Post 86—The State of the United Church of Canada

           

I am not expert on the United Church of Canada (UCC), but I do know a few things about it. When we first immigrated to Canada in 1951, I was a boy of thirteen. We spent our first year in Pitt Meadows, BC, and then moved to Alberni on Vancouver Island. You will no longer find that name on the map, for the city has merged with and is now known as Port Alberni, its former twin city. That’s where I first became aware of UCC.  It was largely a negative awareness, for I, along with our local CRC congregation, considered it a totally liberal church that had long ago forsaken the Gospel. We did not feel the need to become more familiar with the denomination or its local congregation. It was liberal. Punkt. The end of the matter. We wanted nothing to do with it.

I carried that attitude with me to college and, later, into my seminary, Calvin Theological Seminary, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I graduated in 1965. During my years there, I wrote a research paper for a Church History course in which I traced the history of UCC from its beginning in 1925, when two and a half Canadian “mainstream” denominations, all of them known to be liberal, merged to form UCC. I “faithfully” described the church as fully liberal in a less than sympathetic spirit.  Though I still have some seminary research papers in my archives, this one unfortunately got lost—or is that perhaps fortunately? It might have ended up on my website and I bore you with its denunciations of that liberal church.  So, consider yourself lucky, if not fortunate. But, sorry, now you’re reading about it here! Sometimes you just can’t get away.

We are now 50 years further down the pike. Many things have changed, including denominations and individuals, including my denomination, the CRC. Whereas previously it looked at the UCC askance from afar, the two churches now meet each other in the context of the Canadian Council of Churches and other ecumenical settings, including the newly formed World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).  The CRC has become more sure of itself and feels free to reach out to churches with which it generally tends to disagree. It is also member of the Evangelical Fellowship of Churches. It eats from both sides, precisely because it rejects the one-sidedness of both traditions and embraces both, a natural consequence of the Reformational pattern of the Canadian section of the CRC.

But I as an individual have also changed and become more broadminded and ecumenical. When we went “church shopping” in Vancouver in 2001, the UCC was a serious contender for our loyalty. Rather than repeat this story, I refer you to Volume 4 of our memoir, Every Square Inch, pp. 64-67 (www.SocialTheology.com/Boeriana.htm).  You will learn there that I had become more nuanced and recognized good things in UCC as well as negatives. Nevertheless, we ended up across the street at First Baptist Church (FBC) of Vancouver, though I am still tempted by UCC for its broader cultural approach to the city. We are now associated with both the CRC and FBC.

The question is now: Have I been wrong, or, at least, partially wrong about the UCC all these years?  Is the situation more nuanced? Well, yes, it is and probably always has been. But please remember what I wrote in the previous post on this score and compare that sentiment with an article by Douglas Todd of the Vancouver Sun (VS) entitled “Atheist Clergy Should Remove Masks” (July 4, 2015, p. I-5), a controversial one, I might add (See letters to editor in VS July 11, 2015).  Among other things, Todd adduces the views of some scholars.  Mark Noll, a well-known scholar at Notre Dame University, holds that the church “has declined in part because it embraced secularism, pluralism and multiculturalism.”  That, of course, brings her right in line with the dominant Canadian culture, exactly as suggested in Post 85 above.  Then there is Ontario scholar Nancy Christie who thinks the church “faltered because it promoted personal freedom above public morality.” 

A feature related to the above is that the UCC tolerates atheist preachers on its pulpits. Well, yes, why not if you have embraced the three

“-isms” in the above paragraph?  Todd talks of “the strange case of Vosper,” a female UCC pastor who loudly proclaims atheism and has even published books on the subject. He considers her case “strange” not because of what she preaches, for her thoughts are very commonplace among humanists and other secularists, nothing new or unique about them. It is “strange” because the UCC tolerates this conviction on the pulpit. He writes, the UCC “has become so freedom-fixated and inclusive—often boasting ‘We Welcome Everyone’—that it has lost its boundaries.”              

Todd further suggests that it is time for UCC “to reform itself by becoming more honest.” It suffers from “a lack of authenticity” and concludes with the hard-hitting paragraph

Just as … Vosper should do the honourable thing and leave the United Church, so too should the more secretive clergy who won’t declare they really are atheist, mainly because they don’t want to lose their gig in a denomination in danger of becoming The Church of Niceness. 

He borrowed that term from Canadian psychologist Evelyn Sommers, the author of The Tyranny of Niceness: Unmasking the Need for Approval. According to Sommers, this need has “a dark side to needing to be liked.” That is precisely what Todd suspects to be the case with “open-minded church members who tolerate Vosper’s employment are guilty of”, which makes the Church seem “so Canadian.” And that brings us again back to Post 85, where it is suggested the UCC is losing out precisely because of its loss of Gospel punch and its appropriation of the Canadian liberal public spirit. It is one thing to support the marginalized and even promote all that emerges from public good will, but when this is at the cost of losing sight of the basic antithesis between the Spirit of God and the “powers and principalities” that have such powerful influence in the society, then the “tyranny of niceness” has taken over.

My wife and I attended the weekly jazz session at St. Andrews-Wesley UCC here in downtown Vancouver this past Sunday. It was a wonderful musical experience interspersed with a fine sermon  scattered throughout the programme by Gary Patterson, the senior pastor. The music was indeed superb. I sat there absolutely enthralled as I not only heard the music but also observed the musicians from close up with their facial expressions and bodily postures. Patterson utilized all his amazing gifts as an orator as he presented the UCC version of the Gospel. It was all about grace in our lives. 

The thing was that it was not defined; it was left vague so that one came away wondering what the core of all this was. I am afraid, we once again ran into the typical UCC liberalism that is so all-embracing that it has no borders left and is almost forced to leave core values vague. Vintage UCC: exhilarating combination of music and oratory laced with the finest humour; core values left indefinite. We were glad we went. Thanks, UCC. Thanks, Gary. But that core.....?

I encourage all my readers to practice niceness towards UCC, Holy Spirit niceness.  We should not regard that Church as a lost cause. The Spirit of Niceness is still around and can turn that Canadian polite niceness into the real thing and the UCC once again become  a revitalized spiritual powerhouse in our nation.  For that we all need to pray. What could be nicer than that?

United Church of Canada, we love and stand by you.  But, please, fill in            those blanks with genuine Gospel core.