that the committees of the Church do exist, in large measure, to represent the individual church member.

WORRYING TRENDS: The committee wishes to draw the Assembly’s attention to the various proposed State “anti-discrimination” acts which do appear to have the potential to fundamentally change the basic religious freedoms we have enjoyed as litigation are being more noticeably advocated as necessary for social harmony (social slavery). The committee urges Christians to examine, carefully, the specific content of their States’ proposed legislation.

OUR CORPORATE PLEA: In the spirit of the great reformer, Nehemiah, we ask the church to undertake its work, in every sphere, including the task of involvement in general society with passionate, pleading prayer along with the constructive wielding of the Sword of the Spirit. We also need your back-up in terms of applying pressure to see Godliness advance and ungodliness restrained.
S.A. SLUCKI, Convener.

Resolutions of the 44th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia

57. Church and Nation: The report of the Church and Nation Committee was laid on the table and received.
The Rev. S. Slucki submitted the deliverance.
The deliverance as a whole was approved as follows:
That the Assembly:
(1) (a) Encourage individuals and sessions not to be apathetic about the widespread growth in the use of gratuitously blasphemous references to "God" and "Jesus Christ" in today’s mass media.
(b)  Encourage individuals and sessions to register disapproval of the use of gratuitously blasphemous language with the regulatory authority applicable e.g. the Australian Broadcasting Authority for commercial television, having first complained to the outlet on which the material was aired.
(2) Request the Clerk of Assembly to forward details of currently available resources from the various state committees (as outlined in the Committee’s report) to all presbyteries, requesting that each session be forwarded a copy.
(3)   Urge individuals and sessions to make use of the resources produced by the church’s various committees as they prayerfully and thoughtfully seek to be “salt” and “light” in society.
(4)   Remind all commissioners that it is the right of all members and adherents of congregations within the Presbyterian Church of Australia to raise their concerns about social issues, the most helpful process for doing so being outlined in the Committee's report.
(5)   Request the Clerk of Assembly to notify all sessions, through presbyteries, as to the appropriate means by which individuals, sessions and presbyteries can communicate their concerns about social issues.

Sydney September 1997

Minute 80  pp 230-233
Report pp 8-9, 196-198

43rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 1997 Reports (Page 1)

 The Committee has met 6 times by telephone conference. Successive Conveners have been the Rev. J. Ellis, resigned November 1994, Dr. K.J. Swan, resigned July 1995, Rev. G.S. Thorp, resigned July 1996, and Rev. P.C. Moore. The Committee is hampered by its regulations which show that the Convener must be appointed from and by the Conveners of the NSW, Qld, and Vic State Committees.
The Committee requests a change in its regulations to be inclusive of all State Assemblies. Viz
4. Unchanged
5. A. That the Committee shall consist of: the Conveners elected by all of the State General Assemblies to their Church and Nation Committee or equivalent, or in the absence of a Church and Nation Committee or where the elected Convener of the State Committee is unable to fulfil duties as a member of the Federal Committee, a member elected by the State Assembly; together with the officers of the General Assembly of Australia.
B. The Convener shall be elected by he General Assembly of Australia.
6.  Unchanged.

The Committee has made representation to our Federal representatives in the
following matters:
1.  Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Bill 1994
2.  A proposed private member’s Bill sponsored by Senator Sid Spindler regarding discrimination on the basis of sexuality which particularly would have affected employment in Church Schools. The Bill has since been dropped, particularly as a result of public response and Church opposition.
3. The publication of a “Safe Sex Guide” in Cleo magazine.
4. The drafting of chapter five of the Model Criminal Code entitled “Sexual Offences Against the Person”, protesting against those provisions which set the minimum age of restricted consent at 10 years, which reduce the age of consent to 16 years, which removes the crime of incest from the statute books, and which reduces the level of protection against sexual exploitation given to mentally impaired persons who are in care.
At the Committee’s request, the Moderator-General publically released the General Assembly’s resolutions on the republic, euthanasia, and anti-discrimination legislation.

The Committee has also promoted the Presbyterian Church of Victoria’s publications on gambling, euthanasia, and homosexuality, and is exploring the possibility of publishing quarterly discussion papers on matters of public interest through APL Today. The Committee intends allocating each of the State Committees topics of national interest for study and will undertake to disseminate the results of each study.
The Committee applauds the leadership shown by Federal and State governments in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre in achieving uniform gun control for Australia. .
As this report is being finalised, two issues have become pressing for us to consider. These issues are unrelated, except that they both concern Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
One issue is the troubling controversy over the “Wik” decision of the High Court. The other is the even more disturbing findings of Sir Ronald Wilson into the systematic removal by Australian institutions of indigenous children from their parents.
As a denomination, we need to consider our position as to our past, present and future relationship with indigenous Australians. During Assembly it is proposed to include deliverances which will make an appropriate response to these issues.

P.C. MOORE, Convener

CHURCH AND NATION ADDENDUM

WIK AND THE AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT
In 1992 the High Court ruled in a land mark decision now known as “Mabo”. This decision recognised for the first time a “Native Title” to land in Australia. Later in 1996 the High Court ruled in another important case called “Wik” which clarified the extent of that title. The history of the matter is sketched below.
Background   Prior to European settlement in Australia the English common law provided for the rights of inhabitants of lands conquered by the British people. The common law (judge made law) stated that where the British people conquered inhabited lands, the rights to land of the inhabitants must be duly protected. On the other hand, where the British people settled in empty land (terra Nullius) all land title vested in the Crown.
However in the case of Australia, the situation did not unfold as might have been expected under these legal rules. Perhaps because the Australian Aborigines were largely nomadic, a legal precedent was established whereby Australia was considered empty. By this means the common law rights of Australia’s indigenous people were not recognised.
Accordingly the settlement of Australia by Europeans proceeded with almost no provision or recognition of indigenous land rights. Land was regularly granted inhabitants. In the more fertile parts of the country, land grants (most “in fee simple”) gave title holders exclusive and permanent rights to possess and enjoy the land (that is, to the exclusion of anyone else.) However in the more arid parts of the country, a system of pastoral leases developed where the Crown gave pastoralists rights to pastoral use of the land, but not exclusively. Sometimes the rights of indigenous people to enjoy part of the lands was expressly preserved.
Mabo  Finally in the Mabo case, the High Court was called upon to consider the rights of certain Torres Strait Islanders. These people, despite the success of so much European settlement in Australia, had been in continuous enjoyment of their island home from before the arrival of the British settlers. The High Court was asked to reverse the previous legal precedents which had pretended that Australia was empty at the time of European settlement. Given the opportunity to right a previous legal wrong, the High Court wisely reversed the previous precedent, and declared, that so far as it was still possible, any lands not already granted to settlers could be held by any indigenous people still in occupation.
Why did the High Court do this ? To answer this would require a detailed reading of the judges’ reasons. However, we may say that the decision was an honest one based on undeniable facts about the presence of indigenous Australians in large numbers enjoying the Australian continent at the time of European settlement. Further it applied legal principles which predated European settlement.
At the time of making its decision, the High Court made it clear that the long standing error that had seen the loss by indigenous Australians of vast amounts of their land, could not be effectively reversed with respect of most of that land. Any and all land grants which gave exclusive possession to settlers (and that means almost all the more fertile parts of the country), had extinguished any native title with respect to those lands. Nothing could now be done to reverse this. What could be done, was to make it possible to recognise the possible existence of native title to lands not so granted where indigenous people still enjoyed some connection and use of the land. What was not clear from the Mabo case, was the possible existence of Native Title where land was subject to Pastoral leases.
Wik  Pastoral leases are grants by the Crown of rights to use specified lands but not exclusively. At the same time as the rights of the pastoralists, the leases protect the rights of other users (such as drovers and authorised timber cutters.) The question unanswered in Mabo was whether indigenous Native Title was also protected.
This uncertainty was clarified when the High Court handed down its decision in Wik.
In Wik, the High Court confirmed that pastoralists will continue to enjoy all the rights granted to them under their pastoral leases. This had never been in doubt. However, the court also stated that pastoral leases do not grant to lessees all possible rights to land. This means that indigenous people may still be able to establish some remnant of their common law Native Title with respect to some lands.
Our response  In our respectful opinion, the High Court’s decision was not only right in law but morally sound, and ought to be supported by the people of Australia, and the Christian church in particular.
The Native Title laws now recognised in Australia are not peculiar to our land. They . have long been legally recognised in other countries like U.S.A., Canada and New Zealand. They are rightly recognised, because the inhabitants of conquered counties are vulnerable and deserve legal recognition and protection. As Christians we would claim that those who are weak and helpless are particularly worthy of our concern. Force of arms, even by our ancestors, does not justify theft.
Old Testament law recognised that certain members of society are particularly vulnerable and needed protection. In the patriarchal culture. of Old Testament times, widows orphans and aliens were understood to be vulnerable and God in His grace provided reminders of this numerous times in the law. He placed obligations on the more robust members of society to consider those who were in need.
One of the things that generates our passion in the abortion “debate” is our compassion for the weak and needy and our desire to protect them from the selfish brutality of the strong. By God’s grace, this compassion we feel is a reflection in us of the character and thoughts of God. It should also be felt when we consider the issue of Native Title to land.
As we consider the history of the dealings by the “European” settlers of Australia with its indigenous inhabitants, we find a history of the oppression of the weak by the strong. Now that the High Court has recognised common law rights of indigenous people, we need to ensure that we have a compassionate attitude, and a just attitude to indigenous Australians, so that where possible, further losses of land do not occur.
Where land remains not wholly removed from the possession of indigenous people it seems appropriate (to the extent this is now possible) that we should now act to give the protection that ought to have been given in the days our land was first settled.
In the case of pastoral leases, pastoralists have been operating on the basis of leases and rights of use long established by government custom. They have always deemed these adequate, even though they do not provide for exclusive possession. Now that we are aware of the existence of Native Title rights it seems unnecessary and oppressive for the government to seize any of the remaining rights of use held by indigenous people.
We recognise the fallibility of all human beings, and that questionable Native Title “ambit” claims have been and will be made. However, there is still a foundational issue of justice involved in preserving rights of use (or “Native Title”) of indigenous people, which even our common law recognised, .and so should we.
The committee therefore commends to Assembly the deliverances relating to “Native Title”.
P. C. MOORE, Convener.

Resolutions of the 43rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 

80.  Church and Nation: The report of the Church and Nation Committee and addendum to the report was laid on the table and received.
The Rev. P.C. Moore submitted the deliverance.
By leave of the House in terms of Standing Order 20B, Clause (1) was moved, seconded and approved t
Clause (2) to (3) were approved.
Pursuant to notice the Rev. G.K. Kettniss moved:
That the Assembly:
Affirm that reconciliation between all people can only come about when they embrace the love and grace of Christ.
The motion was seconded and approved.
Clause (4) was approved.
Pursuant to notice the Rev. P.C. Moore moved:
That the Assembly:
In relation to mission to aboriginal people and the National Enquiry into the Separation of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families (“Bringing Them Home”)' (BTH)):
(a) Recognise with gratitude to God the good, appropriate, culturally sensitive, linguistic, God honouring and enduring work done by the Church and her missionaries for the Aboriginal people.
(b) Remain committed to serving the indigenous people of Australia and recommit itself through its committees to sustained promotion of ministry to Aboriginal people.
(c) Note that the report (BTH) describes a sinful racist policy of various governments whereby indigenous children were separated from their parents on the grounds that the parents or one of them was an indigenous person.
(d) Recognise that in relation to that government policy it would have been exceedingly difficult for the church to know the full situation over an extended period covering various administrations.
(e) While it promoted the maintenance of Aboriginal family structures, lobbied the government for Aboriginal welfare and protested against the abuses of Aboriginal people, yet, to the extent that it failed to understand and speak out against that, sinful government policy and, it seems, at times a government policy of neglect towards traditional Aborigines, the church committed a sin of omission and unreservedly apologises to all affected.
(f) Request APWM and PIM to cooperate in an investigation of the Church’s, involvement in the said separation policy and an assessment of harm done, to report to the next General Assembly of Australia with recommendations as to how the Assembly can further put right any harm it has unintentionally caused.
(g) In relation to BTH recommendations 38a, 38b, 39, 40a, 41, (which relate to making available archival material, missions on Aboriginal lands, and the provision of counselling services) request its committees and State assemblies to:
(a) provide any information it may have relating to the forced separation of children from their parents to appropriate government departments.
(b)  identify any church mission stations which may be rightfully returned to the appropriate land council and, upon negotiation with the land council, make a recommendation to the next General Assembly of Australia.
(h) Recognise that its Church and Nation Committee will, upon due thought, prayer and consultation, make further statements relating to Aboriginal issues as appropriate.
The motion was seconded and approved.
The following recorded their dissent:
To the whole motion: Rev. I.H. Barker, G.W. Eastwell, J.B. Stewart, K.T. Martin, P.W. Swinn, Mrs. M.E. Bristow, Messrs. P. Betts, F. Goodson, N. Taylor, S.V. Petherick, J. Watson.
To Clause (c): Mr. R.W. Farr.
To Clauses (c) and (e): Messrs. W.H. Conrow, J.H. McClenahan.
Clauses (c), (e) and (f): Very Rev. Dr. K.J. Gardner, Rev. J.K. Brown, and Mr. G. Bell. Clauses (e) and (f): Messrs. A.L. Crawford, B. Redpath, D.H. Bradley, M.C. Beveridge, B. Layt, D. Lewis, Rev. L. Hall, J.F. Bartholomew.
Clause (f): Rev. I.H. Touzel, G. Kettniss.
Pursuant to notice the Rev. Paul Logan moved:
That the Assembly:
Request the Church and Nation Committee to study the subject of the use and tolerance of blasphemous and profane language to recommend a national strategy to combat this growing phenomenon.
The motion was seconded and approved.
Pursuant to notice the Rev. P.F. Cooper moved:
That the Assembly:
Commend “Breaking the Silence”, a document approved by the General Assembly of N.S.W., which deals with policy and procedures for protecting and dealing with sexual abuse within the church.
The motion was seconded and approved.
By leave of the House, the Rev. M. de Pyle moved:
That the Assembly:
Request the Moderator-General to communicate to the Prime Minister and the Federal Parliament the call of the church for them to energetically pursue uniform legislation throughout the Commonwealth that removes from legal distribution all materials of a violent and pornographic nature.
The motion was seconded and approved.
The deliverance as a whole was approved as follows:
That the Assembly:
(1 )  Amend the regulations of the Church and Nation Committee by the insertion of a new clause (2) to read:
2A. The Committee shall consist of the Conveners elected by all of the State General Assemblies to their Church and Nation Committee or equivalent, or in the absence of a Church and Nation Committee or equivalent, a member elected by the State General Assembly, or where the elected Convener of the State Committee is unable to fulfil duties as a member of the Federal Committee, a member elected by the State Assembly; together with the officers of the General Assembly of Australia.
2B. The Convener shall be elected by the General Assembly of Australia.
(2)   Request the Moderator-General to communicate to the Prime Minister, The Hon.John Howard, M.P. and to the Federal Parliament the appreciation of the church in achieving biartisan support for the enactment of uniform gun controls in the aftermath of the Port Arthur Massacre.
(3)  Acknowledge to the indigenous people of Australia and to Almighty God:
(a)  that under the common law in force in Australia 'as recognised by the High Court in the “Mabo” case, indigenous Australians have rightful entitlements (“Native Title”) to land to which they maintain an appropriate connection, where it has not been granted to competing owners;

Sydney September 1994

Minute 59  pp 202-203
Report pp 19-24, 125-127

Reports of the 42nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 1994 (Page 1)

The committee met twice in the NSW Assembly offices in 1991 to discuss members’ understandings of the regulations governing the committee, and its aims for the coming three years. The convener of the Victorian committee was elected convener for the period till the next GAA. The members agreed to manage business from then onwards by correspondence.
The power of the GAA under the Articles of Agreement to appoint a Church and Nation Committee has been disputed by a member of the committee, and he has urged the committee to seek its dissolution. The Law Agent and the Clerk have advised that the GAA does have the power to appoint the committee and approve its functioning in the matter indicated in its present regulations (and in the amendments to the regulations proposed below). Certainly the GAA had such a committee for many years up to 1988. The committee has sought a ruling from the Code Committee on the matter, and will advise the assembly of its response in a supplementary report.
The functions of the committee as defined in its regulations (as amended in 1991) are:
a. To promote optimum consultation and co-ordination between state committees in order that there may be the most effective handling of public questions that are common to the state committees and which transcend state boundaries; and
b. To issue statements between assemblies.
Commissioners will notice that there is no direct provision in these regulations for the assembly itself to endorse statements prepared by the committee and submitted to it. Therefore the committee recommends that the assembly amend the regulations as below (the changes are underlined):
a. To promote optimum consultation and co-ordination between state committees in order that there may be the most effective handling of public questions that are common to the state committees and which transcend state boundaries; and
b. To issue statements between assemblies, and report thereon to the next subsequent assembly in each case; and
c. Prepare statements on matters falling within the committee’s mandate for approval by the assembly as a guide for public statements by the committee under regulation c. above.
Appropriate clauses are included in the deliverance to enable these changes, should the assembly approve.
The committee has prepared statements on homosexual practices and on abortion, and offers these to the assembly within this report for consideration by commissioners. The deliverance includes the final clauses of these statements for adoption by the assembly.
The document on homosexual practices was supplied to Rev. Lindsay Timms as representative of the Relations With Other Churches Committee of GAA at the Reformed Ecumenical Synod in Athens during May, 1992. That synod had a debate scheduled on the question.
The Committee is bringing an overture to this assembly, with a view to its transmission to assemblies and presbyteries under the Barrier Act, to declare that practicing homosexual persons ought not to be ordained to the teaching eldership. The question is an important one. It was debated at the Reformed Ecumenical Synod in 1991. In this country, persons within the Anglican and Uniting Churches are urging policy changes on the matter. It would be well therefore for this church to state a position as a part of its witness for biblical faith and life.

Abortion
When the subject of abortion is debated a number of issues arise, but eventually one crucial question takes precedence – what is the status of the foetus? Is it merely a piece of tissue, a collection of cells, which is disposable? Or is it a human being with the right to life?
The Scriptures say nothing directly about abortion but we do well to remember the important principle laid down in the Westminster Confession of Faith: “The whole counsel of God, concerning. all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deducted from scripture (I:VI). Deductions from relevant scriptural passages enable us to determine the biblical attitude to abortion.
The Bible affirms that the child in the womb is the creation of God. Speaking through His prophet, Isaiah, God declares:
"But now listen, 0 Jacob, my servant,
Israel, whom I have chosen.
This is what the Lord says –
he who made you, who formed you in the womb,
and who will help you:
Do not be afraid, 0 Jacob, my servant,
Jeshurun, whom I have chosen" (44:1,2).
The same conviction is expressed in Job 31: 13-15:
"If I have denied justice to my menservants and
maidservants when they had a grievance against me,
What will I do when God confronts me?
What will I answer when called to account?
Did not he who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?"
This same truth is stated with greater emphasis and with more detail in Psalm 139. The First International Conference on Abortion meeting in 1967 in Washington DC declared: “We can find no point of time between the union of sperm and egg and the birth of an infant at which point we can say that this is not a human life.” (33) The strongest confirmation in Scripture for this view is to be found in Psalm 139, in which the author marvels at God's omniscience (vv.1-6), and omnipresence (vv. 7-12), and in the course of his meditation makes important statements about our pre-natal existence. The psalmist affirms two important truths. The first concerns his creation:
"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (v. 13).
Two homely metaphors are used to illustrate God’s creative skill, namely, the expert artisan and the weaver.
“My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths
of the earth" (v. 15).
The author again employs figurative language. “My frame” refers to his bones, and “in the depths of the earth” to the womb in which he was so amazingly fashioned.
“Your eyes say my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be” (v.16).
“My unformed body” (Hebrew, “Golen”) denotes the undeveloped embryo, all the elements of which were observed by the Creator. Indeed, each day of his life was pre-determined by God and recorded in His book before one of them had actually dawned. The author is thus convinced that the process of embryonic growth is not haphazard, but a divine work of creative skill.
The psalmist’s second emphasis is on continuity. He is now an adult and looks back over his life even beyond the time when he was born. He refers to himself by the same pronouns “I” and “me”, because he knows that during his ante-natal and post-natal life he was and is the same person. He surveys his existence in four stages: first (v. I) “you have searched me” (the past); secondly, (vv. 2,3,) “you know when I sit and when I rise; ... you are familiar with all my ways” (the present); thirdly, (v.lO) “your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (the future); and fourthly (v.13) “you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (the pre-natal stage). Yet, in all four stages: before birth, from birth to the present, at the present moment, and in the future he refers to himself as “I”. He who is thinking and writing as a grown man has the same personal identity as the foetus in the womb. Before and after birth, he is the same person.

Elsewhere in Scripture, the unborn are treated as human beings. Thus, while still in embryonic form, they can be consecrated in the service of God. God announced to Jeremiah:
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (1:5).
The “servant” in Isaiah knew that he had been predestinated before birth to be God’s messenger:
"Listen to me, you islands;
hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the. Lord called me;
from my birth he has made mention
of my name: (49:1).
Turning to the New Testament, we read that John the Baptist, before he was born, leapt for joy in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth, when Mary shared with her that she would be the mother of the Messiah: “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in the womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44).
We notice, also, that the same Greek word (“brephos”) is used in Luke's gospel to describe the unborn John the Baptist (1:41. 44), the new-born Jesus (2:12, 16), and the young children who were brought to Jesus (18: 15). Although at different stages of life, they are all regarded as human beings.
It is fully in keeping with this implied continuity that the Apostles’ Creed affirms that Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit; born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; ... the third day He rose from the dead...” Throughout these events, Jesus was and is the very same Jesus who was conceived in the womb of His virgin mother.
From the study of the above verses of Scripture, we can draw the following inferences. The Bible consistently teaches that the unborn child must be treated as a person. The sanctity of his or her life is thus acknowledged, therefore he or she is entitled to constant protection, consideration and care. To abort an embryo would be viewed in the same light as killing a child or an adult, and would be tantamount to murder.
Therefore, abortion is always unacceptable except when at last two competent medical authorities (other than the person under consideration to perform the operation) deem the abortion essential to protect the life of the mother when that is threatened with immediate death should the pregnancy continue (A caesarean section to save the life of an unborn child (or children) should not be confused with abortion). If and when the rare contingency noted in the previous clause arises, everything medically possible should be done to seek the continuation of the lives in danger. Abortion is an improper means of birth control or of avoiding parental responsibilities in the case of “unwanted” pregnancies.

Homosexual Practices
1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals (malakoi oute arseuokoitai), nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Galatians 6.1 “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted.”
One of the most disturbing trends today is the pressure being brought to bear for liberalisation of the laws relating to sexual behaviour. While some review is undoubtedly needed, the great cry is for the recognition of a homosexual lifestyle as a legitimate lifestyle, as valid as that of heterosexual chastity before marriage and heterosexual fidelity within marriage; and for it to be put forward, and even taught as such, in our education system. Some Churches now argue that homosexual “marriage” be sanctioned by the provision of wedding services by the church, that practising homosexuals be admitted to the Lord’s Supper and that ordination to the ruling and teaching elderships be permitted for such persons.
AsChristians, our task is to (1) Determine what the Bible has to say on this matter; and (2) Allow the Bible’s teaching to direct our response.
In 1970, the General Assembly of Australia stated “That the Assembly declare that they do not condone any mutual homosexual acts.” The Assembly has not subsequently modified its position.
The Old Testament specifically condemns all homosexual behaviour as an abomination, with the death penalty as its sanction. (Leviticus 18.22f, 20.13). The New Testament is clear that homosexual conduct is dishonourable, unnatural and shameful (Romans 1.26-27); it states that, apart from repentance, it excludes the doer from salvation (1 Corinthians 6.9-10) The Book of Revelation indicates that practising homosexuals are excluded from the tree of life and the holy city (Revelation 22.15).
All invitations of the gospel encourage all persons without exception to come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith for salvation. No classes of persons are excluded. Scripture notes former homosexuals in the Corinthian church but is clear that they have abandoned this practice (1 Corinthians 6.9-12).
The Scriptures uniformly indicate that, though God will finally judge every sinner who refuses to turn to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, God does not desire the death of the wicked, but rather that he or she should turn from his wickedness and live (Ezekiel 18.30-32; 2 Peter 3.9). God, in common grace, also extends many blessings, less than salvation, to even the worst of men and women (Matthew 5.45). Consistently with this, the Christian Church should seek to exercise ministries of compassion and to evangelise all sinners, including homosexual sinners.
Consistently with the compassion and holiness of God noted in the previous clauses, Christian congregations and Christian believers are not permitted to ignore the gross sins of fellow believers, but are required in a humble spirit, and with awareness of their own weaknesses, to seek to bring the brother or sister to repentance (Galatians 6.1; 1 Corinthians 5.1-12).
Therefore, homosexual practices ,are sin and exclude the doer from salvation until the person repents and trusts in Jesus Christ. Marriage is the union before God, and at law, of a heterosexual couple. The family ought not to be redefined so as to permit homosexual marriage or to permit homosexual couples to adopt or foster children. The person who comes to Christ honestly seeking to leave this lifestyle will find Christ able to liberate from this sin. The Church, in a humble spirit, is to exercise ministries of compassion towards, and to evangelise homosexual persons.
John Ellis, Convener.

CHURCH AND NATION (Addendum)
Concerning the Proposed Republic
The present Federal Government is working towards the abolition of the monarchy in Australia and its replacement by a republican form of government. At present the Prime Minister is arguing in terms of minimal adjustments to the Australian Constitution in order to effect this change. The Australian Democrats are seeking wider changes to the Constitution, including among other things, four year fixed terms for the House of Representatives, a requirement that all ministers of state be members of the House of Representatives, and adjustments to state and local government powers. The coalition at the time of writing is divided on the matter.
The people of God in Old Testament times lived under various forms of government. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were heads of family living a semi-nomadic life style in Palestine. They were independent of local petty kings and rulers, though sometimes seeking to enter into treaty arrangements with them. Jacob, at the end of his life, was resident in Egypt, and subject to his son Joseph, the Pharaoh's chief minister.
Until the Exodus, the Israelite people continued as subjects of the Pharaoh. Moses, who ruled Israel during the wilderness period, was God's representative and effectively king. After his death there was no formal central government. Judges rose up from time to time to deliver Israel from invaders and raiders. These often continued, after victory, to have a judicial function among the people.
Deuteronomy made provision for the establishment of a central government under a king and in due time, first Saul, and then the Davidic dynasty came to power. This dynasty collapsed at the Babylonian conquest. After the Return from exile, the people were governed by Persian appointees. At the time of Jesus, subject to Roman oversight, the High Priest and sanhedren held political, judicial and executive as well as religious power.
The Davidic covenant indicates that his dynasty is intended by God to rule forever over Israel. Other Old Testament passages reaffirm this and argue that that rule will ultimately extend over all nations. The New Testament looks forward to a perfect fulfilment of these promises in a future reign of Christ. Different millennial schemes offer different understandings of the details of this fulfilment. These things understood, it becomes impossible to argue from the Davidic covenant that Australia should retain the Windsor dynasty as Head of State.
It is impossible to argue that the Queen, even under present arrangements, functions as a monarch in the biblical sense of the concept. In Israel, in the time of the monarchy, kings held effective legislative, executive and judicial power. Queen Elizabeth has not in any meaningful sense such powers in Australia. It is therefore not reasonable to seek to defend the present arrangements with respect of our Head of State from the Old Testament monarchy.
The New Testament urges christians to respect and submit to the civil power as an intrumentality of God's common grace. The civil power under which the church lived at the time of writing the New Testament at the highest level was the Emperor at Rome and his administration. It is impossible to argue from these passages in defence of modern constitutional monarchial government. The most that can be effectively argued from these passages is respect for and submission to – as far as the law of Christ allows – the civil powers that are. This last point in itself does not preclude christian people debating or actively changing new arrangements as to our nation’s Head of State.
Christian people therefore are not obligated by scripture to defend the Monarchy, or to support the proposal that Australia become a republic. In these matters we are to argue, and vote, according to the light of christian prudence, always subject to the general principles of the Word of God.
There is a related concern to which christians should give careful attention. The historical basis of the National Constitution and our system of government and law is the Bible. This understanding has been largely lost or neglected by citizens at large and by our elected representatives. Christians will do well to examine any proposed constitutional changes for evidence of further erosion of the historic Judaeo-Christian personal and social ethic. We should resist such erosion with our prayers and all other resources.
John Ellis, Convener.

Resolutions  of the 42nd General Assembly  of the Presbyterian Church of Australia

59. Church and Nation Committee: The report of the Church and Nation
Committee was laid on the table and received..
The Rev J.C. Ellis submitted the deliverance.
Clause (2) was approved.
Clause (3) was moved and seconded.
A point of order was raised concerning Standing Order 57.
The Moderator ruled that Standing Order 57 concerning the “Previous Question” referred to the whole matter before the House and the effect of carrying such a motion against a clause would be that the House would depart from the entire report. Dissent was moved from the Moderator’s ruling.
The Moderator’s ruling was disagreed with.
The Previous Question was moved on Clause (3) and disapproved.
It was resolved to deal with the clause sub-section by sub-section.
By leave of the House the Rev A.C. McMillan moved as an amendment that the Assembly delete all words after “sin” in Clause (3)(a).
Arising from the debate the Rev Prof D.J.W. Milne moved that the Assembly delete the following words “and exclude the doer from salvation until that person repents and trusts in Jesus Christ” from Clause (3)(a).
The amendment to the amendment was approved.
The amendment as amended was approved.
The motion as amended was approved.
Clauses (3)(b) and (c) were approved.
Pursuant to notice the Rev J.C. Ellis moved:
That the Assembly:
Note that Scripture does not require Christian people to support either constitutional monarchical government as now existing in Australia or a republican form of government.
The motion was seconded.
Arising from the debate the Rev L. Percy moved:
That the Assembly insert the words “the form of” between the words “either” and “constitutional”.
The amendment was seconded and approved.
The motion as amended was approved.
Pursuant to notice the Rev C.D. Balzer moved:
That the Assembly:
Thank and discharge the Church and Nation Committee. The motion was seconded and disapproved.
Clause (1) was approved.
The deliverance as a whole was approved as follows: That the Assembly:
(1) Determine that:
(a) Abortion is always unacceptable except when at least two competent medical authorities (other than the person under consideration to perform the operation) deem the abortion essential to protect the life of the mother when that is threatened with immediate death should the pregnancy continue. (A caesarean section to save the life of an unborn child (or children) should not be confused with abortion).
(b) If and when the rare contingency noted in the previous clause arises, everything medically possible should be done to seek the continuation of the lives in danger.
(c) Abortion is an improper means of birth control or of avoiding parental responsibilities in the case of “unwanted” pregnancies.
(2) Determine that:
(a) Homosexual practices are sin. The person who comes to Christ honestly seeking to leave this lifestyle will find Christ able to liberate from this sin.
(b) Marriage is the union before God, and at law, of a heterosexual couple.
The family ought not to be redefined so as to permit homosexual marriage or to permit homosexual couples to adopt or foster children.
(c) The Church, in a humble spirit, is to exercise ministries of compassion towards, and to evangelise homosexual persons.
(3) Note the Scripture does not require people to support either the form of constitutional monarchical government as now existing in Australia or a republican form of government.
(4) Amend section 3 of the regulations of the Church and Nation Committee by:
(a) Deleting all words in clause b. and replacing them with the following words:
“To issue statements between assemblies, and report thereon to the next subsequent assembly in each case”; and
(b) Adding an additional clause as clause c. with the following words: “Prepare statements on matters falling within the committee’s mandate for approval by the assembly as a guide for public statements by the committee under clause b. above.

Sydney September 1991

Minutes p 202
Report pp 16 – 21

Reports of the 41st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 1991

Towards a Christian Approach to the Environment

  The 1988 report of the G.A.A. Church and Nation Committee calls for the construction of a “sound theology of the environment” by the Presbyterian Church, and then for its application. This paper is not the definitive statement felt to be desired, but rather offers some theological considerations to be borne in mind in the discussion. It does not deal with the practicalities of stewardship of the environment, but suggests a framework within which that stewardship can be fostered.
To raise, at this stage, the subject of a distinctively Christian approach to environmental concerns may seem to many to be typical of the church’s penchant for espousing causes after they may have begun to wane in importance on the agenda of the community at large.
It may also seem somewhat impudent to speak of a Christian concern, when, in the eyes of many, it is the- “Christian” capitalist economic system, with its emphasis on human enterprise and domination of the environment, which is largely to blame for our present ecological “crisis”.
Christians must indeed admit our failure to be sensitive to the effect our actions may have on our physical environment, just as we must admit our failings in the breakdown of personal relationships. There are times when we allow ourselves to be motivated by selfishness and a desire for a greater share of the world’s resources than can equitably be justified. We seek to minimise personal effort and maximise personal comfort, with little consideration for long-term consequences. We do not always love our neighbours as we love ourselves, particularly when we bear in mind that those “neighbours” include generations yet to be born.
But this moralising does not deal with the question: Is there a distinctively Christian theological approach, and do we have the right to make it heard? It may strike some as odd even to speak of theology and ecology in the same sentence. Does not theology have to do with God and our personal relationship with him, with the soul, with heaven, with “spiritual” matters? What bearing can this have on ecology, which has to do with the study of the physical environment, its complex interactions, and the measures to be taken to enhance the prospects of its preservation? Does the Bible not make a clear distinction between this world and the world to come? Did Jesus not say that his kingdom is not of this world? Can ecology, then, be of any concern to theologians?
We need to clear up a common misunderstanding. When the Bible speaks of “this world” as distinct from the “world to come”, it is not so much a contrast between the material world we experience with our eyes and ears, and a non-material world which will one day replace the material world and make it redundant. Such thinking, which regards the physical as unimportant, if not actually evil, owes its origin to pagan Gnosticism. This non-Christian view has infected the church, but it is to be rejected as incompatible with biblical orthodoxy.
One way of ,looking at Theology is to regard it as the process of applying what we understand about God and his revelation to the whole of reality. Or to put it another way, theology is looking at everything from the perspective of those who know that this is God’s world, that we are dependent on him for everything, including our processes of thought. Our ultimate authority in all things is the mind of God as he has expressed this in the Scriptures.
On this basis, land degradation, for example, becomes just as much a theological issue as the atonement, for (on God’s testimony) we have a close affinity with the dust of the ground. It is by cultivating the soil (on the dry land which God has separated from the waters) that our life in the world in which God has placed us is sustained.
It may be asked: If Christian theology claims to be of any value in dealing with the environment, why, then, does it wait until now to address the issue? It would be unreasonable to expect that Christians would have applied their minds to the implications of the biblical revelation for specific environmental issues such as global warming or the ozone layer before there were any data to indicate these as problem areas. To require this is to misunderstand the nature of the theological task. It is only since the industrial revolution that we have begun to have the capacity for large-scale environmental degradation. And it is only in the past few decades that many of the consequences of our industrial activities have become apparent. Nor is it true that Christians have only latterly become concerned about such issues. Christians have long had a viewpoint on the natural world. The tradition of writing commentaries on the Biblical text has ensured this. And Christian voices have been raised on ecological issues from the early days of modern discussion. Francis Schaeffer (Pollution and the Death of Man, 1970) and E.F. Schunacher Small is Beautiful, 1973) are two which come to mind.
Theology is the application of biblical principles to present needs. It is only when a problem (actual or potential) has been identified, along with the factors contributing to it, that the Bible may be studied for the insights it may bring to bear on a solution.
The frame of reference which the biblical writers adopted is of fundamental importance for any Christian view of the world. This can be briefly set out under the categories of Creation, Rebellion and Resurrection. These do not stand in isolation from each other, but represent the progression to be found in the Scripture. In particular, creation and rebellion form the backdrop for the redemptive work of God in Christ culminating in the resurrection.

Creation
It is generally to the doctrine of creation that recourse is made when a Christian approach to the environment is in view. This world is God’s world. The personal, all-powerful and loving God designed it as a fit place for him to live with us and for us to enjoy him. All we need in order to sustain our lives in fellowship with him has been provided. The twofold account of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 makes it plain that God designed the world as a perfect place, with mankind as the focus of the physical creation. Mankind is the climax (chapter 1) and the primary concern (chapter 2) of God’s creative activity.
It is this unashamed man-focussed nature of the Bible’s account which causes so much criticism by non-Christians. Lynn White, writing in “Science” in 1961, was one of the first to charge Christianity with being bankrupt of the values which would tend to the conservation of the planet, and being responsible for the greed and arrogance of our species. It has become commonplace among conservationists to applaud the spiritual values of animism, or eastern religions in which each living thing finds its significance apart from mankind and either has its own spirit-force, or is absorbed into the cosmic whole.
There is also considerable embarrassment on the part of many Christians and a rush to deny an anthropocentric cast to the Christian view of the world. Thus Christian authors such as Ian Bradley (God is Green) would prefer a panentheist approach – god is immersed in everything, and everything is of equal worth, including people. This obscures the clear distinction between the Creator and the creature on the one hand, and between humans and the non-human world on the other.
The real problem is not that too much attention has been paid to the Bible’s view of mankind and the world, but too little. It is only on the foundation of a Christian view of our pre-eminent position in God’s world that concern for the environment has any basis. Just as it was the world-view of Christianity which spawned modern physics and chemistry, so it is the Christian world-view alone which can truly provide a foundation for a proper and an enduring environmental science.
The destructive effects of human activity on the globe will not be diminished by downplaying the position we occupy in the world. If we consider ourselves merely as one species of mammal which has managed to achieve a temporary dominance in the evolutionary struggle, the degradation of our habitat becomes simply the mechanism for our ultimate replacement by some other life-form better adapted to living in whatever our planet may become. On this view, we have no rationale, apart from selfishness, for preserving an environment to which we are adapted, when the world has known innumerable climatic changes, some of which are less conducive to human life, but more so to other life forms. If what counts is the gaia principle (the planet conceived of as a single living organism, purposefully working in the interests of its survival), then the constituent parts lose rather than gain in significance.
The biblical picture is very different. The earth with its teeming life was not designed for an existence independent of human care. People, as we were created, are not the intruders in a universe which has no need for our species. Even in its state of perfection the world required the human activity of tilling and caring for the ground. All animal life, all plants (with one, perhaps temporary, exception), and the minerals in the earth are there for the benefit of the human race (Gen. 2). Even the functions of the sun, moon and stars are described in terms of human activities (Gen.1, Ps.104). The Psalmist reflects with awe on this exalted position of man, under whose feet all things have been placed (Psalm 8).
An instructive illustration of this man-focussed view is to be found at the time of the conquest of Canaan. the Israelites were not immediately to drive out all of the inhabitants (who were under God’s judgment) for a sound environmental reason – Israel would need time to consolidate each state of the conquest or the wild animal populations would multiply without human control (Deut.1:22).
But there is no mandate in the Bible for a greedy exploitation of the earth’s resources. While it is true that the word translated “subdue” (Genesis 1:28) is a forceful word, this is to be understood in the context of the preceding reference to man male and female) as being God’s “image”. It is as a replica, in a sense, of God that mankind’s authority over the creation is to be exercised. Our rule is to mirror God’s. If God is concerned for long-term consequences in the manner in which he exercises his rule, then we must be concerned also. If God is concerned with even the seemingly insignificant creatures (the wildflowers, the sparrows that are sold for a few cents) then so it should be with us.
This long-term commitment by God to the preservation of his world can be seen in the fact that (though he had every right to) God did not destroy what he had made and pronounced good. At every stage, God took measures to ensure the preservation of the creation. At the time of the judgment of the flood, provision was made for the preservation not only of the human race, but of all species. It is instructive to note that man was God’s agent in this process.
Further pointers to God’s pattern for human care of the environment may be seen in the sabbatical year in which the land was to lie fallow and in the prohibition on ,taking both a mother bird and her eggs for food (Deut.22:6). That the eggs but not the mother may be taken is a simple paradigm of sustainability. Even in time of war, the physical environment is to be respected for the benefit it brings to people (Deut.20:19).
On a biblical view, each aspect of God's creation has value not at the expense of the centrality of mankind, but precisely in relation to that special place which we occupy under God. Nor can this value of the creation for mankind be reduced to economic terms - as though we had to find a specific use for a species to justify its preservation. There are the less tangible benefits of the richness, the beauty and the diversity which God’s creation brings to our lives, leading us to a greater appreciation of the wisdom and grandeur of God (Ps.104).

Rebellion
The second major theological point of reference, already anticipated above, is the rebellion of the human race (beginning in Genesis 3) and the far-reaching effect this has had on our physical environment and our relationship with it.
This world as we presently experience it is an aberration. Illness and death are abnormal experiences. Pollution, famine, and cyclones are the consequences (direct and indirect) of our rebellion. Even the most pessimistic contemporary projections of environmental catastrophe cannot match the language of Jeremiah 4, or that of the author of the visions of Revelation 8 and 9. These biblical authors lay the blame for their cataclysmic scenarios at the feet of mankind.
We read in Genesis 3 of God’s “curse” on the ground. The word “curse” is not to be thought of in terms of an uncontrolled outburst of temper. Rather it is a fixed and righteous response of a holy God to the subversion of the proper order of things. Curse is the opposite of blessing. Blessing has to do with people and the things around them functioning properly in relation to God's intentions. Blessing is so often portrayed, for example, in terms of the coming of rain, the fertility of crops and vines and the well-being of flocks and herds. Cursing, then, is a deliberate pronouncement that all is not well, that the creation order of things has been violated. It is a judgment commensurate with the nature of the offence. Ecclesiastes portrays the effects of the curse thus: “What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted” (Eccl.1:15) and invites us to “consider what God has done. Who can straighten what he has made crooked?” (Eccl. 7:13) The apostle Paul expressed the current relationship of the physical universe to the Creator in these words, “The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it …" (Romans 8:20).
Biblical realism demands that we take account of the fallen condition of our world. we realise that it will not be by our efforts that utopia will be ushered in. But this does not mean that we are not to strive to overcome the effects of sin. Though we fail to arrive at perfection in this present age, we press on towards the goal. we do this on the basis of God’s promise to overcome the effects of the curse (Gen.3:15) and the outworking of this promise in the redemptive work of Christ (see below).
This is so in every area, including that of our environment. Thorns and weeds there will be, but we do not despair. Just as we rightly work at alleviating human sickness and suffering, so we expend our sweat in overcoming, at least in partial ways, the effects of the curse on the ground. In this, we must realise that our “cures” will have their side-effects, and it will often be a case of finding the least harmful of the alternatives.
The inbuilt frustrations to which the earth is now subject are compounded by our selfishness. In our greed, we display an insatiable appetite for more consumer goods, to the point where we deprive others of even the basic necessities for life. We will need to rethink our attitude to economic growth and an ever increasing “standard of living”. The true cost of our consumer goods is to be calculated on the basis of a sustainable use of resources, costing in factors for recycling or safe waste disposal. If this is to be achieved, we must resist our ingrained approach to the “cost of living” which dictates that wages must rise by at least the same percentage as prices. Stewardship of the environment will be costly.
We also need to consider from a Christian framework the role of the state in regulating such matters. While many Christians would argue for a laissez-faire approach (letting market forces dominate), a good case can be made for the position that the state’s role in promoting good and restraining evil (Romans 13), extends to fostering the protection of our human environment – the earth, water, and air, the plant and animal life on which our livelihood and well-being depend. Christians ought to be urging the state to exercise its responsibility to create the conditions (with appropriate incentives and disincentives) for long-term environmental care. The individual consumer ought not to have to pay a penalty for purchasing dolphin-safe tuna and unbleached paper products when the benefits of this choice are shared by the whole society. On a Christian understanding of our self-seeking nature, we have no reason to hope that every person will act in the best interests of society if it is not also made to be in his or her own best interest.

Resurrection
At first glance, the Christian doctrine of the resurrection would seem to have little to do with ecological concerns. Ecology has to do with the here and now, while the resurrection would seem to be concerned with the hereafter.
But it is the doctrine of the resurrection, beginning with the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the “first fruits” (1 Cor. 15), which brings hope not only for us as individuals, but for the world we share. The choice of “resurrection” rather than the more customary “redemption” here is deliberate. First, it draws our attention to a much neglected aspect of the work of Christ. We focus in too restricted a manner on his death as the saving event, and fail to see the redemptive significance of the resurrection (e.g. Rom. 4:25). Secondly, it serves to bring into sharper focus the goal in view for the creation rather than the means by which this end is achieved.
The quotation from Romans 8 above was incomplete, for the context (particularly verses 18 to 25) is about the cosmic reconciliation of the physical universe. This .is closely linked with bodily redemption of the “sons of God.” Then the creation will be “liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The present period of agonising anticipation is like that of a woman in the labour ward.
The reconciliation of all things – “things on earth” and “things in heaven” – is dependent on the work of Christ, the “image of the invisible God” in whom the fullness of God is to be seen, and who, following his peace-making work on the cross, became “the firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:15-20).
The resurrection of Christ, the guarantee of our resurrection, gives significance to the whole of our physical world. So, too, does his incarnation. But it is the resurrection which, following the judgment of God on sin, pre-eminently demonstrates God’s commitment not to walk away from his creation, but to be fully and personally identified with it.
The stress in the Bible is consistently on the earth as the sphere of God’s saving activity. It is to this world that he sent his Son. It is our flesh which he has taken on, and which, now transformed, he shares with us for eternity. It is to this earth that he is to return to reign forever. It is to this earth that the heavenly Jerusalem is pictured as coming down. The hope of Christians is not a future disembodied state in some ethereal realm, but a resurrection body, like that of Jesus. This renewed body has its home on a renewed earth from which every form of pollution has been removed. God has not allowed the effects of our rebellion (destruction and death) to frustrate his good purposes. All things will be made new.
This goes beyond a mere restoration of things as they were in the beginning. It is a glorious fulfilment and transformation of all of the potential that was there in the garden. Consider the symbolism of the gold and the precious stones, which are no longer buried under the ground, but which now adorn the city (Revelation 21).
The whole of God’s saving plan has been moving towards the restoration and the perfection of our relationship with the physical environment just as much as it has been concerned with the restoration of our relationship with God and with other people.
This is not a prescription for complacency, as though we can sit back and wait passively for the resurrection. Rather it is the encouragement we need to spur us on in our present struggle. We live with the knowledge that the battle has been won through the victory of Christ. The resurrection is the vindication of all of God’s creative purposes. Each seemingly small act of. conservation or reclamation finds its significance in the light of the ultimate cosmic restoration which began with the victory over sin and death in the person of Christ.
The humanist ultimately has no solutions. We may learn much from non-Christians concerning the nature and scope of the problems we face. We may commend and work with those who demonstrate a concern for the environment in many ways. But humanism has ultimately nothing to offer beyond a pronouncement of doom upon this planet, and (paradoxically) some cheap romantic notions and quick technological fixes.
The Christian community is well placed to set a lead, both at the neighbourhood and global levels. We have the truth, and we have the structures which make it feasible to communicate and refine approaches to conservation. Our role as “salt” is as a preservative, restraining the tendencies around us to environmental degradation as much as moral corruption, for both are a perversion of God’s purposes. This will involve us in supporting government initiatives to this end, as well as making personal adjustments in lifestyle.
There is much that can be done, and it is to be hoped that Christians with more technical expertise will exercise their minds within a Christian framework and help us all in implementing practical approaches to a more obedient and responsible fulfilment of the mandate to subdue the earth.

John Davies
March 1991

Resolutions  of the 41st General Assembly  of the Presbyterian Church of Australia

153. Church and Nation Committee: Pursuant to notice the Rev. J.F. Boyall moved:
That the Assembly:
(1) Amend the regulations of the Election of Standing and Other Committees, clause (5)(b) by deleting the number “12” for the number of elected members to the Church and Nation Committee and inserting the number “3”.
(2) Amend the Regulations of the Church and Nation Committee in Clause 2 by deleting all words after “The Committee shall consist of” and inserting the words “the Conveners of the corresponding State Assembly Committees of N.S.W., Queensland and Victoria, who shall appoint a convener, the Victorian Convener to convene the first meeting, and as consulting members the Conveners of the committees in the other states;”
(3) Amend the Regulations of the Church and Nation Committee in Clause 3 by deleting all words after “It shall be the function of the committee to” and inserting the words
(a) to promote optimum consultation and co-ordination between State Committees in order that there may be the most effective handling of public questions that are common to the committees and that transcend State boundaries;
(b) issue statements between Assemblies.
The motion was seconded and approved.
Pursuant to notice the Rev. J.F. Boyall moved:
That the Assembly:
(4) Request the Finance Committee to allocate up to $1,500 for the Church and Nation Committee. The motion was seconded and approved.

Brisbane September 1988

Minutes pp 28 - 29
Reports pp 144 - 150

Reports of the 40th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 1988
At Brisbane and within St Paul’s Church, St Paul’s Terrace, on Wednesday, 14th September, 1988 at 9.30 am.

 The New South Wales Church and Nation Committee, while continuing to act for the General Assembly of Australia, has been mainly unsuccessful in its aim of involving as corresponding members the conveners of similarly styled committees appointed by the General Assemblies of other States. We trust that the clause in the deliverance requesting the Clerk of each other State General Assembly to supply the convener’s name and address to the Clerk of the New South Wales General Assembly will solve this problem of communication.
Seven presbyteries and six kirk sessions responded to the remit of the papers on In Vitro Fertilisation and associated issues. In general they commended the papers, but the Committee is very conscious of the fact pointed out in three responses that a further, up-to-date paper is called for from the Church. We have begun to address this need. While artificial insemination by husband and in vitro fertilisation for lawfully wedded couples were generally endorsed, artificial insemination by donor, genetic engineering and cloning were universally condemned.
It would be impossible to bring to a general assembly which meets no more frequently than at intervals of three years many social and moral issues confronting the nation. To this session of .the General Assembly we bring an introductory paper on Environmental Stewardship and some brief comments on The Australian Federal Constitution, under consideration for amendment in the near future.
K.J. Swan,
Convener.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
Reverend I.G. Stewart
To date, theologians and members of the Christian Church have concentrated their theology and ways of worship on two relationships: Man to God and Man to Man. The third vital relationship, Man to Environment, seems to have been either ignored or abused. Evidence of this claim, negative though it is, lies in the almost total neglect of environmental stewardship in our theological writings and in our prayers and in our selection of passages from the scriptures. While some occupiers and users of the land are faithful stewards, many people fail to exercise land stewardship. It would seem that rather than ‘fill the earth and subdue it’. Man has misinterpreted the following Scripture:

You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with honour and glory. You made him ruler over the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet. (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 8:5)

So he has suited his own sinful covetousness by exploiting the environment and engaging in the mad, almost universal, scramble for materialistic prosperity.
Now the Christian Church is challenged to reconsider the theological attitudes in a world whose members should embrace that lifestyle which is pleasing to God and by which they can best ‘glorify Him and enjoy Him forever’. To date the Church seems to have failed in this reconsideration.
Although individual theologians and worshippers have confessed to the sin of abusing the environment, and have petitioned God for guidance for the future, total denominations and the universal Church seem not to have done so. Yet the Church can influence people to be better stewards of the environment by encouraging its members to exercise careful land stewardship, to take a forthright stance on the issue of environmental care, and to construct an acceptable theology to become integral to the activities and worship of all believers. It could be argued strongly that only the theological approach to environmental stewardship would have no chance of success. The approaches of ecologists and conservationists will not achieve great success until people’s spiritual attitudes are motive by the desire to care for the environment as God directed and for His glorification.
In his paper Soul Conservation: People Religion and Land (April 1986), Dr. Brian Roberts, President of the Soil Conservation Association of Australia and a member of the staff of Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education at Toowoomba Queensland, has explored the topic environmental stewardship. He has concluded that primitive peoples exhibit a better theological attitude towards land than do modern sophisticates. As evidence of this he quotes Chief Seattle, who said to the President of the United States in 1854, ‘the earth does not belong to man: man belongs to the earth.’ Roberts describes this nineteenth century view of a non-Christian as ‘the most beautiful and profound statement on the environment ever made’.
Moreover, the Australian Aborigines have always felt that the earth owned them, so that land rights take on spiritual meaning for them, as Broome points out in Aboriginal Australians.
A writer of a letter to the editor of The Australian of 29th September, 1987 made much the same point when he said:

“for 40,000 years the Aboriginal people intentionally cared for the environment, their culture revolved around understanding and conserving it, they were for 40,000 years the perfect conservationists. Yet in a mere 200 years European settlers have, through ignorance and greed, destroyed millions of tonnes of topsoil, annihilated scores of living species, squandered half of our forest resources, silted our rivers.”

 Although not all of the interpretations of the first sentence may stand scrutiny in the face of contemporary knowledge of the less-than-advanced state of primitive Aboriginal culture, those of the second sentence are indisputable, as any journey through the country areas of New South Wales alone would only too quickly reveal.
Visual and statistical evidence shows the stability and productivity of available arable land are declining. A tour of the Riverina district of New South Wales reveals significant areas of salt-encrusted and/or windswept land which is the result of the thoughtlessness of mankind.
Brian Roberts cites evidence to prove that the total area of cropland in the world is declining by 7 per cent per annum. In Australia we are losing the fight to save our soil because 51 per cent of our arable land is detrimentally affected by erosion and salinity: of that 51 per cent, water. erosion affects 71 per cent, wind erosion 14 per cent, vegetation 13 per cent, and salinity 2 per cent. Roberts asserts that ‘on a per capita basis Australians have destroyed 11.2 hectares compared to 3.5 hectares in the United States of America since settlement.’ This problem seems to have arisen because people have either been too ignorant (mainly in the past) or too greedy (probably in every age) to live with the strengths and to protect the weaknesses of the environment. Support for this view comes from Ian McHarg when he says that ‘man is an epidemic multiplying at a super exponential rate, destroying the environment upon which he depends and threatening his own extinction’. Fines and imprisonment would not alter this attitude. The altering of attitudes is the lot of the Church because it alone, of all the world’s institutions, is interested in directing people’s activities towards the supreme standards: those established by the provider, Almighty God. Proper environmental use calls for realising its God-given potential. This can require a ‘caring-sharing-respecting’ partnership between Man and his environment.
Scriptural grounds for this are that believers should obey God respecting His creation (Genesis 1:28 et al).
The Church has failed. Various passages of Scripture endure us to exert dominion, to subdue, to replenish, to multiply. The Church seems to have identified relationships only of God/Man, Man/Man, and God/Earth. The missing link, Man/Earth, has been all but ignored. Indeed, it has been grossly neglected in Christian countries, where the Church has put the idea in the ‘too-hard basket’, has avoided conservation issues, has thought conservationists are threats to economic survival, and has perhaps at times overplayed its theological stance that ‘man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever’. That Christians, generally, have been arrogant towards land is proved by the fact that land- abuse is rife in countries where Christianity is the predominant or even the state religion.
Resolution of the problem relies not on more and new technology but on proper attitudes which have to move from the anthropocentric to the cosmological.
If Christians feel close to God, then they should feel close to one another and to the environment in which God-given life is lived. Just as Christians are told to love one another, so can they only do this well if they utilise the world about them in God’s way. How can any believer claim to be close to God and to his neighbour when he is abusing the environment to fill his own plate while starving families huddle over a bowl of powdered milk? Just as God’s people have been told to care for the environment (Genesis 1:28 et al), so they must realize that they are but leaseholders from God, the Owner. The Church of Scotland which has established a committee under Dr David Pullinger to investigate this matter has directed attention specifically to the areas of afforestation, agriculture, pollution, research and development, as well as to Scotland’s place in the world food-supply chain. Can the Presbyterian Church of Australia, situated on a greater environmental mass (perhaps also mess) attempt less?
The universal Church must face the fact that wilful and self-indulgent destruction of the environment is sinful. As part of the universal Church, the Presbyterian Church of Australia must recognise both the need to construct a theology of man’s relationship to the environment and the need to apply that theology. Perhaps once again the Church needs to learn from the past, even from a non-Christian, for Mahatma Gandhi is reported to have said (though very few seem to have heeded him), that “the earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”. For which of these alternatives do the technocrats cater? For which can the Church of believers only cater if it is to be true to its calling?
In concluding this paper the writer admits that while he can recognise the problem, he believes it is beyond the time and competence of most parish ministers to construct the Theology of the Environment which the Church lacks. Accordingly, a clause in the Committee’s deliverance aims to produce a sound Theology of the Environment as soon as possible. Even if, after that, we decide that we want to continue abusing Creation, at least we will have made a mature decision. At present we sinful men take advantage of God having put us here to “exercise dominion”, whereas people truly obedient to Him should study also to ‘subdue, replenish and multiply’.

Select Bibliography

G. Bolton, Spoils and Spoilers. 1981.
R. Broome, Aboriginal Australians. 1982.
P.R. Erlich, The Population Bomb. 1968.
I. McHarg, Man: Planetary Disease. 1971.
P. Newman, Population, Resources and Environment Revisited: A Global and Personal Perspective. 1986.
J. Passmore,Man’s Responsibility for Nature. 1976.
B. Roberts, Soul Conservation: People Religion and Land. 1986.
B. Roberts, Who will speak for the land? 1985.
J. Stott, Issues Facing Christianity Today. 1984.
Church of Scotland, While the Earth Endures. 1986.

THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
Mr. K.J. Swan

1. Preamble: Christians believe that orderly government according to a set of rules, or a constitution, is necessary. From the Old Testament we know that God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses for the guidance of His Covenant people, the Israelites. We know that God wanted, and still wants, His people to obey His commandments or laws.
Our Subordinate Standard of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Westminster Confession of Faith, deals specifically with orderly government in Chapter XXIII, Of the Civil Magistrate, adding the Christian dimension to the Mosaic Law. The Confession asserts that God has ordained civil magistrates to be under Him and over the people; it declares it to be lawful for Christians to accept the reigns of government when called to do so; and it enjoins Christians to pray for civil magistrates or administrators, to honour their persons, and to obey their lawful commands.
Any civil constitution must be under constant review, so that amendments may be made when necessary to meet changing circumstances; and possible amendments to the Australian Federal Constitution are presently being considered. .The Presbyterian Church of Australia and its individual members must be involved in such review, and this paper is designed to help them.

2. Historical Background:   Before 1st January, 1901 the Australian or Federal or Commonwealth Government did not exist. Until that date, what are now the States of the Commonwealth were Colonies of the British Empire, and during the second half of the nineteenth century those colonies were granted responsible self-government, most of them in the 1850s, but Western Australia not until 1890. During the last forty years of the nineteenth century, described appropriately by one pre-1940 Australian historian as a period of colonial particularism, the forces for unity of some kind were stronger than those encouraging particularism or separatism or isolationism. These forces for unity were the perceived external threat from European powers annexing Pacific territories, the consequent problem of providing adequate systems for defence, and the frustration caused by customs barriers between some colonies, particularly New South Wales and Victoria. During the 1880s and 1890s, therefore, colonial governments, political groups (the party system as we know it had not really developed), trade unions and other associations vigorously debated means of establishing some kind of unity and of decreasing particularism.
During the last twenty years of the nineteenth century a federal constitution was devised at various inter-colonial conferences and conventions, the members of which were politicians, lawyers, and prominent citizens. There was considerable public debate, and citizen’s bodies and local government instrumentalities were also involved. A prominent community organisation working for federation was the Australian Natives’ Association, founded in Victoria, and during the 1890s Border Federation Leagues were established in the smaller towns on either side of the Murray River, where customs duties were most felt. The Corowa Convention of border leagues in 1895 had a seminal effect on the movement for federation, adding that ‘grass-roots’ effect which is so important for achieving public support and national unity. Here were groups of ‘men-and-women-in-the-street' saying ‘please get on with the task and stop needless argument!’

3.. What is Federalism? Why was it adopted for Australia? A federal system is one where powers are distributed between the national or Federal government and the governments of the parts, which may be state, regional, or local units. Federations are usually established by a number of regional units agreeing that each federal government for more efficient administration. There is usually a rather suspicious attitude on the part of the regional units because they differ in area, population, and proximity to the proposed seat of federal government. Such was the case when the Australian Colonies were contemplating the common problems of defence, customs, immigration and the like in the late nineteenth century, and it was unthinkable that the colonies would contemplate any other than a federal solution, with Switzerland and the United States of America being successful federal examples. Federalism was adopted for Australia because that system allowed smaller and remote colonies in a vast area to feel they retained some control over regional and local destinies.

4. One usual result of a federation formed by entities surrendering certain powers is the adoption of a written constitution, which both the United States of America and Australia have. On the other hand, Great Britain is a good example of a country whose government is based on a myriad of laws and judgements and traditions made over many hundreds of years. It is not true to say that Great Britain does not have a written constitution, because the laws and judgements are in writing; but that writing is not – cannot! – be enclosed within the covers of one book. So Australia has a written constitution contained within two covers, and the most usual way of amending it is by referendum of the adult population.

4. Has the Australian Constitution been an effective Institution?  Opinions within the nation about the answer to that question differ. The Constitutional Commission appointed in 1985 by the Hawke government obviously believes the document not to be effective enough, for the sub-title of its summary of recommendations published in September, 1987 is the categorical statement Time to Update. This is just a bald statement, with no query added. We should always be taking stock of our constitution, and we should be ready to update when necessary. A great many Australians, however, would agree with the following extract from The Weekend Australian of 16-17 January, 1988 which read:

“Australia has been one of the few nations that have successfully established a form of constitutional government and which enjoy genuine democratic freedoms. … on any analysis, the establishment of constitutional government and democratic freedoms in Australia has been a remarkable achievement.”

  This is not to claim that no amendments to the constitution present, but to say that due consideration must be given at advocating changes must establish convincing cases. should be contemplated at all times, and that those advocating change must establish convincing cases.

5. What Attitudes should the Presbyterian Church adopt about the changes suggested by the Constitutional Commission? We must be ready for change when it is necessary.
We should insist that such bodies as the Constitutional Commission and its Committees are widely representative of the economic, social and political groupings within the nation. That is not the case at present.
We should insist that the Commission and its Committees provide wide-ranging opportunities across Australia for public discussion and input to the debate. That has not been the case. Certainly the Commission has promoted a high-profile publicity campaign, and has made available valuable publications, but that is not good enough when time and opportunities for debate are insufficient.
We should insist that the Commission delay providing its recommendations to the until at least the time first appointed, the end of 1988, rather than hurrying them by the end of June, 1988.
We should urge the Government not to present any referenda during 1988, a year of celebration, when ‘hype’ may take the place of reasoned debate.
Granting .. a more wholesome timespan, we should define our attitudes to the suggested amendments, and perhaps bring forward others. In doing this we Presbyterians should remember that our presbyterial form of church government has had a major influence on the development of federalism, and that it was no accident that in 1901 both the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Australian Federation or Commonwealth were inaugurated.
Finally, as Presbyterians with an attachment for the ‘federal idea’ of government, we might note what Emeritus Professor S. Rufus Davis of Monash University said in an important book:

“Its [the federal idea’s] future rests with those who can resist the urge to tidy the matter, while continuing to play out the limitless potentialities of its diverse history, its diverse progeny, its diverse practices, and its diverse purposes.”

Resolutions  of the 40th General Assembly  of the Presbyterian Church of Australia

47. Church and Nation: The Report of the Church and Nation Committee was laid on the Table and received.
The Deliverance was moved and seconded.
It was agreed to take the Deliverance clause by clause.
Clause 1 was moved and seconded.
48._ Debate Adjourned: The debate was adjourned. (Min. 52)

52. Church and Nation Resumed: The debate on the Church and Nation was resumed. (Min. 48)
Clause 1 was approved.
Clause 2 was approved.
Leave was given to fall from Clause 3.
Clauses 4 - 6 were moved.
It was moved that these clauses be taken seriatim.
The motion was seconded and approved.
It was moved,
That the Assembly:
1.  Urge the Prime Minister and his Government to stage more effective public hearings on the Australian Constitution and on possible changes to it.
The motion was seconded and disapproved.
Clause 5 was moved,
That the Assembly:-
2. Advise the Prime Minister and his Government that this General Assembly considers the present Australian Constitution to have made Australia a highly successful democracy, but that the Assembly is prepared to encourage constitutional amendment when such is believed necessary.
Rev. D.B. Fraser asked the Moderator to rule that a proposed amendment arose out of the debate.
The Moderator ruled that it did not so arise.
The Moderator’s ruling was challenged.
The House upheld the Moderator’s ruling.
Clause 5 was seconded and disapproved.
Clause 6 was approved.
According to Notice (N.M.9) Rev. C.D. Balzer moved,
That the Assembly:
3. Thank and discharge the Committee.
The motion was seconded.

53. Competency:  The competency of the motion was questioned.
The Moderator ruled the motion to be competent.
The Rev. C.D. Balzer raised as a point of privilege, that he had withheld until this point as a matter of courtesy to the Committee. The House upheld the point of privilege and the competency of the motion.
Rev. H.J. Gallagher asked the Moderator to rule that a proposed amendment arose out of the debate. The Moderator so ruled.
Rev. H.J. Gallagher moved as an amendment,
That the Assembly:-
1. Add the words “and request the Christian Education Committee to deal with the matters already referred to the Committee”.
Rev. C.D. Balzer accepted those words.

54. Ruling Challenged: Rev. P. G. Logan challenged the right of the mover of the amendment to alter the substance of the motion without leave of the House (S.0.30).
The Moderator ruled the amendment was in order.
Dissent was moved from the Moderator’s ruling.

55. Ruling Upheld: approved. The House upheld the Moderator’s ruling. The motion was seconded and approved.

56. Church and Nation Deliverance: The Deliverance as a whole as amended was approved as follows:-
That the Assembly:-
1.  Invite the Rev. Professor N.T. Barker, Professor Crawford Miller, L.A. Davies and Professor A.M. Harman to investigate the matters raised in the paper “Environment Stewardship”, and to assist the Church and Nation Committee to bring a comprehensive report to the 1991 General Assembly of Australia.
2.  Send the paper “Environmental Stewardship” to all Presbyteries and Sessions for discussion, with report to the Church and Nation Committee by 31st December, 1989.
3.  Urge the Prime Minister and his Government to abandon thoughts of holding referenda on the Constitution during 1988.
4.  Send the paper “The Australian Federal Constitution” to Presbyteries and Session,with report to the Church and Nation Committee by 30th June, 1990.
5.  Thank and discharge the Committee, and request the Christian Education Committee to deal with the matters already referred to the Committee.

Melbourne September 1985

Minutes pp 26 - 28
Reports pp 59 - 67 

At Melbourne and within the Assembly Hall, 156 Collins Street, on Tuesday, 10th September, 1985 at 7.00 p.rn.

Church and Nation
For several years the Church and Nation Committee elected by the New South Wales General Assembly, supported by corresponding members from other States, has acted for this General Assembly of Australia. We recommend that the Assembly continue this procedure. and to remove any doubts as to the composition, functions and operation of the Committee, we include appropriate clauses in the Deliverance.
Several committees appointed by State General Assemblies to report on moral and social issues have entered the crucial debate on In Vitro Fertilization in recent times, and this Committee presents for the information of Australian Presbyterians the statements adopted in 1983 by the General Assemblies of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. These statements give considered assessments of startling new techniques for human reproduction. assessments guided by principles derived from studies of the Scriptures. Presbyterian and other Christians must realise that the research which has led to the development of these new techniques has far outrun community knowledge, so that all of us need urgently to seek such information as provided in these statements.
This Committee acknowledges that advances in medical science may be part of God’s plan for mankind. and that members of the medical profession have shown kindness to married couples to have children; but it does not believe that research necessarily involving experimentation on human beings should be allowed to proceed without community approval. We propose, therefore, that governments should appoint a standing committee( s) for community control over, and audit of. research and clinical programmes for human artificial insemination. Such standing committee(s) should be representative of interested parties. and care should be taken to prevent domination by the members of anyone profession or group. The deliverance includes appropriate clauses to achieve this aim.
Finally, the Committee hopes that by regular liaison with its corresponding members it will be able to bring to Presbyterians throughout the nation some of the valuable papers on crucial moral and social issues prepared by State Committees. Such a hope is implicit in the functions proposed in the deliverance.

HUMAN ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION:- (This paper was received in May 1983 by the New South Wales General Assembly. and sent to the Advisory Committee on Human Artificial Insemination appointed by the NSW Government as a submission from the Presbyterian Church in NSW).
One of the main purposes of marriage is the procreation of children. In the words of the marriage service. marriage is 'for the continuation of family life,` that children who are the heritage of the Lord should be duly nurtured and trained in godliness'. Behind this statement lies the divine command to Adam and Eve representing Man and Woman 'to be fruitful and to multiply'. (Genesis 1:28).
A serious personal and social problem in Australia today centres on infertile marriages. Medical opinions vary but it is conservatively estimated that about 15% of marriages in Australia in the 1980s are infertile, that is to say a pregnancy is not achieved within twelve months of marriage during which normal sexual activity is practised, and no form of contraception used.
There are many causes of this problem – physical, emotional and unknown. Medical practitioners have devised the following methods by which to treat this problem:-
AIH ‑  artificial insemination by husband, which method is designed to overcome difficulties in achieving conception so far as the husband is concerned.
AID ‑. artificial insemination by donor, This method is used to overcome various medical problems such as low sperm count in the husband, the prevention of genetic deformity and disease being transmitted to a child. and the Rh disease element.
IVF ‑ in vitro fertilization designed to overcome some problems preventing a conception. such as defective Fallopian tubes.
Variations of these procedures are possible such as. for example. ova from a donor may be fertilized by sperm of a husband of an infertile woman. and then deposited in that infertile woman: or a fertile woman unable for some reason to carry children, donating ova, fertilized in vitro by sperm from her husband. and the resulting embryo planted in the body of a surrogate mother and the resulting child returned to the donors of the ingredients of life. These are ‘extreme’ cases and not the normal situation in IVF procedures.
Medical opinion estimates that perhaps 50,000 couples are eligible for IVF treatment in Australia today. In the past this problem of involuntary childless marriages was solved by adopting children. Today there is a very long wait for adoption ‑ perhaps up to ten years. This option for many couples is very limited. The reason for the low availability of children for adoption is twofold ‑ the rising use of abortion to solve the problem of unwanted pregnancy and the social welfare payment for unmarried mothers.
All these medical procedures are being used in many centres in Australia today. Two hundred and fifty in vitro fertilization babies have been born in Australia in recent years. The treatment applied is designed to overcome the problem of involuntary childless marriages. This is a real problem for the couples involved, and so an assessment of the issue and the treatment procedures presently used should be examined with sensitivity and compassion. The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the issues involved in the light of the Christian ethic.
Within the Biblical story infertility was seen as disfavour by God. For example, Rachel pleaded desperately to her husband Jacob, 'Give me children, or I'll die'. She was rebuked however by her husband. 'Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?' (Genesis 30: 1-2). The same point is expressed in I Samuel 15 - 'The Lord has closed her womb'.
Childlessness was a serious matter and the people of the Old Testament, at least in the early days of their history. had a social mechanism by which the problem was overcome. A woman who married often took with her a slave maid. If the wife was unable to achieve pregnancy, then it was possible for the maid to be given to the husband so that the wife could have a family through the slave woman. Instances of that may be seen in the case of Abraham and Sarah and Hagah and Ishmael (Genesis 16), and Rachel and Bildah and Leah and Zilpah (Genesis 30, both of which demonstrated the problems which arise when men and women go outside of God’s plan and purpose.
Married couples without children should be received with understanding, tenderness and kindness. Infertility should not be automatically assessed as a judgement or punishment from God. Defective Fallopian tubes should not be equated with God’s wrath.

Options Available for Childless Marriages
1.  The Vocation of Childlessness: For some people an infertile marriage may be 'God's Will'. Infertility should not in this case produce despair or cause the people to grasp at any possible solution. Such people are in a sense 'free' to do other commendable work such as fostering children. or pursuing other socially desirable ends such as the care of the sick or the frail, or some professional vocation. This option should be considered by infertile couples especially those within 'the household of faith'. There are many outstanding stories of service in the name of Christ towards the less fortunate people of society by couples who have been 'free' of the responsibility of rearing children.
2.  In Vitro Fertilization: The IVF programme introduces a high degree of artificiality into the process of reproduction. It is a procedure designed to overcome problems of reproduction caused by disease, deformity and defects of the human body. Usually in nature’s way a child is conceived within the mother’s body and in the context of body/ love. In an IVF process fertilization takes place in a laboratory with neither parent present and with a third party playing a decisive role. That, for some, is unnatural and undesirable and contrary to the ways of God as expressed through the processes of nature, for human life hitherto has always had its origin in the sexual union of man and woman. Laboratory production replaces human procreation, and that medical change causes unease in the minds of some people.
Artificial means of achieving a desirable end within the processes of nature are not in themselves immoral. A vast amount of surgery is artificial in the sense that a third party intervenes to correct, overcome or bypass defects of nature. Often the end of the process is a significant element in justifying the means adopted. There is a large pragmatic element in such situations. The end achieved in medical practice is the relief of pain, the prolongation of life or the removal of some potentially lethal growth ends perfectly consistent with Christian morality. The means adopted however should be compatible with the Christian ethic.
Third 'third' party within an in vitro fertilization programme plays a crucial role because that person is handling the very chemistry of life and plays a decisive role in the process of conception. Often the third party, i.e. the doctor, in an IVF procedure is described as 'playing God’. Two senses of the concept 'playing God' should be carefully distinguished.
(i)  The term 'playing God' is infused with emotion, but it does convey an important concern. A medical practitioner can play a key role in a person’s survival. With the use of knowledge and skill he can be of enormous help to a patient in overcoming defects in nature, in bringing about life in terms of prenatal care, and by the use of modem technology he is able to prolong life. The term 'playing God' in this sense is an overstatement of the situation, and a rather emotional expression. Providing he conforms to the ethics of his profession in normal circumstances, the doctor of 'good faith' is more a servant of the 'Great Physician' endeavouring to help suffering men and women along life’s way.
(ii) The term 'playing God' assumes a greater significance when, with the growth of knowledge, especially in an IVF programme the medical man can determine which ovum will be fertilized with which sperm, and the destiny of an embryo, i.e., to be implanted, to be frozen, to be maintained in the laboratory for experiment or to be discarded. These are serious matters. The ability to 'play God', especially when handling the elements of life, gives the doctor a degree of power over other people that many think undesirable and dangerous.
The fantastic world drawn by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World (1932) of artificial fertilization on a mass scale, the baby factory and cloning is not beyond the bounds of possibility within the foreseeable future. Artificial insemination, both AIH and AID, is practised extensively; sperm banks are common; ova are frozen; selective breeding of human beings takes place; for example, at the Repository of Germinal Choice in California; the conceited desire on the part of some people to produce the 'super kid' exists; experiments on embryos; the freezing of semen for use in a post-vasectomy situation, available for twenty-one years; are all part of the amazing new world of modem medical science. Serious moral and social issues are raised by such remarkable techniques.
There appear to be few moral difficulties in an in vitro fertilization programme, but many personal and emotional elements that must be handled with sensitivity. It is easy though to extend the process from fairly simple cases, such as a childless couple in a stable marriage relationship, to the more difficult and questionable areas such as the desire of a single woman, or a lesbian, to undergo an IVF programme, experimentation on embryos, superior breeding and surrogate mothers. Major moral and social issues arise in such cases. Society as a whole needs to develop clear and definite rules to limit the power medical practitioners should have in this area. Churches need to respond to these serious problems and suggest answers with sensitivity and compassion.
3. Artificial Insemination – Husband : This process is designed to overcome particular problems associated with conception. There appear to be no moral issues involved, although the Roman Catholic Church has condemned the process because of the 'unnaturalness of masturbation'.
4. Artificial Insemination - Donor: It is important to recognise the medical problems which give rise to an AID programme. They are:
*   low sperm count
*   a danger of the husband transmitting a serious genetically determined illness to the offspring
*   the Rh disease
 AID procedures are fairly widespread in Australia today. Some have serious reservations about the practice even when performed in good faith and with strict rules of procedure regarding selection of donors and couples to whom the procedure is applied The following elements in the debate on AID may be mentioned.
(i)  Similarities with adoption procedures – An AID procedure has some similarities with the process of adoption in seeking to overcome the problem of infertility in a marriage. The basic need is the same, i.e. to acquire children for the marriage. Consent of both parties in the marriage is required. The adopting process must be carried out within the context of. love and commitment in marriage. In a real sense 'the adopted child becomes our child'. A third party is involved in the process, i.e. the natural mother, and a fourth party, i.e. the natural father. A degree of anonymity has been preserved concerning the natural parents, although there is a rising demand on the part of adopted children and natural mothers for this anonymity to be discarded. The welfare of the child should be of higher importance in both adoption and AID processes than the interests of the parents. In the case of adoption there is a joint decision by husband and wife, in an infertile marriage, to assume social and legal responsibilities for the child, as a means of coming to terms with a problem that both share within the marriage commitment
In the case of an AID procedure the wife of the marriage is more involved in the process than the husband. She receives into her body semen from another person, and, while the husband may consent, there is always the possibility that there will be resentment, a sense of failure, even though the procedure has enabled the wife to achieve success in the mothering role. There remains always the possibility of the husband of a marriage that has achieved children by means of AID resorting to the line - 'It is not my child'. The same response is possible, of course, in any marriage the partners of which have children as a result of previous associations and in all cases of adoption.
(ii)  A third party – In an AID procedure a third party comes within the marriage relationship, and so in the minds of some the question of adultery arises. Many common features of an adulterous situation do not apply in the case of an AID procedure. In a case of adultery there is a breach of love and fidelity, physical and emotional attachment. and secrecy. In an AID procedure consent of both husband and wife is required, and the whole process could be surrounded by love and fidelity. with full acceptance of responsibility for the child so produced, but there remains a lingering unease that a third party has in some sense entered the unity of the marriage relationship.
In many surgical procedures a third party enters the situation, for example. by means of a blood donation or an organ transplant, and these donations prolong life. In the case of AID, however, the donation of semen is different because it has to do with the elements of life and the creation of new life.
The Christian understanding of marriage means a life of long and total commitment of man and woman to each other. The phrase in the marriage service 'to the exclusion of all others' captures the total, and exclusive, nature of the marriage relationship. This means in part that a partner in the marriage assumes a monopoly over the sexual and reproductive organs of the other. A third party in an AID process invades and threatens this fundamental unity even though it is an impersonal and clinical depositing of semen in the woman’s body.
Concerning AID there have been many condemnations of the process by Church bodies and moral theologians. In 1948 a Commission reported to the Archbishop of Canterbury and resolved: 'AID with donated semen involves a breach of the marriage. It violates the exclusive union between husband and wife. It defrauds the child begotten and deceives both the putative kinsmen and society at large. For both donor and recipient the sexual act loses its personal character and becomes a mere transaction. For the child there must always be the risk of disclosure, deliberately or unintended, of the circumstances of his conception. We therefore judge AID to be wrong in principle and contrary to Christian standards'. W.R. Matthews dissented affirming that 'there was no objection to AID when used with the full approval of the husband'. He concluded that AID could contribute to the happiness of the marriage.
Helmet Thielicke condemns AID because the procedure violates the 'psychophysical unit of the marriage' and broaches the 'one flesh unity of husband and wife'. (Ethics of Sex. pp 252-158).
On the other hand Joseph Fletcher reduces the objections to AID to three – it is 'stud breeding', it violates the marriage union and so is adulterous, and it produces illegitimate children. Fletcher rejects such arguments, thus:
'We have asserted two things fundamentally:
(I)  that the fidelity of the marriage is a personal bond between husband and wife, not primarily a legal contract, and
(2) that parenthood is a moral relationship with children not a material or merely physical relationship. The claim that AID is immoral rests upon the view that marriage is an absolute generative as well as a sexual monopoly, and that parenthood is essentially, if not solely, physiological partnership. Neither of these ideas is compatible with a morality that welcomes emancipation from natural necessity or with the Christian ethic which raises morality to the level of love (a personal bond), above the determinations of nature, and the rigidities of law as distinguished from love'. (Fletcher. Morals and Medicine, p. 139).
(iii) Welfare of the child produced and a wider concept of parenting: Paramount importance should be given to the happiness and welfare of the child produced by means of an AID procedure. The desire to know one’s biological genesis is very strong. Sometimes it can become an obsession.
Suzanne Rubin is one of the first children produced as a result of AID. She expresses a deep interest, a highly emotional demand to know the identity of her father. 'It's an obsession. I must find my father even if it's only to discover what kind of man sells his sperm and ultimately his own flesh and blood for $15, then walks away without any thought of the life he may have created. How is a child produced this way supposed to feel about a father who sold the essence of his life so cheaply and is a total stranger?' (The Australian. 14/15 July 1981). The demand to know biological identity is very strong in people.
The concept of parenting is wider than merely a biological origin of children. That aspect of parenting is of great importance, and it is clouded and confused in an AID procedure because of the anonymity of the donor. Parenting includes the social dimension of nurturing and caring for children within the context of marriage commitment and love. This is perhaps more important in the course of a child’s development than the incident of biological conception.
(iv) Possibility of incest: A fear is often expressed concerning AID programmes of 'innocent incest'. This is a danger but proper selecting procedures with respect to donors and a limitation on the number of donations of semen. are likely to make this problem a statistical and practical improbability.
(v)  A commercial element. Care should be taken to control strictly a commercial element in the area of semen or ova donations. Perhaps a system similar to blood donations should be developed.. And great care should be preserved as to the ownership of semen and ova. All forms of vested interest in such donations on the part of the donors should be exercised.
The question of ownership should also be clearly determined with respect to semen, ova and embryos.
(vi)  Legal Sqfeguards: Many legal problems arise in the case of children produced by AID – procedures concerning responsibility, maintenance, custody, access and inheritance. Laws should be devised to achieve a number of ends. The following principles should be enshrined in the laws of the land:
*  Consent by the man and the woman in the marriage concerning AID and IVF processes should be required with the total acceptance of a responsibility, in every sense, for the child so produced.
*  The donor of semen or ova should be totally free from any claims on or responsibility for the child produced as a result of such procedures.
*  The medical team involved in such procedures should be absolved from any claim with respect to any aspect of such procedures, although the normal standards of competence and responsibility that apply in other medical areas should apply in this area.
*  The status of the child should be defined to eliminate all suggestions of 'illegitimacy' and some definition of 'legal' or 'accepted' or 'social' fatherhood should be devised.
 AID and IVF programmes are special cases arising from particular problems. Care should be taken both not to condemn the programmes out of hand, for that does not help a married couple come to terms with a distressing and deep problem, nor to carry out such programmes in a cavalier and irresponsible manner. A caring responsible approach is needed always bearing in mind the 'problem' that such procedures endeavour to solve.
5.  Ethical Decisions: Usually three elements are involved in coming to ethical decision. Consideration is clearly given to (1) the principles and values of the perspective from which ethical decisions are determined; next (2) the situation must be understood – the problem being solved, the technology and the practical aspects of the situation; and finally (3) the consequences that follow from both the situation and ethical judgements relating to those situations.
   Our perspective is determined by the teachings of the Bible. Accordingly, the following themes are of particular relevance in coming to conclusions relating to artificial insemination:
(i) Human life is part of God’s creation, and so each person is important.
(ii) A man and woman find fulfilment in a permanent enduring one flesh commitment.
(iii) The family context is the normal setting out of which new lives (children)
emerge.
(iv) The procreative feature of human love (sexual activity) is of the highest importance (be fruitful and multiply).
(v) Pride is part of the sinful state of men and women and can be expressed in many ways. Within the context of AID and IVF procedures pride may emerge in
* a couple’s desire to have a 'super kid'.
* the desire for fame, prestige and professional recognition and promotion on the part of medical men,
* the desire of a couple to have a child by any means - 'I must have children',
* a woman’s assertion ‘I'II do with my body as 1 please'.
(vi) The privacy of love, care and commitment to both God and people must be recognised.
(vii) Respect for that which is human in relation to experimentation and manipulation.
(viii) The call to help people in need with kindness, understanding and compassion.
(ix) An accountability to God for the way we use our time, our talents and the resources of His Creation.
These values. together with an understanding of each situation. and an awareness of consequences that will flow from certain procedures. enable us to make judgements about AIH, AID and IVF procedures.
Perhaps at this stage the Committee gives a cautious endorsement of the AIH and IVF procedures when such procedures are limited to consenting married couples who contribute both sperm and ova, as not being inconsistent with Christian values. The Committee, while unwilling to condemn AID procedures completely, is very uneasy with such procedures because of the apparent intrusion of a third party into the marriage commitment of husband and wife.
The Committee suggests that within the IVF programmes, procedures. other than the 'simple cases' of husband and wife donating the sperm and ova to meet a particular problem, should be discouraged if not forbidden by law, for example. cloning, genetic engineering, surrogate motherhood, human/animal hybrids, and embryonic freezing and experimentation. The Committee also cannot endorse AID or IVF procedures being applied to women outside the marriage commitment on the grounds that 'marriage is a way of life instituted by God' and is the proper context in which children may be conceived and nurtured for the glory of God.

Issues Arising from
In Vitro Fertilization and Related Procedures
 (This paper. prepared by its Church and Nation Committee, was received by the Victorian General Assembly in October 1983.)

Introduction
The development of a number of techniques allowing laboratory intervention in the process of human conception has raised many important moral and legal questions. These matters are currently receiving widespread attention in the Victorian community. most notably by the State Government’s Committee chaired by Professor Louis Waller. The Church and Nation Committee believes that these matters constitute an important, appropriate and urgent area for its consideration.
A large amount of information on these techniques and their ethical implications is now becoming available. Important among these are the Waller Committee's Interim Report (September 1982), its Issues Paper on Donor Gametes in IVF( April 1983), and a report by the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) on invitrofertilization and embryo replacement or transfer. These documents have provided the main source of information for this paper. (The final report of the Waller Committee was received too late by the Church and National Committee for detailed consideration here.)
Little of a technical nature could be added to these comprehensive reports but their implications for Christians need to be explored in the light of God's Word. The aim of this background paper is to provide a concise factual basis for discussion and to identify the most important issues which need to be considered from a Christian moral perspective.
The Problem of Infertility
It is important to recognise with understanding and compassion the problem of childlessness which has given rise to medical techniques for artifically assisting conception.
Infertility affects the lives of about 250,000 couples in Australia which is about 10% of the married population. For many of them it is a serious, even tragic, deprivation involving in varying degree feelings of anger, guilt, despair and isolation. There are many causes of infertility, not all of which are known or fully understood.
In the past adoption provided the solution to couples who found themselves unable to have children of their own. This option has now become severely restricted because the number of children becoming available for adoption has significantly decreased. This decline is due to the increasing rate of abortion to terminate unwanted pregnancies and the increasing social acceptance and welfare support of the single mother. Today the limited availability of suitable children means that couples may have to wait as long as ten years for adoption.
A number of medical and surgical procedures are now being used to treat infertility with varying degrees of success. One of these procedures is in vitroferti/ization. This technique is not so much a cure for the infertility as a means of circumventing it.
 IVF is a technique whereby the ovum is collected surgically from the woman’s ovary and fertilized by sperm in the laboratory. The embryo so produced is then inserted into the uterus so that implantation and development into a fully formed foetus can take place. Although the process sounds very simple it is, in practice, extremely complicated.
It has become common practice in IVF programmes to actually insert several fertilized ova into the uterus at one time as it has been found that this greatly improves the success rate of the procedure. The ova are all collected during a single operation after artificial stimulation of the ovaries. Multiple insertion also increases the likelihood of a multiple pregnancy with some increased risk for both mother and babies but this must be balanced against the risks involved in having to repeat the process if no pregnancy occurs.
The technique of IVF was developed initially to treat patients where natural fertilization in the Fallopian tubes of the female was impossible. Typical cases would be where the Fallopian tubes have been removed or where blocked irreversably by previous surgery or disease. Patients with disease of the Fallopian tubes are the most common group for which IVF has been applied but the technique has also been used successfully in couples with prolonged, unexplained infertility and some other cases.
Interest in the possibility of IVF began in Victoria in the early 1970s at the Royal Women’s Hospital and the Queen Victoria Medical Centre. After many attempts which began in 1973, the first successful pregnancy was achieved in 1979. The scale and success of the IVFprogrammes ofthe two groups has increased rapidly since that time and to the end of 1982 a total of 94 pregnancies had either been delivered or were advanced beyond 20 weeks. An even higher success rate is expected for 1983.
The commonest situation in which IVF has been used is where the patient is married and her husband’s sperm is used to fertilize her own ovum, and no more ova are fertilized than will subsequently be implanted. This is the simplest and clearest case from an ethical viewpoint and also raises no legal difficulties under existing law. The Victorian Government’s Waller Committee in its Interim Report of September 1982:
'considers this form of the procedure to be acceptable to the Victorian Com­munity and accordingly recommends that it be recognized in those terms'.
In a similar conclusion the RCDG Ethics Committee could see no ethical objection to the use of IVF and embryo replacement within marriage. More complex issues arise from the use of donor ova or sperm and these will be discussed separately below. IV F is of necessity a very expensive procedure which also raises complex questions about the priorities of medical funding.

Artificial Insemination
Artificial insemination can be employed to overcome certain types of difficulty in conception. The simplest situation is where the sperm is provided by the woman’s husband (AIH) and this practice raises few if any moral difficulties.
Artificial Insemination can also be used with sperm provided by a donor (AID). This procedure is widespread and has been used in Victoria for several decades in cases of male infertility such as that caused by a low sperm count AID has also been employed in other cases where there is a danger of Rh disease or of the husband transmitting some serious genetic disorder to the child.
In contrast to IVF, the actual techniques employed in AID are very simple. As techniques have developed AID clinics have been established in more recent times where semen which has been frozen is almost always used.
Clinics at Prince Henry’s Hospital and the Royal Women’s Hospital only accept married couples into their AID programmes, and then only when the husband’s consent has been given. The third clinic at the Melbourne Family Medical Centre (associated with the Queen Victoria Medical Centre and the Epworth Hospital) has accepted several unmarried couples. where it is satisfied the relationship is a stable one.
Great care is taken to record the origin of the sperm at the same time ensuring anonymity for the donor. Many of the donors are medical students and they are usually given a small payment for the donation. A careful attempt is made to match the characteristics of the donor with those of the husband of the woman to be artificially inseminated.
Under present law children produced by AID are regarded as illegitimate although the Federal and State Attorneys General have recently agreed to adopt new legislation to change this situation. The new legislation would include the principle that a child born as the result of AID with the husband’s consent would be deemed to be the child of the husband. It would also allow AID and IVF procedures to be applied to unmarried couples living in a :table de facto relationship.
The process of AID has been condemned many times by Church bodies and moral theologians. For example, in February 1983 the Social Responsibilities Commission of the Anglican Church concluded that 'AID is inconsistent with Christian moral tradition' and, recognizing that the technique had already been operating for some years. issued a series of guidelines relating to its use. Notably the Commission recommended that 'AID should be available only to married couples' and that 'single women and lesbian couples should be specifically excluded'. In further explanation of its position the Commission was
'not able to recommend AID because of the Christian understanding of marriage as an exclusive relationship between husband and wife. While(they) recognize that there is no adulterous intent involved in the process of AID it nevertheless involves the intrusion of a third party into the intimate sphere of the marital state as represented by his sperm'.
Some courts in the United States have taken the view that AID constitutes adultery. while protagonists of the technique argue that it is analogous to adoption. There are indeed many similarities between AID and the process of adoption. The major differences being that the woman is more involved in the process than the man and that she actually receives into her body sperm from a third party.

Donor Gametes in IVF
Just as donor sperm can be used in artificial insemination there is no technical reason why donor gametes (sperm or ova) cannot be used in IVF. Indeed, since 1980, 21% of the ova fertilized at the Queen Victoria Medical Centre/Epworth Hospital have used donor sperm.
The percentage at the Royal Women’s Hospital has been much lower (2.4%). Attempts to use donor ova have only been made since early 1982 with only one resulting pregnancy. The use of donor ova was temporarily suspending pending the outcome of the Waller Enquiry.
The obtaining of ova is a much more complex procedure than obtaining sperm, involving abdominal surgery under a general anaesthetic. The risks involved for a female donor are therefore greater than for a male donor. Also there would be much greater difficulty in maintaining anonymity for a female donor because of the major procedures required.
From an ethical and legal point of view the use of donor sperm and IVF is essentially the same as AID using natural conception. The use of donor ova and the father’s sperm is also very similar from these standpoints. Similar comments to those referred to above under AID will apply to these situations.
The RCOG Ethics Committee has described the use of both donor ova and donor sperm together, so that neither the woman nor her husband is the genetic parent, as analogous to adoption. The Waller Committee in its 'Issues Paper' makes the point that it is difficult to reconcile the use of donor gametes with the unitive nature of marriage as indicated by the Marriage Act 1961-1973. This Act described marriage as 'the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life', essentially the Christian viewpoint.

Other Possibilities
An IVF programme applied to the simple case of an infertile married couple raises few moral difficulties. However the same techniques can use donor gametes or could be applied outside a stable marriage relationship. Such practices and others that are likely to follow from foreseeable technical developments raise serious ethical and social issues. Among these would be such possibilities as selective breeding. surrogate mothers, experimentation on embryos, cloning and embryo banks.
Those working in the field consider it only a matter of time before successful storage of human embryos by freezing is achieved. This is seen primarily as a way of improving the success rate in IVF programmes and. by some, as a means of providing a supply of embryos for donation. Storage would allow the embryos to be implanted one at a time under the most favourable conditions until a pregnancy occurred. The advantages of this approach would be elimination of the risk of an unwanted multiple pregnancy and the risk of additional surgery to collect ova if no pregnancy resulted from the first attempt. However the ethical difficulties that arise from embryo storage are considerable.
The achievement of a successful pregnancy before all the frozen embryos have been used up inevitably raises the problem of the fate of surplus embryos. The morality of creating such surplus embryos must be questioned very seriously and the rights of embryonic human life must not be treated lightly. Allowing surplus embryos to die would raise the same serious moral objections as does abortion. Whereas using them for donor purposes creates the possibilities of having siblings who are unknown to one another, and thus the danger, albeit slight, of unconscious incest or inbreeding. The difficult question of ownership of the embryos would also arise should the parents die while the embryos were still in storage.

Major Ethical Issues
The distressing nature of the problem facing infertile couples means that attempts to alleviate their condition should be approached responsibly and not be dismissed out of hand.
The Christian understanding of two important concepts, based on the teaching of the Bible, should be central to our thinking about artificial intervention in human conception:
(1)  The importance of human life as the highest expression of God’s creation and the object of God’s redeeming love. The Son of God fully embraced our humanity through His own conception and birth.
(2)  The view of marriage as a life-long, total and exclusive commitment of a man and woman to each other.
Some of the central questions which Churches and individual Christians need to consider are as follows:
* Should IVF be used in any circumstances?
* Should the use of donor gametes (in IVF or AID) be endorsed and under what circumstances?
* Do the perceived clinical benefits of embryo freezing and storage outweigh the serious ethical problems that such techniques produced
* Who should be responsible for the control of clinical and research programmes in IVF and related fields?
 THE COMMITTEE THEN EXPRESSES FULL AGREEMENT WITH THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES STATEMENT.
The Committee believes there is a need for continuing community control and audit over both research and clinical IVF programmes, perhaps by a standing committee of people with no direct involvement in such programmes. It would be the responsibility of this group to check that work proceeded only within guidelines acceptable to the wider community, and to ensure the highest standards and full accountability for all embryos produced. It is felt that without such controls there is a real danger of creating socially and ethically unacceptable practices guided only by scientific goals and the pursuit of professional prestige.
The Church and Nation Committee commends these issues to kirk sessions and congregations for the widest possible discussion, bearing in mind that the State Government Waller Committee is now seeking comment on its final report.

Abortion and Human Engineering

This paper, prepared by the Committee on Public Questions and Communications, was received by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland in May 1983.)

Scripture suggests that human life, sexuality and personality all begin at conception (Job 3:3; Psa. 51:5; Luke 1:31-44). Such human life continues uninterruptedly from conception to death (Gen. 25:21-34; Judges 13:3-7; Job 10:8-21; Psa. 22:9-20; 139: 13-24). Medical evidence, too, shows that the sex of the zygote is determined even at conception and humanly verifiable shortly thereafter.
Abortion, both natural and artificial, consists of the interruption or termination of the development of a fertilized human ovum which is a tiny human being (Ex. 21:21-25; Num. 2:12; Hos. 9:11-10:1). Natural abortions (inc1uding ‘miscarriages’) occur as acts of God. as such, they are devoid of human guilt (Job 3:16; Psa. 58:8; Eccl. 6:3-5). However, any unlawful human attempt to abort is murder in the sight of God wherever such attempt results in the death of a fertilized human ovum (Ex. 20:13 cf. Man 2:16-20). It is attempted murder in those cases where the foetus unexpectedly survives (1 Cor. /5:8 cf. Ex. 21:22). Indeed, even where unsuccessful. all human attempts to produce unlawful abortions are both sinful and criminal.
Under these circumstances, we cannot see any ground for artificial abortions except when the life of the mother or child is threatened with imminent death and where such is certified to be the case by at least two competent medical authorities other than the one under consideration to perform the abortion (cf. Num. 35:30; Deut. 19:15-21; Heb. 10:28ff). Even then, everything possible must be done to try to save the lives of all threatened. In such rare cases, if there is only enough time or opportunity to save one, the life the mother is more crucial (Ex. 20:12-14; 21:15-17.22-24; 23: 19; 34:26; Lev. 22:27-8; Deut 14:21; 22:6-7; Matt 15:3-6; John 11:50; 18: 14; 19:25-27; Eph. 5:25-6:3; Col :19-20; I Tim. 1:9; 3:4-5; 5: 1-4; II Tim 1:3-5; 3:2; 15; Tit 1:6; 2:3-6).
All human pregnancies between spouses within marriage are an evidence of God’s blessing and are to be warmly welcomed whenever they occur(Gen. 1:28; 9: 1-7; 12:1; 15: 1. ch. 17; 24:60; 67ff Psa. 127 and 128; Eph. 5:22-6:3).
Artificial insemination from donor or vendor (AID) is immoral because it involves the non-vital insemination of a women with sperm other than that of her own husband (Ex. 20: /4; Commentaries of Keith and Delitzsch on Prov I'. Ch. 5: 15-20; Ezra 9:2-4; Neh. 9:2; I Cor. 39-40).
Complete human ectogenesis (through the utilization of animal or mechanical wombs to use human zygote-embryo-foetuses throughout their period of gestation) is obviously unacceptable. This would totally obviate women needing to get pregnant in order to produce children. and would also eliminate a need for sexual intercourse in order to reproduce (Gen.1: 26-28; 2:22-25; 3:15-16; 4:1-2). For different reasons, even the utilization of surrogate human wombs for embryo transfer or for complete ectogenesis outside of the true mother is also unacceptable (cf. Gen. 16:1-9; 17: 15-2 1; 21: 1-12; 30: 1-13ff Gal 4:4-31).
If human cloning( or non-coital production of carbon-copies of a particular human being) should ever become possible (as some predict it soon will be), it would be unacceptable because of the c1onees' non-coital origin and because of their threat to the God-given individuality of the person(s) cloned. Similarly, attempts at pre-conceptional or non-conceptional genetic engineering on human body parts even for eugenetical reasons should be avoided with care (Gen. 1: 16-18; 2:22-25; Lev. 18:6-16; Deut 29:29; Eccl 5:1-2; Isa. 49: 1,5; Zech. 12: 1; Eph. 4:24; I Cor. 11:8-15, Col. 2: 18ff and 3:10-11).
Where all legitimate attempts of married couples to produce their own children ultimately fail childless spouses should accept God’s providence in this matter (Gen. 20:18; Lev.26:22; Judg. 11:34-40; Jer. 20:14-18). They may then, however, turn to other legitimate alternatives. Such would include: their legal adoption of children born to but not wanted by her parents; caring for or teaching other peoples’ children; diaconal work among orphans; 'spiritually adopting' young people; etc. (Gen. 15:2; 17: 10-14; 24:2; Ex. 1:15-21; John 14:18; Acts 16:1-4; Rom. 8:15-17; I Tim. 5:3-16; II Tim. 1:1-6; Jer. 1:27).

C.E.J. EGAN
Convener.

Resolutions of the 1985
32. The Report of the Church and Nation Committee was laid on the Table and
received.
Thereafter at the request of the Moderator Mr. N. Tonti-Filippini a philosopher, addressed the Assembly on the topic “The Ethical Implications of Experimentation and New Techniques in the Field of Human Reproduction.”
Mr. K.J. Swan moved the deliverance
Clauses 1 and 2 were disapproved.
Clause 3 was approved.
Clauses 4 and 5 were fallen from.
According to Notice (N.M. 43) Mr KJ. Swan moved:
That the Assembly
4. Approve the following Regulations anent the Committee:
(a) NAME: Committee on Church and Nation.
(b) COMPOSITION:
(i) those persons appointed by the New South Wales General Assembly from time to time to be the Executive of its Church and Nation Com­mittee;
(ii) the person appointed by the New South Wales General Assembly from time to time to be the Convener of its Church and Nation Committee; and
(iii) as corresponding members. the persons elected from time to time by other State Assemblies as conveners of public questions committees. however styled
(c) FUNCTIONS:
(i) to consider all matters referred by the General Assembly and to take appropriate action;
(ii) to report regularly to the Assembly on matters of public interest and Christian concern in respect of the welfare of the Church. community or nation;  (iii) to foster research into matters of public interest as bear upon the mission and message of the Church, and to disseminate the results of such research; and
(iv) to advise and assist the Moderator-General in composing and issuing pastoral letters and public statements other than those authorised by the Assembly.
and add as Clause 5 the following:
5.  Record its appreciation of the work of the Rev. Campbell Egan as Convener of the Church and Nation Committee for ten years.
33. The competency of the clause 4( c)(iv) was questioned.
The Moderator ruled the motion to be incompetent
Notice of Motion 32 was taken sub clause by sub clause.
Clause 4 (a) and
4 (b) (i) (ii) and (iii) were approved.
4 (c) (i) (ii) and (iii) were approved.
4 (c)( iv) was moved and seconded.
34. The competency of clause 4(c)(iv) was questioned.
The Moderator ruled the motion to be incompetent
Mr. K.J. Swan moved:
That the Assembly:
Disagree with the Moderator’s ruling.
The motion was seconded and disapproved and the Moderator’s ruling upheld.
35,  According to Notice (N.M. 7) Rev. RC. Clark moved:
That the Assembly:
(1)  Thoroughly opposes any attempt to remove the Union Jack from our Flag, reflecting as it does, in the crosses of St. George, St Andrew and St Patrick, our Christian Heritage and traditions.
(2)  Urges all our people in Australia to become involved in the campaign to protect the Australian National Flag in its present form.
The motion was seconded
The competency of the motion was questioned..
The Moderator ruled the motion to be competent
36. The Previous Question was moved and disapproved
NM. 7 was approved on a show of hands.
According to Notice (N.M. 46) Rev. W.G. Camden moved:
That the Assembly:
(1) declare its abhorrence of all forms of political discrimination based on race tribe or
Culture, viewing all such discrimination as in violation of the Christian doctrine of man. which recognises all human beings to have been created in the image of God.
The motion was seconded and approved on a show of hands.
(2) inform the South African government that the Presbyterian Church of Australia views the political system of apartheid as a brutal system of racial repression which denies black South Africans their dignity as fellow human beings. brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.
The motion was seconded and disapproved.
(3) Urge the Australian government to join with France, the USA and the other governments which have already acted, in imposing suitable economic sanctions against South Africa as an appropriate means endorsed by an overwhelming majority of black Africans. to convey to the government of South Africa. the total rejection by the Australian people of the system of Apartheid.
The motion was seconded and disapproved.

37. The Deliverance as a whole as amended was approved as follows:-
That the Assembly:
( 1) Send down the statements on Human Artificial Insemination and related techniques to Presbyteries and Sessions for study. and comment to the Convener by June 1987.
(2) Approve the following Regulations anent the Committee:
(a) NAME: Committee on Church and Nation.
(b) COMPOSITION:
(i) those persons appointed by the New South Wales General Assembly from time to time to be the Executive of its Church and Nation Com­mittee;
(ii) the person appointed by the New South Wales General Assembly from time to time to be the Convener of its Church and Nation Committee; and
(iii) as corresponding members, the persons elected from time to time by other State Assemblies as conveners of public questions committees, however styled
(c) FUNCTIONS:
(i) to consider all matters referred by the General Assembly and to take appropriate action;
(ii) to report regularly to the Assembly on matters of public interest and Christian concern in respect of the welfare of the Church, community or nation;
(iii) to foster research into matters of public interest as bear upon the mission and message of the Church, and to disseminate the results of such research; and
(3) Record its appreciation of the work of the Rev. Campbell Egan as Convenor of the Church and Nation Committee for ten years.
(4) Thoroughly opposes any attempt to remove the Union Jack from our Flag. reflecting as it does, in the crosses. of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick, our Christian Heritage and traditions.
(5) Urges all our people in Australia to become involved in the campaign to protect the  Australian National Flag in its present form.
(6) Declare its abhorrence of all forms of political discrimination based on race. tribe or fulture. viewing all such discrimination as in violation of the Christian doctrine of man. which recognises all human beings to have been created in the image of God.

Sydney September 1982

Reports pp 85-95
Minutes pp 23 - 25

CHURCH AND NATION (Min 32)

 Moral and social issues are usually very complex. There are few such issues upon which there is a unanimous Christian opinion.
In coming to an assessment of moral and social issues, Christian people should be guided by principles derived from a study of the Scriptures; they should then examine the various interpretations and applications of these principles to social and moral issues in particular cultural settings; and finally, they should be thoroughly familiar with the technical aspects of the issues.
Usually there is no simple and conclusive answer to the great moral dilemmas of life to be derived from either the Scriptures or the traditions of a particular denomination. That is the reason for Christian people of intellectual integrity and compassion often coming to conflicting views on moral issues.
We need then to assess moral issues seeking the guidance of the Scriptures and listening to the counsel of other people. The latter part of the twentieth century is experiencing the full flowering of the bud of scientific/technological achievements. The community of men and women is witnessing an immense and radical revolution that, within the last century, has transformed communications, transport and productive processes. These enormous advances have profound influences on the ordinary course of living. They raise acute moral problems concerning the ultimate purpose of human endeavour. Dr. Alex Robertson, principal lecturer in Physics at the Riverina College of Advanced Education and elder of the Church, articulates some of the problems and dilemmas facing all people in western societies, and in particular those involved in productive processes, in the light of new technology. He suggests ways in which people of Christian conviction may respond to these issues.

The Peace Movement
One of the great movements within the Western world in the 1980s is concerned with nuclear power in general, and with nuclear weapons in particular. Thousands of people of goodwill have marched through the streets of the cities of the western world demanding that the arms race be stopped and that the production of lethal nuclear weapons cease. Many people of Christian conviction and compassion are involved in this movement. The Peace Movement raises at least three significant themes.
FIRST: There is a great desire in the hearts and minds of ordinary men and women across the world to live in peace. This desire transcends all social and economic, all racial and national differences. People want to live at peace, pursuing their own interest free from the threat of war and destruction.
SECOND: There is a horror in the minds of many of the destructive power of a thermo-nuclear holocaust. A war involving the super powers using nuclear weapons could well see the total eradication of the human species from the face of the earth. The Peace Movement draws attention to the lethality of nuclear weapons.
THIRD: The Peace Movement desires that the natural and human resources being directed to the refinement of better nuclear and conventional arms, be redirected to the elimination of human hunger, the reduction of disease and the improvement of basic living conditions for a vast number of human beings living in the third and fourth worlds.
On the other hand, however, it should be remembered that there are many people who are sympathetic to the aspirations expressed above but who are wary of involvement in such peace movements. Such people make the following points:
(a) Nuclear power is here to stay. The clock cannot be turned back and nuclear power will continue to be used within the human community at an every increased pace. Inevitably such power has been used to develop weapons of destruction. Such weapons are here to stay.
(b) Moreover, there is some credibility in the nuclear deterrent argument. One fact of contemporary life which many ignore is the threat of communist totalitarianism. The stated aim of Marxism is world domination. Many suggest that the nuclear power of anti-communist forces has prevented the spread of communism especially in western Europe.
(c) Many opponents of the anti-nuclear peace movement point to the failure of the appeasement policies in relation to the Nazi threat in the 1930s. Many people of Christian conviction and compassion were involved in that movement which ultimately proved so costly in terms of destruction of property and loss of life.
(d) It is far too simplistic to seek to avoid the challenge of the Peace Movement by applying dismissive political labels, such as "communist inspired". In the free world the movement has attracted adherents from every political persuasion and none. The absence of any comparable movement in the communist countries is due to political factors such as the prohibition of freedom of expression. Nevertheless, the energies of the anti-nuclear movement need to be directed towards a global nuclear strategy if any lasting impression is to be made.

Nuclear Armaments Review
Dr. A.G. Robertson
Since atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 the world has lived with the possibility of full-scale nuclear war. No nuclear weapon has since been used, but the potential for nuclear destruction has vastly increased. Indeed, both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. may possess the capacity to eliminate the whole human species.
Briefly after 1945 only the U.S.A. could produce atomic or fission weapons, but it was soon joined in the "Nuclear Club" by the U.S.S.R. The ideological gulf between them was the trigger, and tense international relations have been the result. Since 1945 we have endured the Cold War of the late 1940s, the Korean struggle of the 1950's, the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 1970s and the 'running sore' of the Middle East; and this list is by no means exhaustive!
Had the nuclear Club contained only two members the danger would have been high, but they have now been joined by Britain, France, India, China and perhaps Israel. Moreover, during the present conflict in the South Atlantic we have heard the disturbing possibility of Argentina gaining a nuclear capacity and the very real temptation for Britain, operating along extended lines of communication, to use its nuclear submarines.
Three major technological developments have increased the danger. The first was the development of fusion weapons or hydrogen bombs. Using different nuclear processes, these bombs are far more destructive than fission or atomic bombs, releasing energy several thousands of times that of the bombs dropped in Japan in 1945. The justification for building and testing such frightful weapons was, and is, that no nation would use them in fear of possible retaliation.
The second technological development has been in the capacity to deliver such weapons. We are all familiar with the long list
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles; Cruise Missiles; Anti Missile Missiles; Submarine launching; and rocket-guided warheads. Any doubts we might have had about the sophistication and precision of delivery and detection systems have been removed by the present conflict between Britain and Argentina in the South Atlantic.
The third major technological development is the 'neutron' or enhanced radiation' bomb, a weapon producing tremendous levels of very penetrative and lethal neutron radiation without causing the blast or heat damage of previous atom and hydrogen bombs. The presumed value of atomic and hydrogen bombs lay in the maintenance of a ‘balance of terror’ in which each nation feared that retaliation against its own nuclear attack would be utterly destructive. This ‘balance of terror’ may have helped prevent the outbreak of a global war and the use of nuclear weapons since 1945. Now, however, neutron bombs with tremendous capacity for destruction might be used in limited as well as global conflicts. The U.S.A. made the first decision to develop neutron bombs; it is possible France already has developed them or will do so; and it is difficult to believe the U.S.S.R. will not follow suit.
To sum up: many countries now have nuclear weapons; the increase may mean that countries of doubtful political stability and reliability will develop a nuclear capacity; the total nuclear arsenal with its tremendous destructive capacity represents an ‘over-kill’, the development of the tactical neutron bomb may make nuclear weapons conventional and presumably respectable for limited wars; such use would reduce the presumed deterrent value of the earlier strategic fission and fusion weapons; and the possible results are too horrible to contemplate.

Characteristics
Why should we be particularly concerned about nuclear weapons?
Ever since one man used a stick or stone to strike another,
weapons and war seem to have been present. Some people would assert that nuclear weapons are merely the latest development after the stone, the spear, the bow and arrow, gunpowder, TNT and the rest of them. There are, however, significant new aspects.
Strategic nuclear weapons – fission and fusion bombs – are enormously and non-selectively destructive. A single bomb can totally obliterate a substantial city, levelling all structures and eliminating all life. The words 'civilian' and 'infant' then become meaningless. This is frightening.
But there is a more subtle and longer-term threat. Although people distant from the centre would survive the initial explosion, many would be exposed to radiation from nuclear particles or gamma rays with dire results. For some of these, the disruption of body cells will occur within days or weeks: for others it may take years or even decades. In the longer term, there is a possibility of genetic change. Genetic mutation levels may increase, with potential damage and even death for a generation not even born at the time of a nuclear explosion.
The increase in local levels of background radiation is a further possible threat. This may be short-term, as when fall-out is dropped in remote areas, or long-term, as when isotopes of long half life are produced. Assessment of the effects of this low-level radiation is difficult, but here is another result of the change in the character of weapons.
To sum up again: we justifiably fear nuclear warfare potential to produce immediate mass destruction and to sjnister medium - and long-term effects.

A Christian Position
We do not suggest there is a single approach to the problems raised by nuclear armaments with which all Christians would agree. Some see the threat of U.S.S.R. aggression to be so serious as to justify every step to oppose it. Others see the threat of the weapons themselves to be so serious as to justify ending all production of them. Still others - and theirs may be a dangerous delusion see the world of Jesus of Nazareth as remote from the threat of nuclear warfare, which they consign to the world of James Bond and Dr. Who.
We do assert, however, that all affairs of men and nations are conducted within the providence, and under the rule, of God, Who has given us an awful freedom, the fruits of which we inevitably reap. He does not and will not, of course, intervene at our convenience to prevent our reaping the bitter fruits of any seed that we sow. At the heart of the Gospel, indeed, is that tension between God's sovereignty and man's freedom which the whole nuclear question exposes in stark enormity. Individuals, leaders and nations may choose to ignore or to neglect their responsibility and accountability to God, but that choice neither removes nor diminishes God's claims.
Clearly, God expects nations and their leaders to acknowledge His rule, to worship Him wholeheartedly and to validate that worship by acting with justice, equity, compassion, honesty and trustworthiness. No nation which fails in these expectations can expect the enduring approval of a just and loving God.
The Biblical record and subsequent historical events show the affairs of nations to have been marred by the sin of man. Greed, lust for power, oppression, injustice and treachery have marred the relationships between nations and individuals in the past as in our own time. Such expressions of sin and rebellion against God’s rule have generated strife and warfare throughout History.
But the Biblical record contains, above all, the priceless teaching of Jesus Christ. In Him we have the Redeemer both of individuals and of nations. Individuals and nations who acknowledge the Lordship of Christ both in word and in deed will enjoy the full measure of the acceptance and love of God the Father. We see the role of Christians in our society, as individuals and as members of the Church universal and of separate Christian denominations, to influence community and national life towards Godliness.
Summing up once more, we assert that establishing just and lasting peace depends upon the renewal or redemption of mankind. This must be part of the missionary goal of the Church. For survival alone, we must at least strive for a condition of non-war. These are urgent and formidable tasks.
Conclusion
We urge the leaders of all nations, to remove the causes of war. Among following especially our own, to strive these, we distinguish the
1. Exploitation within and  between nations;
2. Oppression  by military, commercial and other means;
3. The aggressive imposition of ideologies; and
4. Materialistic ambition.
Implicit in these four cases enumerated is the possibility that unfair distribution of the world's wealth may provoke aggression; indeed, it may even provoke a poor nation with a nuclear capability into precipitate nuclear action. In this respect, we commend the Australian Government for its very real attempts to promote international dialogue aimed at producing a more equitable distribu­tion of the world's resources. We pray that this dialogue will continue and that positive steps will emerge to redress the clear inequalities between rich and poor. As an example, we believe that the figure of 1% of GNP set by the UNO as appropriate as aid for underdeveloped countries should be adopted by developed countries. We therefore encourage the Australian Government to share our undeniable wealth with people sorely in need at least to that extent.
Because of the awful threat of nuclear war and the tremendous cost of maintaining and increasing the nuclear arsenal, we encourage the Australian Government and other national bodies and their leaders to strive incessantly for world disarmament and for a redirection of resources in such ways as will enhance the prospects of peace and the welfare of mankind. We affirm that the ways of peace, justice and reconciliation are God's ways and will receive His approval.

Australia’s proposed domestic satellite, the church and the community
K.J.Swan
We can expect Australia’s domestic satellite to be placed in orbit some time during 1984-85. Should the Church adopt the attitude that this revolutionary and exciting new aspect of communications technology will be beyond its legitimate purview because of its sophistication and its cost? Or could we adopt the stance that such technological development might provide many opportunities for assisting the outreach of the Church?
The Dean of the School of Education at Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, Mr. Ken Imison, told the recent annual conference of the Isolated Childrens Parents Association that ‘this communications revolution will make rapid changes to rural society by offering a means to revolutionise distance education’ In illustrating this point, he described how his Institute in Toowoomba conducted tutorials linking students throughout Queensland by telephone and others on South Pacific Islands by satellite.
Mr. Imison went on to stress that the best means of benefiting from the new technology was by 'long-term planning based on a vision of possibilities,' and added that 'correct planning will help bring to children of the outback an education no longer limited by distance and isolation.'
A glance at the Year Book of our Church shows that we still have many congregations in the isolated areas of inland Australia. Moreover, beyond the towns and villages are the homes of many of our parishioners. Some of these are served by the Southwest and Northwest Patrols in New South Wales and by the Presbyterian Inland Mission in South Australia and Queensland. Not only do the children of these families need educational facilities, but the entire families need the Gospel. During the first third of the twentieth century, S.A. Eastman of our Church was instrumental in gaining the licence for radio station 2CH in Sydney, and John Flynn was God's instrument who erected the 'mantle of safety' over the people of the outback with the pedal radio and the aeroplane.
This Committee believes that we, the successors of Eastman and Flynn, must at the very least examine the ‘vision of possibilities’ that this exciting new technological development might offer for propagating the Gospel across this vast island continent.

Further reading
Developing Education, Vol. 9 No.1 Article by M.F. Forster, Principal of the Katherine School of the Air.

Impact of Technology
Dr. Alex Robertson

Background
Major technological changes have frequently brought with them economic, social political and even religious upheavals. Not infrequently once-prized skills have become redundant and new. ones have emerged; whole strata in society have been inverted in status; political parties, sometimes nations have emerged or disappeared and more than once the Church as been called upon to rethink and restate the Gospel.
In the developed world the pace of technological change in the late twentieth century has been very great and increases apparently without respite. It would be impossible to consider all the changes in technology which might be upon us in the last twenty years of the century, but we can consider two major and related technological advances which are already here and which challenge our society. These are the microprocessor and the mechanical robot.
For more than thirty years the computer has steadily developed to the point where very sophisticated devices can be purchased for modest amounts and a constant flow of changes and improvements pours over a dazed community. At first computers were used as very fast and accurate calculators, then as huge stores of information. Now we are seeing a vast array of applications of the tiny silicon chips ranging from TV games to control of inter-planetary flights. For a whole host of purposes the microprocessor seems to be more reliable, faster and certainly cheaper than human beings.
Particularly in Japan we have seen the microprocessor coupled to machines to produce that creature of the science fiction writers, the mechanical robot. These machines can perform complex tasks. Perhaps most remarkably some are able to reproduce themselves. In a very short time it is expected that Japan will be exporting robots built to perform all kinds of tasks. Many skilled workers will be replaced by these machines.

Impact
Already some aspects of the impact of these technologies are evident and little imagination is required to anticipate further effects. In order to meet the challenges created it is important that leaders in all aspects of national life be informed and prepared. To this time there has been surprisingly little public discussion of the issues.
We should consider the important questions of the impact on work and the distribution of wealth.
Already the microprocessor has begun to affect employment in several areas. We are all familiar with letters, bills and advertising generated by computers. In banks, insurance companies, publishing houses and even small offices clerical workers are being replaced by computers and word processors. In libraries around the world the mountains of written information are being reduced to tiny signals on magnetic tapes and disks which can be searched and sorted at great speed for those seeking information. In laboratories and hospitals tests are being carried out, analysed and reported upon automatically. The development of robots has not matched that of microprocessors yet, but the possibilities, indeed probabilities, are very great.
The need for human labour in a whole range of ‘doing’ tasks is on the point of being removed. This will have an enormous impact which is increasingly being recognised. What is not as well appreciated is the imminent effect on many ‘thinking’ tasks. People who see themselves as decision makers will soon find that they are being challenged by a super-fast, tireless collection of hardware and software which can analyse, project and decide. The machines can already be taught to learn from their mistakes and have diagnosed illnesses and flown space craft unaided.
Simply in terms of work the process worker, the skilled tradesman, the stenographers, but also the store manager, the teacher, the lawyer, even the physician and the pathologist will certainly be affected.
Despite this threat to employment, the wealth of the community in material terms may well increase. A great social challenge, perhaps the greatest, is to devise a means of sharing equitably that wealth. It is certainly clear that the present means will not do. In summary then, we have a picture of much less work of the kinds we are used to increased wealth overall and some enormous social challenges.

Work
Perhaps the greatest challenge for the theologians of the Church will be to reassess the Christian view of work. Traditionally work has been seen as essential to the full development of the human personality. The ‘work ethic’ has particularly been identified with the protestant church. We might well question whether some of the work which our forbears had to do was very edifying. The disappearance of some tedious or dangerous tasks can hardly be a cause for regret. However, the prospect of the removal of whole areas of work, perhaps leading to a huge group of people who are not needed for work and are permanently unemployed, or a working week of 20 to 25 hours needs to be thought of as a theological challenge. Nor can we neglect evidence that our culture, philosophy, art and theology have generally developed in ‘non-work’time. The time may be at hand to develop a theology of non-work.
Wealth
With most new technologies a new group of wealthy individuals has emerged, and often other groups of poor and poorer. It may be socially and politically unacceptable to allow a repeat of past processes to distribute wealth. Indeed, we could face absurdities of wealth, taxation and poverty if ‘work’ contracts sufficiently. Rather urgently means must be found which will permit the whole society to benefit from the new developments. Christians have always held that wealth itself is a hazard to the individual. In the next 20 years the management of wealth produced by machines rather than people will be a serious hazard to whole societies. It seems clearly unacceptable to distribute wealth on the basis of work and then deny work to an even larger part of the community.

New Work
If much traditional work in primary, secondary and tertiary industry disappears, there will not be any shortage of service which Christians can do. All the evidence points to an increasing number of elderly, isolated, perhaps deprived and confused within our communities. There will be plenty of caring ‘work’ for the Christian community to do.
Additionally, most projections suggest that the new technologies will do little to close the gap between the developed and the underdeveloped world, except in a limited number of countries which have been able to establish industries based on new technologies. There will be many opportunities for service outside our own community and country, assuming of course that Australia adopts new technologies.
There may also exist a great challenge to persuade our leaders to spread benefits which flow beyond our own shores.

To what end?
It is rarely argued that new technology is introduced for the benefit of those most directly associated with it; certainly it is in the cases of some automated processes where dangerous or tedious tasks have been eliminated. More frequently, however, machines have removed or will remove the need for human labour altogether or replace skilled workers with unskilled machine watchers who will in due course themselves be unnecessary.
The benefits are clearly seen as coming from cheaper, better, more profitable goods and services. The short term results may be fine in these terms, but without resolution of the allied problems, particularly distribution of wealth, the corporate benefits may be shortlived.
If there are benefits to be gained from the new technologies, and if they are well used there should be, then Christians would want to see the benefits well shared.

Poverty in Australia
‘Poverty’ Australia ‘poor’ in is a relative term. Those described as ‘poor’ within are ‘fairly well off’ compared with those described as the fourth world.
Jesus asserted that there would always be poor people (Mark 14:7). Constantly throughout the Bible special regard is directed towards the poor. The Jewish people had various social mechanisms whereby the plight of the poor was relieved. In the New Testament special regard is directed towards ‘the least of these’ - the hungry, the thirsty, the naked and so on. The Church through its long history has often endeavoured to help the poor in the name of Christ.
There are many ‘low income earners’ in Australia today, and many who are supported by the system of social security. The Committee affirms that it is both right and compassionate for Governments to help such people. This is achieved by the social security welfare system, welfare housing and other concessions.
Sometimes this state of ‘poverty’ is self induced. For example, it is undeniable that many people listed as unemployed are not genuinely seeking work. Should the community be expected to support such people who elect to be unemployed?
The whole system of social welfare is becoming an immense burden on the tax payers of the nation. A balance must be achieved by means of which those with an abundance of resources should support the poorer people through the taxation system. But the system also needs to prevent abuses whereby those who have ample resources receive Government help; the system needs also to discourage people from 'living off the State'.
Campbell Egan
Convener

CODE COMMITTEE
Church & Nation Committee (B.B. 1979 Min. 97 (4))
The Clerk was directed to consult with the Code Committee as to the ‘legal standing within the structures of the General Assembly of the Church and Nation Committee’.
There is no doubt that the General Assembly of Australia has the authority to appoint committees to perform stated tasks and to provide funding for same. It is not suggested that we engage in drafting Articles of Agreement for a Church and Nation Committee and going through all the necessary Barrier Act procedure to have them implemented.


Resolutions of the 38th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 1982
 
Church and Nation

32. The Report of the Church and Nation Committee was laid on the Table and received.
Rev. C.E.J. Egan moved the Deliverance.
The motion was seconded.
It was agreed to take the Deliverance clause by clause.
Clause 1 was moved and seconded.
It was agreed to take Clause 1 sub-clause by sub-clause.
Clause 1(a) was moved and seconded.
Rev. G.K.Kettniss moved :-
That the Assembly:
(a) Urge the Australian Government –
(i) To pursue ….. promote world peace.
(ii) To ensure that our defence forces and equipment are such as to adequately withstands the attack of hostile powers.
The motion was seconded.

Arising out of debate Rev. J.J.T. Campbell moved :-
That the Assembly:
Delete the word ‘withstand’ and insert in  lieu thereof the words “play their part in withstanding”.
The Moderator ruled that leave of he House was required.
Leave was not granted.
The motion was seconded and approved.
Clause 1(b) was amended and approved.
That the Assembly :
(1) Add a new clause  ( c)  Express concern with the rising unemployment rate and the number of Australians below the poverty lines.
(2) Add a new clause  (d)  Urge the Church and its congregations to actively and compassionately help those who have needs because of eh current economic situation.
(3) Renumber Clause 1( c) as Clause 1(e).
The motion was seconded and approved.
Clause 1(e) as renumbered was approved.
The Deliverance as a whole, as amended, was approved as follows :-
That the Assembly:
1 (a)  Urge the Australian Government –
(i) to pursue policies that encourage genuine disarmament negotiations with all countries, both with respect to the present stockpile of arms, and the further production of both conventional and nuclear weapons, in order to reduce the arms race and to promote world peace;
(ii) to ensure that our defence forces and equipment are such as to adequately withstand the attacks of hostile powers.
(b) Encourage the Australian Government to promote policies that enable full exchange of goods and people between all nations, and so generate increased understanding and goodwill between people while pursuing policies that will ensure the livelihood and well-being of the Australian people.
(c) Express concern with the rising unemployment rate and the number of Australians below the poverty line.
(d) Urge the Church and its congregations to actively and compassionately help those who have needs because of eh current economic situation.
(e) Advise the Prime Minister, and the Leader of he Opposition of resolutions 1(a) – (1( c)
2 Send the report down to Presbyteries and Sessions for study and comment and report to the Church and Nation Committee by December 1984.
3 Request the GAA’s Christian Education Committee to examine the opportunities offered by the proposed domestic satellite for the propagation of the Gospel.
4 Appoint the NSW Church and Nation Committee as the GAA’s Church and Nation Committee, with the following to action as corresponding members:
Rev. J.J.T. Campbell (Q’land), Rev. N.M. Pritchard (Vic), Rev. M.J.K. Ramage (Tas), Rev. G.L. Chipps (WA) , and Mr A G Matheson (SA) with Rev. Campbell Egan (Convener)

Melbourne September 1979

Reports and other papers pp 26-41
Minutes pp 24-25, 47-48

Church and Nation Committee
The Committee has met several times during the past two years.  It has published two resource booklets which are designed to be used within congregations.  The first booklet has the title Christianity … the way or  one of many?  This booklet touches on fundamental theological issues that lie behind a consideration of the more obvious issues of Christian social concern.  The second booklet has the title The Christian as a citizen is designed to quicken an interest in the field of Christian social concern, and especially the responsibility of some Christian people actively participating in the public life.  Both these booklets are available in the Presbyterian bookroom in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.  Copies are also available from the Convener.
The report concentrates on four areas of interest: namely unemployment, Women in the service of Christ, the Eldership in the Church to-day, and  aims and aspirations of the Australian nation in the final quarter of the twentieth century.
The Committee acknowledges help received from various people beyond its membership, especially to Dr Alec Robertson of the Session of St Andrew’s Wagga Wagga who prepared the section on unemployment in dialogue with the Committee.

Unemployment
Introduction – This paper does not attempt to do more than examine in an introductory way the general characteristics of the problems of unemployment in Australia and to point to some biblical principles which bear on the stance the Church might adopt on this issue.
In addition to a variety of newspaper reports and comments and discussion in other media, much of the source has been drawn from an A.I.D.A. publication, “Understanding Unemployment” (Australian Industries Development Association, 1978), a speech by Mr. R. J. Hawke, President of the A.C.T.U. to a Summer School, University of Western Australia, January 1979, and the monograph by Alan Richardson, “The Biblical Doctrine of Work” (S.C.M. Press, 1952).  All of these writings are commended to any reader seeking greater information and insight.
It is a particular concern that the Church, in response to the revealed will of God, be active and compassionate in meeting this serious, destructive and divisive problem and that she should exercise her influence to see that the causes and the effects of unemployment are speedily removed.

The Fact of Unemployment – Since World War II Australia, along with most of the developed world, has enjoyed a period of very low unemployment.  Apart from two periods of economic recession the rate of unemployment remained below 2% of the workforce and was generally close to 1%.  This 1% was believed to be made up of persons moving between jobs and the “chronically unemployable”.  However, during the seventies, the rate of unemployment has grown spectacularly.  There is debate, and a certain amount of posturing, on the question of the severity of
[p27]
unemployment, but it cannot now be denied that we have a rate of unemployment higher than at any time during the previous forty years, perhaps 5 to 10 times that typical of that period.  Some sectors have been particularly affected, whilst some other groups have been relatively unaffected.  In broad terms the less skilled and less experienced have been passed over or displaced in the competition for the available employment.  At the end of this competition the unskilled and the young tend to find themselves making up a large proportion of the unemployed.  Unemployment in the 15 – 19 age group has topped 20% at times during the past 2 years and has not fallen below 15%.
At the same time, among the employed there may well be many who, while pleased to be in employment, find their ambitions and aspirations frustrated as a result of the need to work in a job neither utilizing their skills nor providing the career path they might have expected.
Unemployment among the professionally trained, with the exception of teaching, has not yet become serious (less than 2%) although there have been some gloomy forecasts.  On the other hand the manufacturing and building industries have been hard hit with a fall of about 30% in employment since the start of the decade.
Further to complicate the picture in detail, there are areas requiring particular skills, for example computer specialists, where there is still a shortage of workers.
It can with certainty be said that the nation and the Church are facing an unemployment problem of very serious proportions which brings with it theological, social, economic and political issues of great moment and pressing urgency.

The Future of Unemployment - Some experts and commentators claim that the notion of full employment has passed away with the dodo and the passenger pigeon and that we must address ourselves to a new social and political order in which a significant proportion of those able to work will not find employment in the sense that we presently understand.
The expectation of the 50s and 60s was that virtually the entire population would have an extended period of active leisure at the end of a working life itself characterised by considerable leisure. In the 70s a whole section of expert leadership appears to be suggesting that part of the community can look forward to long periods of enforced “leisure” with an income too small to enjoy the packages of the leisure industry.
More conservative commentators see the present situation as an aberration which can be corrected, producing a return to something like earlier levels of employment.
Whatever longer term view is taken, it has not proved possible to find a single authority prepared to predict a significant improvement in the unemployment position in the near future. The length of the period during which high unemployment exists is itself a very important matter. Conditions which might be tolerated by individuals, communities or the entire nation for brief periods may be ruinous if maintained over long  periods. Already Australia has known five years of increasing unemployment. The most optimistic views indicate at least some years before a substantial improvement.

Costs of Unemployment
a) Economic ­ Our political and economic leaders are grappling with economic problems which seem to be extremely intractible. The remedies proposed and implemented are severe and are producing some degree of discomfort. Whether unemployment is a cause or an effect or both may be debated elsewhere, but the direct costs to the community of our unemployment is recognised and can be estimated with some accuracy.
In 1978/79 unemployment benefits were budgeted at $925m. Actual expenditure will exceed this figure by at least $100m. Something like $150m will be spent on other direct forms of unemployment related schemes.
If it is assumed that the unemployed could have been employed in similar work to the employed population, in lost income tax alone at least $900m will be foregone by the Government in 1978/79. Loss of other income related taxes makes the total money cost of unemployment staggering.
The combined effects of unemployment related payments and income foregone place the Government in the position of either raising more money from the employed sector, or reducing its expenditure if it wishes to avoid large deficits. Thus the direct money cost of unemployment is spread over the whole community.
Beyond the costs to the Government the economic costs to individuals and the nation are enormous. To the unemployed the economic cost is acute, urgent and obvious, but the cost is spread, albeit less acutely, across the whole community. The cost to the Government is transferred quite directly to all taxpayers. Services which otherwise might be provided are lost. Business activity is reduced, even though the unemployed spend what money they have fairly completely and quickly. There is a major cost to business in under-used capital, productive-capacity and often in reduced efficiency.
It has even been suggested that there is a significant public cost in terms of increased crime resulting from unemployment, although this does not seem to have been demonstrated clearly.

(b) Social Costs - Although the economic costs of unemployment, particularly to the unemployed, are plainly of great significance, as the period of high unemployment is prolonged, the social costs loom as perhaps more serious and more permanent.
The notion that all who can should work is so much a part of the moves of our society that prolonged high unemployment must cause stresses and a calling into question of those values, not only by the unemployed, but by the whole society.
Some evidence is already clear that social issues are becoming of central importance. For some time a significant section of the community has regarded the unemployed simply as "dole bludgers", misfits unworthy of a real place in the society. Such a view is divisive and unhelpful in finding a solution to a real problem. It does however demonstrate the nature of a deep social issue resulting from unemployment. There is a constant temptation for a division to be created between the unemployed and the rest of the community. The unemployed may feel rejected, misled and angry with a society largely unconcerned with their plight and sometimes abusive. The employed may feel aggrieved with the burden of supporting the unemployed and threatened in the competition for employment.
Beyond this however is the increasing possibility that the unemployed feel rejected by the society. This possibility, in the minds of many, makes a pool of unemployment a serious threat to the very fabric of the society. This seems to be particularly serious when one considers the level of unemployment among the young. This is the group most likely to have its view of the society's values permanently modified by a long period out of work. The young in any case frequently question society's values. If they find that the society has no place for them in work, and often then criticises their failure to find work, they may well feel justified in rejecting that society's values could exploit the situation of the young unemployed particularly.
An earlier generation, experiencing the trauma of the Great Depression, created a significant shift in political and social values. There is no reason to believe that the present recession, if prolonged, will do less. Certainly the possibility of one fifth of the youth of the nation unable to find work for, say, a decade would strain modern Australian society to an unprecedented extent.
In the realm of education there has been a sharp shift in emphasis due to the employment difficulties. There are few cries for education for self development and for leisure, cries which were very familiar a decade ago, but there are loud and persistent cries for more job training and more tie between education and the job market. Students themselves are selecting courses which lead to good job prospects, rather than those for which they necessarily have any real vocation.
Social workers frequently point out that youth, having left the relative security of school, are unable to cope with the problem of unemployment. The attack on their financial and personal independence, their self-esteem and status in the society, can easily lead to serious and long term social problems, including the loss of any desire to work and a general retreat from the society.

The Causes and the Cures - The causes of unemployment in economic terms are complex and widespread. One of the major difficulties confronting national Government seems to be that the problem is so complex and so universal that perhaps only a universal solution will suffice.
The link between unemployment and inflation is daily attested in our newspapers, but the causal relationship seems to be more a matter of economic doctrine than of clear demonstration. This nation’s economic performance and inflation rate are closely tied to factors relatively outside this nation's control in several respects. These include oil prices, investment patterns of trans-national companies, world trading policies especially the tendency towards protectionism, even demographic patterns in the nations which are our trading partners. Internal factors affecting both inflation and unemployment seem to include labour cost escalation, structural changes as some industries decline or require less labour, technological changes displacing labour which cannot readily adapt and demographic factors, in particular the changing age distribution of the Australian population.
It is not the purpose of this paper to evaluate these causes. That would require an expert analysis beyond our scope. We can merely reiterate, on the basis of an almost universal consensus, that the causes of unemployment are complex and not all within the control of this nation.
Quite beyond the economic causes we can note that at least in part the problems are due to the ease with which men and women are prepared to prosper at one another's expense. It would be difficult to believe that the command of Jesus that we "love our neighbour as ourselves" has penetrated our economic, commercial, industrial and international policy areas as He would wish.
The cures of unemployment seem to be at least as obscure and complex as the causes. We have, almost uniquely, agreement among the Government, business leaders and trade union leaders that the unemployment problem is particularly intractible in the short term.
At present the Government is pursuing a policy which asserts that unemployment will be reduced when inflation is controlled and that key aspect in the control of inflation is a reduction in real wages.
Other specific “cures” are myriad. Each of these schemes has its supporters and equally all have their detractors. Most commentators seem to agree that any solution will be a combination of many factors and may well be determined to a considerable extent by the priority placed upon the problem among the array of difficulties facing our national leadership.

The Church, Work and Unemployment - No doubt since earliest days believers have had views about work. Some have seen work as a punitive result of man’s sinfulness, others have seen purifying quality in honest labour. In a small but comprehensive work Alan Richardson examines “The Biblical Doctrine of Work” (S.C.M. Press, 1952). Among many other things he points out that work is ordained for man by God the Creator, standing not as a punishment for sin, not as a means of man's rehabilitation, but as part of the "natural law". It may even be argued that those profound early chapters of Genesis establish that man is by Divine plan a worker and that "to be denied the opportunity of work is to be treated as something less than a human being", (op. cit. p. 25).
This view makes serious unemployment totally abhorrent to the Christian Church as a denial of God's express plan for mankind.
It is doubtful whether the concept of unemployment in the modern indus­trial sense was known to the biblical writers but the important principle is clear.
Richardson (ibid) concludes that it is also the biblical view that a society in which the opportunities and rewards of labour are shared is better than one in which labour is frustrated, exploited or inadequately rewarded, and that the honourable status of labour has been frustrated by human sin. Accepting this position the Church must be concerned to see unemployment removed and also to see that as far as lies in Her power the familiar scene of self-seeking, rivalry and exploitation in the world of labour relations is brought under the transforming power of Christ so that the purposes of God can be achieved.
Just how this is to be done is not always agreed upon. However, believers can individually and in concert impress upon our national leaders in every sphere the need to strive more vigorously and more urgently to remove unemployment from the national scene. It must be recognised that Christians will have a variety of opinions about the means of reducing unemployment, but there ought not to be division on the need for its removal.
Since some authorities suggest that significant levels of unemployment will be a more or less permanent feature of western mixed economies such as ours, the time may well be ripe for the Church to examine anew its view of the traditional "Protestant work ethic". It has already been stated that work should be seen as ordained by God for the wellbeing of individuals and societies. However, there remain the questions of how to affirm the worth to society and to God of those persons who are unable to work by virtue of economic, educational or social factors and how to interpret “work” in an era when economic facxtors and technological changes are rapidly and radically altering the patterns of employment and unemployment.
It may well be possible for Christians to take a more positive stance on some ways of alleviating the plight of those already unemployed. First there is the biblical view that labour ought properly to be for the common good. Some persons, acting with notably high purpose, and including numbers of Christians, have shown themselves willing to share the benefits of their own employment with those not able to find work. This has sometimes been through job creation, job sharing or even retirement at an early date. These actions do not solve the problem as a whole, but they may go far to solving particular individual problems and are living evidence of a spirit to meet the need.
Then, there are the very real financial and personal difficulties of the unemployed. Various Governmental and private agencies are, of course, active here, but the Church is particularly charged with being the expression of Christ's redemptive love. To the unemployed man (or woman), perhaps doubting his worth, perhaps angry with the society, perhaps unable to provide adequately for a family, the fact of God's love is Good News indeed. If that love is conveyed through an active concern by the Church standing beside in troubled times then the work of Christ goes on.
Many individual Christians and congregations are well placed to contact and to assist the unemployed. In some places this is being done, but perhaps in others there is reluctance to act because of uncertainty about what to do or how best to assist. A positive approach can be seen only as an expression of the compassionate and practical love of Christ.

Women in the Service of Christ.
(Mrs Mary Grant).
During the 1970s legislation has been introduced in most States of the Commonwealth to eliminate discrimination from both legislation and social attitudes. A notable aspect is the desire of this anti-discrimination legislation is the desire to eliminate discrimination against women purely on the basis of their sexuality. Equality of opportunity in the fields of education and employment is a widely accepted social attitude in this country today.
The Church must be very careful that in its total life it does not discriminate against women purely on the basis of sexuality. Should such discrimination be expressed in terms of opportunity of service within the eldership and ministry, then it must be rooted in very sub­stantial Biblical and theological soil. Women have in fact historically played a significant and prominent part in the service of Christ. The Presbyterian Church today must be perceptive of the spiritual gifts of women, as of men, and ensure that all in the body of the Kirk have full opportunity to exercise those gifts to the glory of God.
It is almost impossible to undertake any serious study into the mini­stry of women in the Church without being aware of the enormous influence that the prejudices of our culture and traditions have exerted. Within the Body of Christ male chauvinists, women libbers and all the gradations between exist as they do in our society. So often in debates, Scripture texts are hurled weapons against each other in futility. There is a tremendous need to read and listen to Scripture, not to re-inforce our own beliefs but to stand under God’s authority and allow Him through the Word and the Spirit to shape our understand­ing. “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed” (Rom. 12 v.2. Phillips). There will need to be much mutual understand­ing and acceptance as we trust each other’s honest search under God.
Many questions have been raised as the old cultural pattern of a stereotyped role for all women is countered by the present emphasis on personal freedom and permissiveness. What has the Bible to say to the Church concerning the Christian woman who seeks to exercise her Godgiven gifts in the Church situation?
Eve was created as a 'help-meet' for Adam. This surely indicates a complementary, not a subordinate position in responsibility for service. In the Fall certainly Eve came under God's condemnation and her punish­ment included subjection to her husband. This of course is not to be permanent but is a part of sin's curse which is abolished by the Atone­ment. In spite of this subjection and the Jewish Oral Law which added terms to the concept, women in the Old Testament played very important roles. Miriam was not only pious and God-fearing but she exercised a quasi-ministerial office. Deborah became a spiritual leader in Israel and a judge under whom the "land had rest forty years".
Hannah, Samuel's mother, the little Jewish maid to the wife of Naaman, Huldah who prophesied to Josiah, all found no hindrance to their spiritual service. Women were allowed to become Nazarites but not Levites (the period for a Levite was from age 20 to 50 which were marriage and child-bearing years for women).
There were no women among the Twelve Apostles of Christ (nor were there Gentiles), but the Gospels often mention groups of women as followers; many Samaritans believed the witness of the woman at the well; Martha was encouraged to leave her domestic chores and join Mary at Jesus' feet; and Mary anointed Jesus, an act which revealed her deeper understanding of the words of Christ concerning His approaching death and resurrection.
It is however as the young Church commences that women take their place as the Holy Spirit endows them. Priscilla ministered with her husband and taught Apollos at least. Philip's daughters all prophesied; women of the "Way" were cast into prison; Lydia's home was the first Gentile "Church"; Euodia and Syntyche were called "labourers in the gospel",
the same designation as Paul used in speaking of Timothy; Chloe main­tained a Christian household. Paul designated Phoebe "diakonos", a term he used of himself in I Cor. 3:5, 6, 7-8. and Col. 1:23, and "prostatis" (this was the feminine noun corresponding with the masculine used in I Chron. 29:6 and II Chron. 8:10. The verbal equivalent is found in I Thess. 5:12 and I Tim 5:17. To translate this as helper or good friend is weak). From this description it seems more than possi­ble that Phoebe was a preacher and leader in the early church.
Other prominent women were Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Nympha, Eunica, Lois and Dorcas. There seemed no hindrance to the full operation of their God-given ministries, varied as they were. How then do we recon­cile this liberty with the strict rules of conduct that Paul quotes in I Cor. 14 v.34, 35 and in I Tim 2 v.12? Were these merely interim ethics so that the Law could be observed until Grace abounded? It has been said that "Paul set the Church permanently in tension with all forms of functional subordination of female to male by calling for mutual subordination in the family and the church as well as by point­ing to the eschatological reality that there is neither male or female in Christ. The Church can never be content until the full personal and social implications of that eschatological reality are established and practiced in this age" (E. and D. Fraser A Biblical View of Wo­men).
The early centuries of Christianity gave us many outstanding women who were saints and martyrs. Paula assisted Jerome in translation; Scholastica established a companion order to her brother Benedict; Clare to Francis of Assisi and Hilda and Mother Julian had abbeys. The Protestant dissolution of the monasteries meant that the only vocation open to women was marriage or home help. With the coming of the nine­teenth century and the opening of mission fields women played a very significant role. One has only to recall Mary Slessor, Ann Judson, Amy Carmichael and a hundred others (nearly every mission field had women as pioneers) in difficult lands. Catherine Booth and her daugh­ters served in England in the slums. Women responded to the Great Commission. The seal on their work was the obvious blessing of God.
These women were rooted and grounded in Scripture and only sought to follow their Lord and yet often suffered as men questioned the Divine Authority for their ministry. John Wesley in his later years encour­aged women to preach and found that some were leading congregations of over 2,000. Adam Clarke stated in his commentary (1810) "under the blessed spirit of Christianity women have equal rights, equal privi­leges, and equal blessings, and let me add, they are equally useful".
In the last few years of the undivided Presbyterian Church women were able to train for the ministry and seek ordination, and also serve as elders on local sessions. This practice has been continued in some places and suspended in others. It would seem very important for the on-going life of the Church that the issue is clarified. There are many women who feel God has called them to serve within a family situa­tion, on a local P.W.A. group, on a church roster; they need much encouragement. Other women sense that God has called them to other areas of service as the ordained ministry and eldership and men and women in the church must be aware of their gifts. In the years ahead our branch of the Body of Christ needs mutuality, partnership, interdependence and co-responsibility if the true life of God is to flow.
"Ecclesia semper reformanda"
Some references recommended by the Committee:

N.C. Deck  The Ministry of Women in the Church
K. Giles Women and their Ministry (Dove 1977)
Paul Jewett Man as Male and Female (Eerdmans 1975)
K. Stendahl  The Bible and the Place of Women
J. Jeremias  Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus

The Eldership Today
(Mr. Keith Swan)
Preamble - For almost a quarter century until 1977, the Presbyterian Church of Australia debated the question of entering a corporate union with the Congregational and Methodist Churches. On 22 June. 1977 that corporate union became a reality in the Uniting Church in Australia, which included many former members of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
While those of us who continued Presbyterian grieved about the cutting of old ties in Christ, and asked God to bless the Uniting Church, we rejoiced that this divisive issue was settled in principle if not in detail, that we could now concentrate on ‘glorifying God and enjoying Him for ever,’ which the Shorter Catechism tells us is ‘man's chief end.’
Since 1977 we have been unable to suppress a feeling of excitement that we are now 'back on course', that we can concentrate on the great task of spreading the Gospel of Salvation with a minimum of debate on conten­tious issues.
Now we believe it is time for this General Assembly of Australia to tell the nation, and to remind its own members, about its Faith and Order, which are inseparable; because, indeed, our firm convictions about Faith and Order prevented us from entering corporate union, though we profess unity with all who own Jesus Christ as Saviour. We emphasise that ours is a positive faith. We are not against this, or against that, or against the other thing as Christians.
For these reasons we speak with confidence to the Nation, and to the members of our Church, about Faith and Order.
A Confessional Church – In the first place, the Presbyterian Church is a Confessional Church, affirming the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as our supreme standard, but accepting the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1645, with some modifications, as our subordinate standard. This Confession, giving the interpretation of Scripture held by Presbyterians, was adopted by the Commonwealth-wide Church when established in 1901, with provision for amendment when necessary.
Part of the Church Catholic - One of the great declarations of the Westminster Confession is the ‘the visible Church, which is ... catholic or universal under the Gospel... consist of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, together with their children; and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God.
As the Presbyterian Church of Australia believes this, it follows that we perceive the Christian or Catholic Church to be a far more important entity than the Presbyterian Church. And it also follows that we welcome to the Lord’s table in any Presbyterian Church - because it is the Lord's table and not a Presbyterian table - all who confess and obey Christ as their Lord and Saviour, whatever their denominational affiliation.
A Conciliar Church - In one sense church government is a matter of minor importance, FAITH being much more important than ORDER. But as the Presbyterian Church proclaims the Word of God contained in the Old and New Testaments as its supreme standard; and as our polity or church government has fashioned ‘in conformity with and agreeable to the Word of God’; then Order is inseparable from, or is an integral part of, Faith.
Let us proclaim this with fervour : Christ is the Sovereign Ruler of His Church; Christ rules His Church through ordained officers whom He has called; and today, as it was in the first or New Testament Christian Church, His officers rule for Christ through a series of courts or councils. Hence, we are a Conciliar Church because we accept the Scriptures as our supreme standard.
As Professor Norman McLeish said in 1942, ‘government in the Presbyterian Church...is not government by one man, but by brethren conferring together in accordance with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the congregation is under, not an individual minister, but a “session”; an ecclesiastical district is under, not a diocesan bishop, but a “presbytery”; the Church as a whole, in a national or other large area, is under, not a primate or archbishop, but a general “synod” or “assembly”. And that this conciliar form of government is the sort of government of which we read in the New Testament, cannot reasonably be denied; for the letters of Paul to the Churches were addressed, not to single individuals in charge of these churches, but to the collegiate body of bishops or presbyters appointed in each of them.’
Moreover, in the councils or courts there is equality of status among the members, so that those members act together as brethren, as Christ enjoined us to do, under a duly elected chairman or 'moderator', who is primus inter pares, or first among equals.
A Theocratic rather than a Democratic Church - To regard Presbyterian polity as democratic is wrong, in spite of appearances. Carnegie Simpson described the situation clearly and accurately when he said, ‘the Presbyterian Church takes its guiding principles not from Demos but from Christ, not from what is political but from what is religious.’ Presbyterianism, so far as it exhibits elements of popular democracy in its system, does this accidentally; its essential idea is theocratic. It is that the Church is ‘composed of the people of God; and this supernatural society governs itself in His name.’
Eldership in the Presbyterian Church ‑ The feature of our theocracy giving the appearance of popular democracy is the presence in all Presbyterian courts - session, presbytery, assemblies - of non-ministerial elders in at least as equal numbers as ministers. In one court - the session - they far outnumber the minister, who is that court’s moderator.
The Bible gives abundant evidence of elders in the Jewish Church from as early as Moses, who appointed elders during the exodus from Egypt. Naturally, early Christian communities followed the Jewish example, and in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Acts, the last verse, we read of Barnabas and Saul taking gifts to the elders of the Jerusalem Church from the new Church in Antioch. This and many other examples in the Book of Acts and in Paul's Epistles show that there were ‘ruling’ elders in the New Testament Churches.
In the New Testament these men were called ‘presbyters’ which we have taken to include ministers, who not only ‘rule’ but also ‘teach’ and ‘preach’, and other elders who only ‘rule’. In fact, Paul said in his First Letter to Timothy, ‘the elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.’ Whether this should be interpreted as indicating two distinct kinds of presbyters, ruling and ministerial; or whether it should be interpreted as meaning two functions of a single group called presbyters, is a matter of keen debate; but both ministers of word and sacraments and ruling elders are called by God and ordained for His service.
The importance of Ruling Elders in the Presbyterian Cchurch of Aust. Hitherto we have been addressing the nation and the members of our Church listening. No we address the Church, and trust that our nation will continue to listen.
We have already said that ruling elders, like ministers of the word and sacraments, are called by God and ordained for His service. Presbyterians know this full well, but it is well to remind ourselves of important facts from time to time. What a privilege and a responsibility this places upon those who serve as ruling elders, and upon the congregations who elect them! What detailed study of the Supreme and Subordinate Standards of our Church this responsibility demands! How can we ever discharge this responsibility without remaining dependent upon the grace of the God and Father of us all?
Down the years many have attested to the powerful influence of ruling elders. Almost two centuries ago J.G. Lockhart, Sir Walter Scott’s son-in-law, spoke of the elders in small country parishes of Scotland as ‘men selected to discharge the function of their office on account of the exemplary propriety and purity of their long lives.’
In our own generation, Professor Henderson of Aberdeen has referred to ‘the kindliness and sympathy, ... the powerful example, and ... the shrewd judgment of these representatives of the people.’
As recently as 3 April, 1977 at a rally in Saint Paul’s Church, Brisbane, Rev. Donald MacNair from the Reformed Presbyterian Church of the United States of America said the experience of his own denomination was the ‘the future of the Church is as bright as the eldership is qualified and committed.’
Before concluding, we commend to all the following propositions of Lawrence R. Eyres in the booklet The Elders of the Church :
* Elders are made by the Holy Spirit of Christ.
* Adult (Confessing) Christians are endowed with the spiritual capacity to discern those whom the Holy Spirit has made elders.
* Elders, in the fulfillment of their holy calling, hold the key to the health of the congregations under their rule.
* Biblical submission to elders cannot be expected except where the congregation has exercised its choice as to who its elders should be.
* No man can safely be ordained to the office of elder who does not possess all the biblically stated qualifications for that office.
* The elders of the church are co-pastors, and every use of the office should reflect this fact.
Conclusion - Finally, we re-iterate that the Presbyterian Church of Australia is part of the Church Catholic; a church having as its Supreme Standard the Word of God; a Confessional Church having as its Subordinate Standard the Westminster Confession of Faith read in the light of the polity has been fashioned 'in conformity with and agreeable to the Word of God.' It is moreover, utterly dependent for its witness on 'elders... made by the Holy Spirit of Christ.'
We present this statement - and our loyalty in Christ - to the nation; and we urge our members both to study the statement earnestly and prayerfully, and to involve themselves actively in the discussions and conferences being arranged by many Presbyteries.

Whither Australia?
An absent minded Bishop, was travelling by train to a distant part of his Diocese. On the way he lost his ticket. He was well known to the train guards and when he became agitated about his loss they reas­sured him with the words, “It's quite alright, sir, you need not worry, we know you and are prepared to take you without your ticket”, to which the somewhat irate Bishop replied, “It may be alright for you, but what about me - I don't know where I’m going.”
Where is Australia heading? What are we trying to achieve? Are we merely endeavouring to create a materialistic utopia, a welfare State in which all the material requirements of the people are satisfied?
Prince Charles in a recent address to Australian Academy of Science pointed to what he defined as "the decline in moral courage". He quoted Alexander Solzhenitzyn as saying that "it is dangerous for the future of mankind and for western society as a whole to think solely in terms of the advancement of the world through the benefits of mate­rial science."
In addition to the advancement of material wealth through the develop­ment of science and technology, this nation must be directly concerned with the things of the spirit if we are to survive, and if we are to make a notable contribution to mankind.
Australia in the 1970s is factionalised and fragmented. We seem to lack a vision that unites the people. We seem to be deprived of a unity of purpose that is essential for national greatness. Individuals and vested interests seem to be concerned solely with their own advance­ment and we widely lack any real understanding of the common good or the public interest.
It is essential for this nation of Australia to develop ceremonies and symbols that will unite the people. Given a plurality of commercial, social religious and ethnic differences, it is crucial that a national understanding and unity of purpose be developed that will bind the differing and often warring factions together.
Greed and selfishness are the acids eating into the Australian nation today. These ancient vices of human nature have become institutionalised. The strike weapon has become an offensive weapon to bludgeon a union’s way to a position of privilege. The power of corporate capital is as selfish and wilful. Public accountability in the use of all forms of power in the nation is required, and a feeling for the common good or the national interest is vital.
The nation singularly lacks leadership that enjoys the confidence of a wide cross-section of the community. The political and economic polarisation of the early 1970's continues to grip the nation. We need national leadership that is prepared to lead by example. “Moral courage” referred to by Prince Charles is required. Yet that moral courage within our Western European tradition has always rested on a Christian Foundation. Today Australia is a highly secular society. “God” for many Australians has no relevance to the commercial and social aspirations of the people. Love of thy neighbour is based on a humani­tarian concern. This is a worthy but fragile foundation.
Hans Kung in SIGNPOSTS FOR THE FUTURE touches on the real nerve of the national disorder we are experiencing today.
“The Christian message begins at the point which no state constitution, no economic, social, or cultural system can really reach; the point at which man experiences a change of heart, at his personal centre. This is what politicians, economists, and sociologists desire but do not achieve, what Karl Marx also demanded in vain: "A new human being". But the renewal of man can come only from his personal centre. From that centre he acquires a different basic attitude to life, a different life style: it is there that he sets up different priorities in his life, another measure of what is important, so that the very palpable economic values in particular are no longer regarded as supreme. This is what the sermon on the mount and indeed the Christian message as a whole demands, promises, offers, and makes possible.”

 The tone of the nation would be vastly different if our civic and national leaders set an inspiring example to the people. Attendance at Divine worship, for example, means acknowledging God, and respecting His laws and ways, and seeking His guidance. It is when people low and humble, or high and prominent on the social ladder regularly attend public worship of Almighty God that “the new human being” is possible.

Australia today needs leaders who by their moral courage can express the virtues of the Christian ethic in legislation and social attitudes: virtues such as righteousness, honesty, integrity, trust, compassion, a sensitive attitude of caring towards the needy, the frail and the weak, and a regard for the common good.
Although most people of this nation desire the Christian ethic, and the virtues that flow from it, they too often eliminate the foundation upon which it truly rests. Jesus said that there were two great commandments, namely to love God and to love the neighbour. The former without the later produces an irrelevant piety: the latter without the former results in a shallow humanitarianism which is unable to with­stand the pressures of greed, selfishness and the deceptions of the human heart.
Two passages of Scripture are relevant to the national malaise of Australia First; “The fear of the Lord is the beg1nn1ng of wisdom.” Ps. 111:10. The forces of secularism need to be arrested. Acknowledging God, respecting his Laws and seeking his guidance should be a first priority to our national leaders and the people of this country. Second: “Where there is no vision the people perish”. Proverbs 29:18. We need to develop a vision of the future of this country; we need to define goals, and fashion the directions the nation should follow.
Christian men and women can lift the nation above the crass materialism and the shallow hedonism and the blatant greed that is evident in all walks of life today. Within schools and local communities a spirit of nationalism needs to be fostered. It is of crucial importance that Church people enter public life. The Gospel of Christ applies both to individuals and to the corporate dimensions of society. Society can be built upon the Christian ethic only when Christian men and women enter the public life and see that policies based on those values are translated into legislation.

Campbell Egan,
CONVENER.

Resolutions of the 37th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia 1979

At Melbourne and within the Assembly Hall, 156 Collins Street, on Tuesday, 11th September, 1979 at 7.00 pm.
29. The report of the Church and Nation Committee was laid on the table and received.
Clauses 1-9 were moved and seconded.
The Debate was adjourned  (Min. 31)
31. The Debate anent the Report and deliverance of the church and Nation Committee was resumed (Min. 29).
Arising out of the Debate the Rev. M Ramage moved that the Assembly:
“Insert the words ‘to continue’ after the word church in line one of clause eight.”
The motion was seconded and approved and the clause amended.
Clauses 1 – 9 as amended were approved.
Mr J C Mackillop moved his notice of motion, that the Assembly:
“Refer the paper in the Report titled ‘The Eldership Today’ to Presbyteries with the request that they, in consultation with the Elders’ associations (or their equivalent) in each State, organize regional conferences on the theme of the Eldership today.”
The motion was seconded and approved.
Clauses 11 – 13 were approved.
The debate was adjourned (Min. 96)

At Melbourne and within the Assembly Hall, 156 Collins Street, on Thursday, 13th September, 1979 at 7 pm
96. The debate anent the report and deliverance of the Church and Nation Committee was resumed (Min. 32).
Clause 14 was moved, seconded and approved.
Rt. Rev. C. Egan moved his notice of motion.
The Moderator was asked to rule on the competency of the motion.
The Moderator ruled the motion to be competent.
The motion was seconded and approved.
That the Assembly:
"Request the Moderator General to consult with the national Heads of other Christian Churches with a view of issuing a statement of concern to the people of Australia, calling on all citizens to mod­erate the greed, selfishness and materialism rampant in the nation today; to cultivate a true regard for the common good; and to call the Christian community in this land to a Day of Prayer for the nation, or some similar united and national initiative."
Rt. Rev. C. Egan by leave of the House moved, that the Assembly:

Request the Moderator General to initiate an appeal to all Presbyterians for relief of famine and its attendant medical problems in Kampuchea - Cambodia, and request Federal Government to investi­gate the possibility of sending a medical team to assist in that country."

Clause 17 was seconded and approved.

97. The deliverance as a whole was approved as follows:

That the Assembly:
1.  Affirm that it is ordained by God that all who are able, should contribute to the common good through work.
2.  Express deep concern to Australian citizens unable to obtain work.
3.  Urge the Commonwealth and the State Governments to ensure that those citizens genuinely seeking work but unable to find it, are properly supported by society during the period of their unemployment.
4.  Urge members of congregations, individually and/or by group action to seek means of creating employment and of sharing existing work.
5.  Encourage congregations to seek out individuals and families affected by unemployment, in order to express particularly God's love and the support and interest of the Church.
6.  Request the Commonwealth Government to convene a national conference consisting of leaders of governments (national, state and local levels) the ACTU, commerce, primary and secondary industries, to strive urgently and compassionately for a reduction of the present levels of unemployment.
7.  Send copies of the section of the report entitle "UNEMPLOYMENT" and resolutions derived therefrom to the following - The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the National Country Party, Government and Opposition Leaders in the Senate, State Premiers, the ACTU, the Federation of Australian Council of Employers, and the Metal Trades Industry Association of Australia.
8.  Urge courts and congregations of the Church to continue to recognize and employ the spiritual gifts of women, as well as those of men, in the service of Christ.
9.  Request Presbyteries and Sessions to study that section of the report entitled "THE ELDERSHIP TODAY".
10.  Refer the paper in the Report titled "THE ELDERSHIP TODAY" to Presbyteries with the request that they, in consultation with Elders' Associations (or their equivalent) in each State, organize regional conferences on the theme of the Eldership today."
11.  Encourage men and women of the Church to serve the community by becoming involved in public life.
12. Commend the publication THE CHRISTIAN AS A CITIZEN to Assemblies, Presbyteries, Sessions and congregations for study.
13. Request Presbyteries to study and comment on the section of the report entitled "WHITHER AUSTRALIA?" and ask that such comments be returned to the Convener of the Church and Nation Committee by 31st December, 1980.
14.  (a)  Affirm the desirability of the G.A.A. contributing to the public debate on moral, social and political issues that affect the life of the nation.
(b)  express the opinion that a Church and Nation Committee should report to, and prepare a deliverance for resolution at the General Assembly, as well as preparing from time to time study papers and booklets for use within the Church on issues concerning Christian social witness within the life of the Australian nation.
(c)  accordingly requests the Clerk of the General Assembly in consultation with the Code Committee to initiate procedures whereby a Church and Nation Committee is assured of its legal standing within the structures of the General Assembly and able validly to draw modest help from the G.A.A.’s Finance Committee, and to bring necessary recommendations to the next G.A.A.
(d) authorize the Finance Committee to allocate finance to the Church and Nation Committee on the present basis until the next G.A.A.
15 . Request the Moderator General to consult with the national Heads of other Christian Churches with a view of issuing a statement of concern to the people of Australia, calling on all citizens to moderate greed, selfishness and materialism rampant in the nation today; to cultivate a true regard for the common good; and to call the Christian community in this land to a Day of Prayer for the nation, or some similar united and national initiative.
16.  Request the Moderator General to initiate an appeal to all Presbyterians for relief of famine and its attendant medical problems in Kampuchea, and request Federal Government to investigate possibility of sending a medical team to assist in that country.
17 . Appoint the Committee as follows:
Rt. Rev. C. Egan (Convener) (NSW), Rev. Prof. C. Miller (NSW),Rev. D.E. Hawkins (NSW), Rev. E.N. Paxton (NSW), Mr. K. Swan (NSW) Dr. A. Robertson (NSW), Mrs M. Grant (NSW), and as corresponding members Rev. J.J.T. Campbell (Qld), Rev. W.A. Loftus (Vic), Rev. G. Chipps (W.A.), Mr. A.G. Matheson (S.A.).