Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

"We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand."  Isaiah 64: 8

This past summer our family was looking through a pottery shop in New England.  My wife Laura was admiring the wide variety of colours, shapes and sizes of pottery pieces for sale while I tried to keep our two active children from breaking anything.  We decided to buy a small, inexpensive piece of pottery to bring home but could not agree on which item to select.  "That one is too big.  That one has an odd shape.  That one is not as pretty.  That one looks broken."  Finally, our taste and budget harmoniously selected a fine piece of pottery for our dining room table.  We exited the shop leaving behind every other creation for sale.

"The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah 2:1-4

By the time you read this, I will hopefully be a member of a Witnessing Delegation in Israel-Palestine with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). I have requested, at the suggestion of CPT, that this Blog and my correspondence with Winnipeg and Tamarack Presbyteries of the United Church of Canada not be released until after the 18^th of November. The reason for this request is that while entering through customs, in particular in Israel, I could be denied entrance should my affiliation as part of a Delegation become known. I could be detained and denied entry. Of course, in my discussion with CPT and in their literature, this is not so much to discourage, as it is named as a reality. Civil Disobedience can be lived out, in this situation, in more than one way: whether that is to declare specifically why I am entering the country or whether I choose to be honest, but not fully disclose, by saying only that I am seeking to experience Advent in the Holy Land.

Will mainline denominations such as The United Church of Canada survive? 

The question becomes increasingly urgent. We are long past the critic's quip of the mainline now being sidelined. More is at stake than pride of place.

The question gains energy not simply because of financial and membership numbers. The real crisis grows from a sense among membership that the mainline version of the church has lost or is losing its way.

Within The United Church of Canada, periodic laments that the church lacks vision, does not know what it stands for or is unable to mobilize members around a mission testifies to this anxiety.

Ironically, this spiritual astigmatism occurs at a time when many of the peculiar gifts of churches, like The United Church of Canada, are needed more than ever.