RELATED LINKS
Survey Results Released
On Friday 29th January the Reforming Alliance within the Uniting Church released the results of a recent survey of over 27000 Uniting Church attenders. The survey, conducted late 2003 showed the following results.
- Should a commitment to celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage be a requirement for those exercising leadership in the UC? Yes 88.6%, no 6.3%, undecided 3.8%, no answer 1.3%.
- Should people living in a same gender sexual relationship be ordained in the UC? Yes 6.5%, no 88.8%, undecided 4.0%, no answer 0.7%.
- Is the ordination of people living in a same gender sexual relationship an issue on which members of the UC should be directly consulted? Yes 87.6%, no 7.7%, and undecided 3.5%, no answer 1.2%.
The results, which are consistent with previous research, show that more than 88% of ordinary church attenders in over 1450 congregations have a conservative viewpoint with regards to sexuality, leadership and ordination. More than 87% of those who were surveyed believe that the National Assembly of the Uniting Church should take their opinion into consideration. Using estimates of adult attendance derived from 1996 NCLS and allowing for a 10% decline simply through aging it is estimated that there are no more 106,000 attenders in the UCA on any Sunday. This means that the sample of this survey is close to a quarter of weekly attendance. A misreading, misinterpretation or a conscious decision to ignore the reality and significance of these results by Assembly leaders could lead to the continued exodus from the Uniting Church of whole congregations, parts of congregations and the leakage of many faithful Christians to other churches.
The results of the survey were no surprise. It suggests that the Assembly is not representative of UC Members.
Regrettably, many UC leaders and ministers prevented the survey being carried out or dissuaded individuals and congregations from being involved. RA recognises that the survey, like similar research conducted by NCLS, is not a perfect instrument to gauge the opinions of UC members, but in the absence of any similar project being planned through official UC channels, RA decided to act as quickly as possible.
We make no apology for taking the initiative. Every effort was made to ensure that final voting numbers matched the signed forms which were distributed. It is a pity that some critics have questioned the integrity of RA rather than assist in developing an even more thorough analysis of responses throughout the UC.
We fervently hope and pray that members of Assembly and others in positions of leadership will act on the concerns of the vast majority of UC people in regard to R84.
Thank you to all those who participated in the survey, the volunteers who sorted and collated mail, the data processing team and those who wrote the reports.
A summary and the full survey report can be found at: