The emblem of the Uniting Church in Australia was adopted by the National Assembly of the Church at its inauguration in 1977 and has quickly become an identifiable sign of the Uniting Church throughout the Australian community.

The emblem is simple in its design (involving just red, black and white with uncomplicated lines and curves) and yet embodies a wealth of meaning. The explanation on this page attempts to convey SOME of that meaning. This explanation has no official imprimatur but is merely an attempt to give a concise answer to several enquiries. Since this page was first published in 2002, the Assembly has added a page to its own website that says much the same as this page. Check it out!

This explanation is based on commonly-held beliefs within the Uniting Church community and observations from the Bible. If you have other thoughts to add, feel free to contribute them.

 

The black circle

The background to the emblem is the black circle. It is symbolic of the darkness and void that Genesis records as all there was before God began creation (Genesis 1: 2).

It is symbolic, too, of the darkness of sin that characterises the human condition before the coming of the light of Christ (see, for example, St John 3: 19).

Yet another understanding of the darkness comes from Isaiah when, in Isaiah 60: 2, he speaks of the darkness that afflicts other nations when compared to the “light” that shines upon the nation of Israel when it is obedient to God.

The white cross

The white cross that breaks the darkness of the black circle is, of course, symbolic of the cross of Christ – an indication of the manner of his death and, paradoxically, a symbol too of his victory over death.

Isaiah, whose undersdtanding of darkness we looked at above, speaks too of the darkness overcoming the light. Have a look at Isaiah 9: 2.

But it is in the New Testament that the light of the cross receives the most attention. St Paul, for instance, boasts about the cross of Christ – initially a sign of shame but, for him, now a sign of victory. (See, for example, his Letter to the Galatians, Galatians 6: 14.)

The same idea of converting shame to triumph is picked up in the Letter to the Hebrews 12: 2.

The white semi-circle

At the bottom of the emblem is a white semi-circle. This part of the design serves a couple of different purposes.

The light has come into the world but the world is still far from perfect. That is why the circle is incomplete. Never-the-less, the light of Christ has come and Christians have the task of bearing witness to the Light. St Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Romans 2: 19, recognises this when it says, “You are a guide for the blind, a light for those who live in darkness.” The Letter to the Hebrews recognises the incompleteness of the process of salvation when (in Hebrews 1: 10) it speaks of a future time when God will bring the divine plan to completion. Perhaps it was thoughts such as these that the Psalmist had in mind when he/she wrote “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27: 1)?

The semi-circle is also reminiscent, of course, of the letter “U”, the initial letter of the word “Uniting” in our title. The Church made a deliberate choice to call itself “Uniting” rather than “United” because its founders recognised that the process is not yet complete and, in the name of Christ, we must go on bringing people into reconciliation with God.

The little ship

When the semicircle and the cross are seen together, they suggest a symbol of a ship. From very early in its history, the Christian Church has used the symbol of a boat or ship to describe itself. Indeed, the main part of a church building is still called the “nave” from the Latin word for boat or ship from which we get the English word “navy”.

In St Matthew 8: 23-27 (with similar stories in other gospels) Jesus comes to rescue frightened disciples huddled together in a little boat in the midst of a storm. Very often since then members of the Christian Church have felt as if they are caught in one of life’s storms and have needed to be rescued by Jesus!

There were other occasions, of course, when Jesus and his disciples used a boat or ship. St Luke 8: 26 is one such instance. St James used the imagery of a ship too (see St James 3: 4) when he is talking about the necessity for Christians and the Christian community to have a pilot on board!

An anchor

The combination of the semicircle and the cross have evoked for some people an anchor, rather than a boat or ship.

Scriptural support for this can be found, for example, in the Letter to the Hebrews 6: 18-19, where it speaks of faith on Christ as being like an anchor to which we can cling for security. The Letter to the Ephesians takes this thought further (Ephesians 6:10) by talking about the strength we derive from Christ. This, in turn, echoes an Old Testament idea (see, for example, Jeremiah 23: 6) that saw God as a king who gives the people safety and security.

People of an earlier generation used to sing (with great enthusiasm) a hymn, “We have an anchor that keeps the soul/ steadfast and sure while the billows roll”.

The dove

Central to the design is the stylised picture of a dove. Throughout the Bible, there are times when the Holy Spirit (or the Spirit of God) is indicated in one way or another by a dove.

This begins in the book of Genesis. The story of creation (Genesis 1: 2) speaks of the Spirit of God moving over the surface of the waters. The Spirit is evoked again in the ancient story of Noah and the flood (Genesis 8: 8) when Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had gone down – a sign of deliverance for Noah.

In the story of the Baptism of Jesus (eg., St Mark 1: 10) the Spirit is described as descending upon Jesus “like a dove”. The work of the Holy Spirit is central to our lives as Christians and it is right that this symbol of the Spirit – the dove – should occupy a central place in the Uniting Church emblem. St Paul speaks (Galatians 5: 22-23) of the fruits of the Spirit and, in a couple of places (eg., 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11) of the varying gifts the Spirit gives to the people of God.

But a dove is not the only Biblical symbol of the Holy Spirit…

The  Flame

In the emblem, the wings and body of the dove are shown in red (or hatched in a black-and-white version), to remind us of the Biblical description of the Holy Spirit, specifically in Acts 2: 3, as being “like tongues of fire” or “like tongues of flame”.

Fire has always held human awe and, way back in the Old Testament (eg., Deuteronomy 4: 24), the force of God’s presence is likened to the fierceness of fire. When, in the New Testament, John the Baptist was preparing for the coming of Jesus, he described him as one who “will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (St Matthew 3: 11).

It is interesting that the two symbols of the Holy Spirit (a dove and a flame of fire) are in many ways opposite to each other – one stressing the gentleness of the Spirit, the other the might and even the destructive power of the Spirit. Perhaps the lesson is that we need both in order to appreciate the full scope of the Spirit’s influence? The emblem’s symbol of the Dove with wings of flame keeps that scope in perspective.

Together these various elements of the Uniting Church emblem are a constant reminder to members of the Church: