(Re)Generate: Visions and Dreams

 Disclaimer:  This is from the transcript of the video of my fellow participants from Moderator Carmen Lansdowne's (Re)Generate program found on YouTube - just google (Re)Generate : Visions and Dreams or copy and paste this into your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byz5dEHDBnk

Rev. Frances Kitson, Minister at Whitehorse United Church: I want so badly for  this church to have hope not because I'm a PollyAnna and not because it's like a pie in the sky possibility. But I want this church to have hope because that is our God-given gift, that is what God offers us. You know so many people give what they can and have raised their children in the church and are watching the church, the specific congregation they've been in for decades dwindle. They remember the people who used to be in those pews, they have children who live in town who are not in those pews, and they ask themselves "What have they done wrong?" And the truth is they have done nothing wrong, they have been good and faithful servants in a world that has changed around them and the fundamental story of our faith is that death is not the end, that impossible ridiculous and scandalous new life arises from the ruins and the rubble of broken hearts and dreams and futures and if I can make a magic wand and give us all the sense like in our viscera in our blood and in our bones that the God who raised Jesus Christ from the grave is not done with us. That is what I want, that is my vision, that is my hope, that is my passion, that is my dream and that is my prayer for the church.Rev. Wonder Chimvinga, Pine River United Church, Ripley, Ontario: my vision is to create a vibrant inclusive and spiritually enriching community where individuals everyone from diverse backgrounds feel welcomed supported and inspired to grow in their faith and I dream of leading with innovation, empowering new leaders in my church in the wider community and addressing unique needs of my congregation and the community at large.

Rev. Katie Aven, Minister of Bedford United Church: My bold vision is that the United Church of Canada will have this incredible invitation to anyone who is seeking, that we will have the warmest of welcomes, that people who come to our churches will feel transformed whether it's a Sunday worship, a community meal, a youth group, a pickup badminton game, a spaghetti dinner, whatever it is, that experience in the community will be transformative and we know that the transformation of the human heart is the most important change that can happen in the world and so I think that's what my bold vision is, that the United Church of Canada is going to be this agent of change for the human heart.

Rev. Catherine Stuart, Minister of Children, Youth and Young Adults for the Atlantic Regions: I think one of one of the dreams that I have for the church is that we would come to understand that just because things aren't the way they have been that we're not dying, that part of it might need to change but that there's something good that's going to come from all of this.  I think a lot about what happened in 1925 and the excitement that was in that arena the excitement and yet the nerves of “ will this thing work?” but they had vision and they had dreams. You know our history hasn't been perfect, it's caused some harm, it's done some hard things but I think I want for the church that same excitement, that same sense of “we're in this together and God's going to do something through us”. We might not always know what that is .

Rev. Hoeun Lee, Minister of First United Church, Waterloo, Ontario: when I just started taking Regenerate program with the moderator and I drafted the capstone project, and one congregant responded to that with “this is just a dream” and after one year, there is real progress like turning things around. We witness the change, the progress that we are making and so now the dream is not just a dream, it's a vision to guide us to move forward. Out of bold dreaming, there can be a clear vision.

Rev. Tori Mullen, Growth Animator of Eastern Ontario: I really hope that for my that when she's at a place in her life where she wants to dig deeply into spiritual questions and find community and find an affirmation of her gifts, that there is a church that might not look like the churches we have today, but that there is a presence of spiritual community committed to deep spirituality, bold discipleship, and daring justice that she gets to call her spiritual home.

Rev. Lindsay Mohn, Youth and Young Adult Minister, Living Skies Regional Council: my vision and dream for the future of the United Church is that when someone feels like life is hard and they're lonely and they need to feel an experience of being loved by God and by God's people, that they would know they could find that at any United Church across Canada. This life can just be so hard at times and we need each other and we need God and I hope that my dream and my vision would be that people would just know they could find that here.

Rev. Rick Gunn, Minister of St. Luke’s United Church, Upper Tantalion, Nova Scotia: my vision and dream for the future of the church involves becoming really confident in being Christian. I think we are in this postChristendom world but I'm almost getting tired of saying and thinking that because I do sense the Spirit through people coming through my church's doors and conversations out in the community that Christians who are inclusive and welcoming and affirming and really embracing mutuality and diversity.  We’ve got to get stronger at being that voice in the world.

Rev. Sarah Chapman, Minister of Eglinton St George’s United Church, Toronto, Ontario: my vision and dream for the United Church of Canada is to be at the tables of spirituality, to be a an option for people to engage with a deep faith, with community where they can find belonging and then also play within their spirituality, opportunities for people to engage their spiritual health or wellness are on the rise.  People are longing for those spaces and they're looking everywhere and so I long for the United Church of Canada to be really bold in showing up to the tables where people are looking for that type of care to their spirituality and then being a potential option or fit for them.

Rev. Mitchell Anderson, Lead Minister at St. Paul’s United Church, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: my dream for the future of the United Church is that we would be a church that is a place for all Canadians from every walk of life, of every background and especially as we see the future of what Canada is, becoming a younger and more diverse country enriched by people coming from all over the world, drawn in by a country that is welcoming and inclusive of all, where different types of people can live well together, where we speak different languages, where we eat different foods, practice different cultures and are all one.  That is what God is calling the United Church to be, a church that is younger and more diverse, a church that practices that inclusion and a church that speaks to the hopes of Canadians of future generations in the way we have for the generations past.

Rev. Anna Constantin, Senior Minister, St. Paul’s United Church, Edmonton, Alberta: my call, my passion for church is the multigenerational aspect of the church where everybody is welcome at the table. I really hope and pray and I believe this is God's dream of how do we have abundance at this beautiful table because everybody is there and if they're not there, let's talk about why, let's figure out how we're inviting them, let's listen to their prophetic voices to see what is happening there, because I guarantee that there God's voice is working there too and that we'll all be transformed.

Rev. Erin McIntyre, Minister of Knox St. Paul’s United Church, Cornwall Ontario: my vision and dream for the future of this United Church is to have a vibrant denomination that meets folks where they're at and inspires them to be bold disciples with deep spirituality and who are not afraid to stand up on matters of justice. I envision a denomination that seeks to serve the communities of faith and the regions to ensure that they are healthy and growing and doing the work that they love to do that meets the needs of their communities, that helps to grow disciples and grow faith and inspire folks and just be a presence in the world.

What is your Vision and Dream for the United Church?

Called to Freedom

Galatians 5:1, 13–25 When Christ freed us, we were meant to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and don't submit to the yoke of slavery a second time! (Photo credit: M. Rosborough, (Re)Generate workshop at 5 Oaks Retreat Centre in Ontario, June 2025)

What a stirring scripture!  We are called to freedom when we take seriously today’s scripture.  Freedom from fear, freedom from jealousy, freedom from greed and scarcity and power struggles.  It sounds so idyllic and maybe a tad idealistic in a world where bombs drop on children and fires fill the skies with toxic smoke.  It could be dismissed as pie in the sky except that these stories are so deeply honest and real.

Paul and Jesus were not imagining out of thin air a philosophy of faith that would never work.  They were real people dealing with real issues in real ways.  They knew what it was like to be in community with humans that could be messy and complicated and hurting and scared.  They also knew how to describe what they saw in realistic ways and offer alternatives.  They acknowledged the challenges of being a God-centered community.

God-centered communities are not easy.  As Paul said, it’s easy to get caught up in biting and devouring each other, struggling against each other instead of working together as a team. It’s easy to get caught up in negative emotions, and to nurse our senses of outrage and injustice. We all want to be filled with love, joy, peace, and self-control.  We all want good times for ourselves.  We want Heaven on Earth, and we want it right now. We hear the call to freedom; but often slip into the dangers Paul diagnosed as self-indulgence.

There are many examples of healthy, God-centered, intentional communities. Last week was the final gathering of the (Re)Generate program of United Church clergy from across Canada.  33 people lived in community under blistering 34 C heat with such a high humidity index that there were weather warnings put out.  There was no air conditioning in the dormitories, so fans were being used in every little bedroom.  It was too hot to even sit outside during mealtimes.  The main gathering room was air conditioned and became a haven.  It was hard to sleep, staying hydrated became important, and people were tired and missing their families.  Some had come from as far away as Whitehorse or British Columbia which had a time difference of three hours.  That meant that they were waking up at 3 a.m., eating breakfast at 4 a.m. and in class at 5 a.m.  Not easy to do.

And yet they managed to work together, to share joys and sorrows, and to learn new ways of being in Christian community.  They heard about the epidemic of burn-out with clergy, the warning signs and what clergy and congregations can do together to prevent it.  Some individual factors are holding unrealistically high expectations, worrying about what other people think, struggling to say no, and being competitive or controlling.  And some of the community factors could have come straight from Paul’s scripture today, unresolved conflict, lack of support, poor communication, cynicism and hostility sound very much like “biting and devouring each other.”  Could the Galatians have been struggling with burn out? Were they forgetting the good news that they were no longer slaves to fear and hurt?  Were they struggling with what it meant to live out the teachings of Jesus?  Paul’s letter was to remind everyone that even though we call ourselves Christian, that doesn’t give us permission to let loose our feelings in ways that hurt others.  We are to remember that we are called to abundance: abundant love, abundant compassion, abundant life.

Abundant life can be lived in many ways.  Jesus showed his disciples that abundant life isn’t dependent on having a roof over one’s head, or food in the fridge.  When an enthusiastic listener declared that he would follow Jesus anywhere, Jesus pushed back and said that his life was a nomadic one, and if the follower was more interested in three square meals a day and a dry bed every night, all pleasure and no self-discipline, it was not going to work out.  Jesus invited others to join him, and they told stories of why they couldn’t come.  “I have to follow the customs of my people and take care of family responsibilities”, said one.  Another wanted to go back home first.  They had more important things to do than to follow Jesus and learn his ways of love, peace and joy.

Both Jesus and Paul wanted us to be more intentional about how we do community.  They wanted us to focus on loving our neighbors and ourselves.  Jesus challenged our stories of fear and scarcity.  “Come and follow,” he said. Skeptics will grumble  that it’s impossible, that humans can’t live in community and love.

The (Re)Generate program showed that it is possible.  We can remember to let go of the slavery attitudes that so fill our world.  A frequent remark is how the participants felt like everyone left their egos back home.  They were at 5 Oaks to learn and to share and to be inspired.  They were there to fill up on joy, love, faith, hope, kindness, generosity and self-control, even in the midst of a heat wave.  They had a leader they could trust, and that listened to them and inspired them to go deeper.  Together, they were more than the sum of their parts, and many felt healed and held in love.

They put Paul’s command into practice: “Serve one another in works of love, since the whole of the Law is summarized in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."”  Paul and Jesus both agreed on the vital importance of this one commandment, and Moderator Carmen Lansdowne did too.  The number one antidote to burn out, whether you ask Carmen, Paul, Jesus, or a good therapist, is to prioritize self-care.  We cannot love one another until we love ourselves.  Until we love ourselves, and chose to follow Jesus away from a lifetime of thinking and acting like a slave to expectation, a slave to fear, a slave to scarcity, we will be in risk of burn out.  God doesn’t want that, the church doesn’t want that, and our families and friends don’t want that either.  The world needs healthy Christians full of the fruit of the spirit.  The world needs more love.  Love of self starts by hearing Jesus challenging the stories we tell ourselves.  Do we really need to check with others, do we really need to keep doing what we’ve always done, do we really need to see others as enemies, or can we learn to tell loving stories to ourselves and others as we seek the deeper spirituality that leads to God’s fruit of love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control?  May we have the courage and the support of our community to one day be truly free as God intends.  Amen.

Suffering and Endurance, Ew Ick!

“We know that affliction produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and character, hope. And such a hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” - Romans 5:1–5 

Ew yuck! Who wants to suffer for any reason?  Who wants to have to endure anything? In our quick fix world, pain, physical, emotional or mental pain, is to be avoided at all costs.  Pain should be drowned or denied or ignored or ended.  Endurance? Give me a break!

One man knew how affliction led to hope, not just for himself, but for many.  Despite our society saying otherwise to him, he was determined endure for the sake of his faith, and even the United Church of Canada. The Very Rev. Dr. Wilbur Howard is a name you might not be familiar with, but to many who knew him, he was unforgettable and inspired great hope! Dr. Howard was born on February 29, 1912, in Toronto, a leap year baby. Like many African Canadians, his father and brothers worked as porters on the railroad, for low wages and long hours.  They were often called “George” instead of their real names, and were banned from the union until they founded their own. As a child, Howard was invited to go to the United Church by a neighboring white family and went faithfully for the rest of his life.  He discovered that he was called to be a minister but racism was rampant.  The Canadian Armed Forces were just starting to accept people of African origin as soldiers.  While the rest of his classmates went off to preach in churches during the summer, Howard was sent to a church camp as a counsellor, even though there was a dire shortage of ministers due to conscription. In 1941, when Howard was 29, he became the first Black person to be ordained in The United Church, but for the next 24 years, no one would take him. Instead, he was administrator for a Boy’s organization similar to the YMCA, and edited Sunday school resources, including the controversial New Curriculum of the 1960s. Then, in 1965, at the age of 53, he finally got the call — to team ministry at Ottawa’s Dominion-Chalmers United.

Howard worked hard for the church and for Canada, often focusing on children and youth ministries.  He was also a member of the Refugee Status Committee for the Federal Government. He was President of the John Milton Society for the Blind in Canada, and Chairman of the Ontario Advisory Council on Alcohol and Drug Concerns. In 1974, Howard became the first, and to date only, Black Moderator of The United Church of Canada. In 1991 he was received into the Order of Ontario and in 2001, he  passed away.

The Broadview Magazine article written in 2018 said:

“He … exhibit[ed] a renowned wit. When elected moderator, for example, Howard quipped, “They had to decide when the commissioners vote ‘Black’ on the ballot whether they meant John Black [a fellow nominee] or me.” Some say this sense of humour is what helped Howard cross racial boundaries.

“He had a respected place in the life of the United Church. And if there were some congregations that didn’t choose to give him a chance, he didn’t dwell on that,” says Very Rev. Bruce McLeod, 89, who served as moderator before Howard and knew him well. “He was a private person. He certainly wasn’t a crybaby. He wouldn’t appreciate his story being used to say, ‘Oh, wasn’t that awful about Wilbur Howard.’ He wouldn’t appreciate that because he didn’t think it was that awful.”

But this isn’t the only opinion that exists on Howard’s silence. “I can see that he had been bruised in terms of racial prejudice and that there was a vulnerability there,” Douglas Lapp told the Globe and Mail after Howard’s death. “Maybe that was why he was so private.””

Talk about affliction producing perseverance! It must have been hard to be both a respected leader of a large denomination and also a person who faced racism on a daily basis.  And while Howard didn’t dwell on it, other ministers have been speaking out about how it is still difficult to this day.  That same article said “Rev. Marlene Britton … moved to Canada from Barbados in 2013 and first settled in Alberta. During her search for a ministry position, she sat before a church’s three-member hiring committee and took part in an interview that she felt was normal. She was later told she did not get the job because the committee thought the congregation was not ready for a woman. But a few months later, she learned the same congregation had hired a woman — and the new hire was white”  Rev. Paul Walfall, also from Barbados, who has preached in this very church when he was president of Alberta North West Conference, spoke out at the last General Council three years ago about the racism that he and other ministers were experiencing not just from Canadians but from the United Church.  For this year’s meeting in Calgary, all commissioners had to take rigorous training on equality, diversity and equity, with six facets: Challenge Assumptions, Question Biases, Notice who’s missing, Value All Voices, Aim for Equity, Live Out Our Commitments.  Each of these is thought-provoking and not something we can find quick fixes or easy answers for.  They may even produce some affliction while we wrestle with how to nurture hope for everyone in our communities of faith in the future.

Rev. Walfall also has spearheaded an ambitious project, “Here from the Beginning”, a travelling exhibition that quote “showcases the contributions and experiences of Black people within the United Church, amplifying voices that have long been overshadowed by the dominant narrative. This is a celebration of faith, history, community and The United Church of Canada.” End Quote.  It will be unveiled in Edmonton from July 27 - August 2 at Pilgrim United Church before travelling across Canada as part of the United Church’s commitment to becoming an intercultural church. If you are in Edmonton, please check it out.

The many stories of people like Walfall, Britton and Howard can inspire us and help us also live into a deeper commitment to being intercultural, to being more aware of our assumptions and more curious about those who are missing in our pews. They show us the spirit of Truth and how it really does lead to great change.  Howard did not father any children, but in some ways he fathered a deeper understanding of what it means to persevere in the face of great injustice, and his example can inspire hope for us all in these dark times.  “And such a hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” May this be so for us all!

The Spirit of Truth

There’s nothing quite as wonderful as joining together with a bunch of United Church people at a regional event, like we did last weekend in Edmonton.  Our region, Northern Spirit Region, is the largest geographical region in the United Church, covering northeastern British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and northern Alberta, and the church in Lloydminster has the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan running between their front door and back door, so we have a tiny bit of that province as well.  We had about 120 people gather from Jasper, Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie, Athabasca, Barrhead and beyond, all wanting to network and learn about ways to live with deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice.  We sang together, prayed together, worshipped together and conversed together about the challenges and joys of being United Church. There were challenging topics of conversation and joyful, playful chats over coffee or crafts.

On this 100^th anniversary of the United Church of Canada, we also heard some very stark statistics. If nothing changes, in 10 years, there could be less than 2000 people across Canada worshiping in a United Church on an average Sunday morning.  Certainly we have seen and experienced it here in our local congregations.  The increase in suspicion of institutions in general and churches especially has been a growing trend since the 1970’s.

According to a Global News article in 2022, Statistics Canada found only 68 per cent of Canadians 15 or older reported having a religious affiliation. It was the first time that number dipped below 70 per cent since StatsCan began tracking the data in 1985. Even Catholicism, Canada’s largest denomination, was being impacted, reporting 32 per cent of Canadians over 15, down from 46.9 per cent in 1996.  Broadview Magazine reported in 2023 that The United Church of Canada lost a whop­ping 40 percent of affiliates between 2011 and 2021, falling to 1.2 million people from roughly two million. United Church affiliates don’t only skew older — they also skew more white. Among Christian denomina­tions, the United Church has one of the lowest percentages of racialized affili­ates at only 2.5 percent. Compare that to six percent of Anglican or 45 percent of Pentecostal affiliates.

In our Broadview magazine this month, the back page talked about new data. It said that The Pew Research Center Religious Study of 2023-24 points to changes in U.S. religious affiliation. A decline in American religiousness observed since at least 2007 has slowed over the past four to five years. The Pew Research Center noted that the country is heading toward growth among mainline protestants, the group suffering the most during the earlier decline. 'The U.S. is a spiritual place, a religious place, where we've now seen signs of religious stabilization in the midst of longer-term decline,' said a Pew researcher.

The slight but consistent growth in American Christian affiliation beginning in 2022 was limited to mainline protestants, Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Lutheran and Episcopal, the very denominations which led the overall decline since 2007.

In 2025 the only United churches to close so far this year have been Little Britain UC in rural Manitoba, Bluevale UC in rural Ontario, and Rupert, Que., as compared to three per month up to a year ago. Closures are now at least outnumbered by new church plants, new communities of faith, and older traditional churches being rejuvenated by new life.”  That’s quite the article.

So I’d like to invite us to ponder why church matters to us.  I know that it matters to me, because without the church, I would have been a much poorer mother and wife to my family.  An example of the importance of being part of a Christian community happened some twenty years ago on a wintery December morning. I was getting out of the car in the church parking lot when I slammed the door on my thumb in my rush to get to church on time. I screamed and Tim struggled to unlock the door.   Needless to say, my kids were upset and still remember it vividly. We dashed into the church and one of the congregation members helped bandage the thumb. It was the same Sunday that the children's choir was singing an anthem. I remember conducting the choir with one hand while the other was held high in the air to slow down the bleeding. As soon as the song was done, Tim drove me to the hospital. Someone at the church volunteered to take care of my kids, took them home and fed them lunch while we sat in emergency waiting to see if I needed stitches. It seemed to take forever but without the church, it would have been much more traumatizing. They were helpful, kind, and much more resourceful than I would have been on my own. It was quite the lesson in trust! Why does church matter to you?

We are given a spirit of adoption, a spirit of trust. A spirit of truth. It's easy to forget and slip into a spirit of fear, but Pentecost is when the disciples, still traumatized by the loss of their beloved Rabbi, found themselves filled with hope and courage and daring.

Last weekend at the Regional meeting, Michael Blair talked about this very thing, the spirit of Pentecost, and said "If our ministry doesn't give hope, we might as well pack up and go home. We go on like Eeyore and expect people to come. Our ministry needs to be rooted in the spirit. You and I need to stop and pray and listen to what the Spirit is calling us. The Spirit calls us into mischief. Walk around our neighborhood with our eyes open listening for Holy Mystery. Our ministries must center those who are excluded, who are marginalized and oppressed. Not to offer charity but to be transformed through choosing vulnerability over privilege, be open to being taught rather than fixing. When we value others in vulnerability everyone is transformed. Our very presence brings hope. God is calling us to a ministry where we will be empowered by the spirit. We cannot do it on our own, it is too complex. We learn to live in the nuances. We are called to privilege the voices of the marginalized because that is our salvation. That is where our transformation happens. That is where our communities will be restored to life-giving safe places of hope and transformation. May that be our purpose for living into the next 100 years." May it be so for us all!

Courageous Hope

(Photo: Matthew Rosborough 2025, Vancouver Island)
 Sometimes the bravest person I know is the farmer, who after a year where the land has flooded or the crops rotted on the field or withered away from a heat wave or burned down in a grass fire, looks at the seed catalogue and goes to the local UFA or wherever one buys seeds for, and picks out the crop that they think will do best on the land this summer.  And whether it’s a farmer who rents a bunch of properties or the person with a flower pot in the back yard, when we pick up our seeds and plan to stick them in the ground, we are being courageously hopeful.  Whether it’s sunflowers in solidarity with Ukraine, planted with prayers and hopes, or those impossibly tiny carrot seeds or acres and acres of wheat and canola, the seeds go in the ground as a sign of courageous hope.  This Sunday, which is sometimes also called Rogation Sunday, was a time to ponder the mystery at the heart of life where a seemingly lifeless seed can turn into a green thing capable of feeding many people.

Jesus has been planting seeds of faith, fertilizing them with stories, examples and encouragement, but he knows that just by living by example, he being a role model for everyone is not enough to help his disciples get through the rough times ahead.  The words he has planted, to the best of his ability, is to show people a different way of thinking about God and discipleship.  A way of courageous love and daring hope. A way that breaks down fear and leads to flourishing

Last week there was a gathering of ministers on line with the Moderator Carmen Lansdowne. It was the second last gathering of the (Re)Generate program, a pilot project that brought 31 clergy from across Canada together to learn about the nuances of leadership in our current Canadian Culture.  Affectionately known as “The Blazing Walnuts”, they have studied everything from accounting and sustainability to strategic planning and flourishing faith.  This session was focussed on presenting their ‘capstone projects’, the work each person put together with a team of consulting community and congregational members to focus on one particular experiment that could be implemented for the community in which they were involved.  31 experiments designed to help the United Church of Canada be playful, creative, hopeful and adventurous.

One project developed a very detailed, concrete plan for growth for the next 10 years, to capitalize on what was already working and build the momentum that was already starting to be present. He quoted, “Cities that are growing have no time to plan. Cities that aren’t growing have all the time in the world.  The important point is to use the time to be ready for when the growth happens.” Another minister got a grant to hire a public relations firm and developed a series of tictoc videos and social media ads to share their mission statement and were starting to see the uptake in interest in their congregation. There was a lively video produced for the Maritime region showing the importance of United Church camps and staying connected to the congregations that help sponsor them.  Someone started a dinner church to talk about faith in a casual setting that outsiders might feel welcome to come to.  One growing congregation built clever ‘belonging bags’ that welcomed repeat visitors with a personalized gift and invitation to meet members of the council.  Another congregation has doubled their attendance in the last three years and put in place a detailed plan to be more intentional in their supporting new people to becoming long-time members. Someone else explored the delicate challenges around helping people living in poverty to feel that they were fully contributing members of the congregation without being merely a person who needed charity. Several congregations explored growing intercultural, multilingual churches and the surprising subtle racism that rose up.  As Carmen was told at a World Council of Churches gathering that Christianity is the fastest growing faith in the world at this time, and the norm is a service that is a time of socializing as well as worship, and that it's normal for people to chat with their neighbors while the service is going on. There were lots of projects around children, how to welcome them, how to do all ages worship, and even an app for games and stories!  Sanctuary Star Hunt According to research, retaining children in church as they transition to adults requires them to feel personally connected to a minimum of 5 adults!

One minister in rural Saskatchewan talked about practising hope aggressively and how her little town congregation was expanding since Covid. Another talked about the intersection of faith and the Climate crisis and the need for clergy to learn how to preach about it in biblically faithful ways.

One person even put together a stand up routine that she will be presenting at a comedy festival this summer, which is both hilarious, biblical and evangelical, and promotes the United Church as being very different than the assumptions and steotypes that many Canadians might have.  Another is organizing a trip to Zimbabwe with people 16 and up, which will be an opportunity to build relationships and long-term cultural exchange.  This has brought new youth and new families to the church too.

I presented on the FAB collab and the workshops I had been doing, which was well received.  Much encouragement was given for continuing the project and the workshops despite the cancellations and delays.  There was even some suggestion of making the workshops available to the broader church.  The ministers requested to make art projects like the wooden dice like we made in the “Who is Jesus” workshop when the ministers gather for the last workshop with the Moderator in June!

Jesus said that he would send the spirit to help guide us through our challenging times.  He wanted  us to live with audacious hope, and to live with courage.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give you the kind of peace the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”  Easier said than done, of course.

But when we turn to God for guidance, when we practice deep spirituality and bold discipleship and daring justice, when we lean into living by flourishing practices, we will find the seeds of courage and hope and peace abiding with us as we work together.  Who knows what will grow from those seeds?  We can’t do it alone, we can only do it together.  Thank God for sending the Spirit to be with us so we are not alone, we do live in God’s beautiful world.  In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us, we are not alone.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Deep, Bold and Brave

Can you imagine being so committed to your faith that you would stand all day to listen to the scriptures?  That’s how the people felt when they committed to listening to the stories of their ancestors, the stories of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his dreams, and Moses bringing the people out of slavery.  They were listening to the story of freedom, and they were remembering their own escape from slavery, in Babylon for a generation or more.  They didn’t remember the Temple of Solomon, or the great city of Jerusalem, but they remembered the stories of their parents and grandparents who talked about the destruction of the city, the fall of their king, and being carted off to a foreign land to serve at the whim of other people who worshiped gods they did not know or respect.  These were the generation who remembered stories of Daniel in the Lion’s den, or Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego in the fiery furnace, graffiti on the wall that predicted the death of King Belshazzar, ruler of Babylon.  And then when they least expected it, they were returning, full of stories, full of hope, to stand in the ruins and destruction of what had been a beautiful city, abandoned for decades and with only a few buildings not in need of repair.  And when they heard the words of their past, the description of the relationship God had with their ancestors, the dreams and hopes the people had while following Moses and then Joshua into the Promised Land, rich with milk and honey, they wept.  Scripture gave them a reminder.  That when things looked at it’s bleakest, God still was with them, God still cared.

The same can be said about the Luke passage.  Jesus read his scripture passage.  The passage written by another survivor of the Babylon invasion.  Isaiah who could find inspiration even while describing the disasters that the politics of his time was bringing to Isaiah’s world.  Isaiah was like a Jon Stewart or a Stephen Colbert, able to see the trends and the potential problems that might stem from decisions made by egotistical leaders who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay attention to what was happening in the world around them.  And Isaiah was still, despite the craziness of the times, able to find God at work in his life.  And that in turn inspired Jesus, who also could see what the Roman Empire was doing, it’s oppression of common people, its emperor’s whims having devastating impacts on the Sea of Galilea that suffered from overfishing so bad that fishermen had to patch their boats with pieces of other boats.  Where the power struggles between puppet kings like Herod and Roman Generals like Pilot meant a very precarious life for regular folks struggling to pay taxes and put food on the table for their families.  Jesus had grown up in a poor town, with poor people as his friends and neighbors and family.  He saw the despair and fear and hopelessness they struggled with every day.  And he saw a call to be that voice of courage and hope and inspiration, that voice of change and transformation.  That voice which spoke of God’s healing power to turn around those who felt abandoned, betrayed and helpless.  Jesus, the one whom people remembered when he was a kid climbing trees and getting underfoot, would be the one to bring hope to a terrified and discouraged people.  

I spent a week with incredible leaders from the Yukon, BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, the Maritimes and Newfoundland.  Some are in ministry, some are regional staff.  Some of us cried, some of us laughed, some of us did both.  Some of us were dual citizens, and had voted in the American Election.  Some of us were descendants of refugees or soldiers who fought in World War 2 or who had immigrated because of poverty and violence back home.  Some were from Korea, Kenya, or Zimbabwe, some were from indigenous heritage.  Some were French speakers, or Hungarian translators or only spoke English.  But we all were inspired by the same thing.  A love of scriptures and a love of God.  And a horror of what we saw happening on the news.  A maybe or maybe not nazi salute.  Trans friends worried about being targeted again for more violence especially those who have to travel to the states for work related purposes.  A president who says that people who attack police should be locked up but then releases people who were videoed attacking police.  And here at home, we have people who think this is progress, which is why many in the 2sLGTBQIA community are scared of what might come.  And when a bishop preaches about tolerance, respect and ethics, which is the gospel of Jesus, she is told that she has no right to preach, she is a woman and doesn’t belong in the pulpit, and that she should stick to the bible, which makes me wonder what people think is actually in the bible if it’s not mercy, compassion and empathy.  Above all, she reminded us at 5 Oaks about the importance of being brave in our faith.  When Jesus read that scroll to his community, it was his declaration of his ministry.  That this was the time to be a bold preacher of the bible.  That this was his mission, to heal, to reach out, to stand up for the vulnerable and the weak.  The spirit of the Lord was upon him.  

Is the spirit of the Lord upon us?  Are we ready to be bold and brave Christians who use compassion and mercy to test the politics we hear in this province?  Are we ready to delve deeply into what our Moderator calls us to do, practice deep spirituality that has us weep when we hear scripture, to choose to be bold disciples who will stand up for the marginalized, and to dare to call for justice for all?  One way we can do that is to send postcards to Bishop Budde in appreciation of the truth she has spoken to power.  Another is to reach out to our trans friends and family and listen to their fears and concerns and offer our support.  Connecting with those who are in need is so important right now.  Community and solidarity will help us all find the resiliency to be the people God needs in this hurting world.

Locking Horns

Can you imagine Joe Biden coming to Justin Trudeau to get baptized?  That’s an odd image, isn’t it, two leaders coming together and one, the leader of the bigger country, asking for a blessing ritual from the leader of the smaller country.  This is hard to imagine, but I think it’s close to what actually happened in this story.

When we remember the baptism of Jesus, it points to how Jesus leaded in ways that respected and honored the leadership of others.  

Many times when two powerful leaders get together, it becomes a battle over who has the most authority or skills or money or followers.  It can become a fight over who is the best.  Like two big horned sheep fighting over a ewe, they lock horns and butt heads and crash together. Two bulls in a pasture, two stallions in a wild herd of horses.  You just know that fireworks are going to ensue.  Leaders often lock horns.  Jesus and John didn’t lock horns, they didn’t do anything that suggested that a power struggle was going on.  Luke’s version omits John’s question to Jesus, “Why are you coming to me to be baptized?” which is in Matthew and Mark.  

Jesus didn’t come as someone wanting to take over from John and steal all his followers.  Jesus didn’t come to push John out of the river and start his own baptism show.  Jesus came with respect, honoring the leadership and ministry John had, and recognizing John’s God-given authority to baptize.  And John was clear with his followers, a better spiritual authority was just around the corner.  John didn’t claim to be a messiah, and he didn’t let anyone call him such.  He knew that Jesus was the one people had been waiting for, who would fulfill the promise that no one need live in fear.  Who would share the message that God claims us all and sees us all as precious. God created us for glory and not for locking horns in power struggles.  

Baptism is meant to be a sign that reminds us of this love.  It’s meant to remind us that God is with us, we are not alone.  All too often, baptism has been corrupted and turned into a ‘get out of hell free’ card.  Although that idea was started in medieval times, it has had a long history of being used abusively. The ticket out of hell idea was originally supposed to assure people, and lower their anxiety.  Instead it increased people’s shame and fear. It was abused to show who was an insider and who was not.

United Church Stewardship leaders say that “Baptism is about the affirmation that there is something sacred about life and that a piece of that sacred goodness is found deep within us. Baptism affirms the inherent worth of each of us and is a physical sign of a spiritual reality—that we belong to a loving God and that the goodness that comes from God is deep within us and serves as a communal symbol of God’s unconditional love.”

It’s easy to brush off this idea or pretend it doesn’t mean much in this world of discrimination, political turmoil, horrendous forest fires, and divisive conspiracy theories.  But the reality is that we need to be reminded of the love God has for us just as we are.  Baptism is not what we do for God, anyone looking at a newborn baby knows that they don’t need to be cleansed of any thoughts or deeds, they are too busy learning what the world looks like and what language sounds like and what food smells like.  They are truly innocent.  And we need regular cleansing of our need to be competitive, of our need to put ourselves down before others do, or our need to hide our flaws, or our need to be right.  And this is something we wrestle with, in community as a collection of flawed but beloved human beings.  Like God’s love, baptism isn’t something earned, or something bought or something won, it is a gift bestowed on us and recognized by a loving community as precious in God’s sight.  It helps us remember that we too are gifts of God to the world.  We are enough as we are.

So how do we respond to this astonishing claim that we are gifts of God to the world?  I think that Jesus and John also model a response to that knowledge.  Instead of locking horns, they looked each other in the eye, and treated each other’s gifts with deep respect.  John acknowledged Jesus and his ministry with profound awe.  “One is coming who will baptize you with fire”, he said, anticipating not just Pentecost, but the burning passion his disciples developed for sharing the healing and compassion that Jesus gave them.  The fire of compassion for one another that would send them around the world with their message of hope and healing and love.  And Jesus acknowledged John by coming and asking for baptism.  Jesus didn’t put on any airs, he didn’t say, “Thanks, John, it’s time to tie up my sandals now and be my personal butler,” he said, “baptize me like you have baptized all these other people.”  

What humbleness, what servant leadership that showed!  Instead of us locking horns with those around us, what if we too looked our neighbor in the eye and saw them as also a beloved child of God, one to cherish and support.  Just as if Biden came, looked Trudeau in the eye and said, “I want to become a Canadian citizen”, we can remind ourselves and each other that we are to see each other as a beloved child of God.  Let us honor and respect the leadership of each other the way Jesus and John honored each other, as God loves us, and as we are called to love one another.