Dear Friends thank you for your support over the past years.
After today, it will no longer appropriate for me to speak to you through the webpage of Cornerstone Christian Church, or its Facebook page, where this will be posted on the 23rd of February.
Cornerstone is a Uniting Church that stepped aside from the Decision of the 15th Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia’s decision on Marriage.
For the past six years, I have served this Church faithfully as its Pastor. However I am not a Uniting Church Minister, I am a Wesleyan Methodist Minister on loan to the Uniting Church.
The local Church has issued a call for me to continue until 2025 in that position. However, that Call has been overridden by the Uniting Church Hierarchy. To continue I must transfer my Ordination to the UCA, I applied for the transfer and my application was declined because I do not demonstrate a call to the wider Church. I then appealed that decision. In reviewing the materials provided to me, I must agree, that I do not meet the standard of what is required of a Uniting Church Minister. I believe Scripture to be the highest authority of the Church, and that the Church must submit itself to God, by weighing itself by those sacred pages. As neither of us will compromise on this issue, it is time for me to go.
I remain committed to the Ministry of the Word where God has called us, however, that Ministry will no longer be in the Pulpit of Cornerstone or through its Social Media.
God willing, I will take a short break and return to Ministry in the area very soon. I hope and pray that a new forum will go up soon in which the posts may continue. If you desire to receive these posts in the future, please send me (Peter Lyne) a friends request through Facebook, and I will use that page to share the Posts with you, and in time point you to the new website.
Blessings Peter
Below is my formal resignation from Cornerstone
Statement to the Church February 21st, 2021
In reviewing the material provided to me during the process of appeal, the bulk of the material is petty, designed to smear my character, and would quickly disappear under the light of truth. I find this to be not in keeping with the standard to which we are called as Christians and below the expectations of the office of those called to be ministers.
However, there exist two points of contention, that in answering with honesty and integrity as someone committed to Jesus Christ as Lord, the compromise of godly standards I would need to make to appease the hierarchy of the Uniting Church of Australia, prevent me from continuing the process of appeal.
The two compromises I would need to make to continue seeking recognition as a Minister of the Word in the UCA are as follows.
1. I must step back from my protest of the decision of the 15th Assembly, which allows for the blessing of Same-Gender Marriages.
and
2. I must compose all sermons in submission to the opinions current within the UCA.
Ministers have a responsibility to represent accurately the teachings of the Scriptures and of the Church. When teaching, preaching or leading worship, Ministers have an obligation to present the gospel of Jesus Christ, guided by the witness to Christ in the Scripture, to take seriously the tradition of faith and worship of the church catholic; and to share that faith in the language and forms of the particular worshipping community and to address its issues. In particular, Ministers shall:
a. live out the vision of the Basis of Union; b. faithfully represent the meanings of biblical passages; c. accurately represent the degree to which experts in a discipline support their views;
d. accurately represent opposing views; e. uphold the theological and liturgical tradition of the Church; f. be guided by the decisions of the Assembly; g. be open to challenge and correction from colleagues UCA Code of Ethics 3.3
I cannot with a clear conscience before God consent to either of these requirements and therefore I cannot be a Minister in the UCA. It is my absolute conviction that Scripture is the highest authority in the Church, here I stand, I can do no other. I cannot serve under the authority of a human organization… that opposes and exalts itself above all that is called God and is worshipped (2 Thes 2:4)
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things” (Eph. 3:7–9).
