Sydney, Australia - SOME Sydney Uniting Church congregations are said to be living off the "last gasps" of the Billy Graham crusades and the Sunday School movement and could be all but extinct in a single generation.
That view is expressed in a consultant's report on the health of a large presbytery at Georges River. It concludes that the presbytery's member churches are almost universally in advanced stages of decline.
With implications for the church nationally, the report, by Ken Morgan Consulting group, paints a picture of a presbytery caught in doctrinal disputes with little overall vision to convert "lost" souls beyond a Sunday "butts-on-seats philosophy".
The report's criticisms come amid internal division over the issue of gay clergy before the church's triennial National Assembly meeting in July.
Many congregations interviewed believed the debate over gay clergy had damaged the church and the report calls for a moratorium on debate.
The report is part of a review of 14 presbyteries that form part of the Uniting Church's NSW Synod. The presbytery extends from Cronulla to Heathcote to Bankstown.
Last year the church's NSW moderator, Jim Mein, announced a vision in which congregations would become more involved in their communities. That meant parishioners forsaking churches to worship in pubs, living rooms and even shopping centres.
The strategy recognised the need for a far-reaching solution to the problems of declining membership and rising costs, particularly of maintaining historic properties while funding new parishes and supporting rural communities.
"This report doesn't acknowledge that the church has a vision," Mr Mein said. "We know we've got to change if we are to be an emerging church in the 21st century. This report is about the past; we are about shaping the future."
The report suggests there is still energy for mission work and making "disciples".
But many parishioners are elderly, it says, and each congregation perceives itself as an isolated unit, not an outpost of an evangelical movement.
The report tells of widespread resentment towards the assembly and governing councils, ranging from their failure to take a stand against homosexual clergy to their control of the proceeds of assets sales.