An Assessment of the Recent Change to the Doctrine of Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Australian Christian Churches

This article explores the revisions to the doctrinal statements of the Australian Christian Churches (ACC) completed in 2021. It will first briefly explore the development of the ACC from its inception to the current context, highlighting some of the historical developments in their theology that precipitated the recent review of their doctrinal statements. Second, the process undertaken by the ACC to review its doctrine will be described. Third, the outcome of the doctrinal review will be evaluated through the lens of Simon Chan’s ‘traditioning process’, focusing on the statement regarding the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Chan’s approach requires both retrieval (resourcement) of a community’s early ethos while updating (aggiornamento) their doctrinal statements to meet the needs of the current context. It will be observed that the changes to the ACC’s doctrine of Spirit baptism reflect a weak traditioning process.