Australian university union takes back threat to de-register Christian student organization, will amend regulations instead

A university union in Australia has taken back its threat to deregister a Christian evangelical group from the Clubs & Societies program for making faith in Jesus a requirement for membership. The union will instead amend its C&R Regulations.

"The Board has listened to its members and acknowledges the importance of such declarations to some of our faith based clubs and societies," said the University of Sydney Union in a statement.

According to Honi Soit, the Sydney University Evangelical Union was given an ultimatum by the USU in February that the former would be deregistered if they did't take out the article in its constitution -- required by members to sign -- that says that they have the "desire in joining the EU to declare my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour, my Lord and my God." The request for its removal was in line with the USU's regulations that all societies, groups, and clubs should be accessible to everyone. They said, as reported by The Daily Telegraph, that it's unfair that while all other organizations in the university follow this regulation, the Evangelical Union had not adhered to it for a number of years.

"The EU has always believed that having a faith-based declaration as part of the process is important to maintain the identity of the club as Christians," said George Bishop, the president of the Sydney University EU. "While all our activities are open to everyone and we are keen to spread the gospel of Jesus, when it comes to people who have a say about our constitution and want to lead in the society they should be in agreeance with the objects and aims of the society — and for a Christian group that necessarily involves a faith in Jesus."

Following a month of deliberation, the USU arrived at the decision to amend the regulations. Other faith-based organizations have given their support for the decision, including the Sydney University Muslim Students' Association, the Buddhist Society, the Orthodox Fellowship, the Catholic Asian Students' Society, the Catholic Society, and the Coptic Orthodox Society (FOCUS).

The announcement was made on May 2, saying that amendments will be made to the regulations in order to allow faith-based groups in the university to have "faith based declarations as a condition of membership and Executives of faith based clubs registered under the USU C&S program." Moreover, the board of directors came up with a proposal to set up a regular "Faith Roundtable." The statement says that this would help promote "greater interfaith and intercultural understanding and to ensure that the voices of faith based groups are heard at the highest level of student governance."