The controversial religious program, screened on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, focusing on the state on the Uniting Church has drawn the irk of the Church, as it portrayed the 'modern dis-united church.'
Receiving emails of concern about the television program, Reverend Terence Corkin, the General-Secretary of the Uniting Church, believed the show was biased since, "It is clear the Church's strength and vitality was not part of the agenda of the Compass program."
Marking the 30th anniversary of the Uniting Church, the Compass television program, screened on Sunday night, elicited the response of different congregants about their experience in the Church as well as their opinion on the highly-charged issue of sexuality which was hotly debated in the Church.
In 2003, more than 80 percent of the delegates at the Tenth Triennial Assembly, the national council of the Uniting Church that meets once every three years, voted to pass Resolution 84 which allows individual presbytery to ordain homosexual as ministers.
Ever since this motion was passed, deep division began to appear within the Church where opponents condemned it as a 'serious mistake.'
Interviewed on the Compass program, Reverend Max Champion, the Chairman of the Reforming Alliance, a dissenting conservative group within the Church that opposed Resolution 84, said the Assembly had erred by accepting the Resolution since it didn't consider the ethical and doctrinal implication of it.
"I think the church has made a serious mistake at its last two assemblies. It has without actually discussing whether or not same sex relationships in ordination are appropriate, without actually debating that issue at the doctrinal level and ethical level, it has never the less permitted that to be acceptable," Reverend Champion said.
Despite this deep division, Reverend Corkin believed the Compass program was a 'timely reminder' that the Church was a diverse church that occupied a unique place in the Australian community.