Clergy Letter Project Overture

Did you know that 46% of Americans think that the theory of evolution is contrary to the teachings of their faith?  That does not bode well for the future of Christianity nor for education about science.  It is time for the Presbyterian Church to be a leader and to unequivocally support science.   You don't have to lose your brain to gain your heart.

This overture requests the General Assembly to join other faith bodies, like the Methodists, and endorse the Clergy Letter Project and the Christian Clergy Letter.

I sent it as a commissioner's resolution last time.   This is the speech I gave before the committee so you can understand why so many of us think this is important.   Michael Zimmerman, founder of the Clergy Letter Project, wrote about the decision in his Huffington Post Column, Evolution and the Presbyterian Church (Not Quite the Relationship It Could Be).

This time, I hope it will go as a presbytery overture and carry more weight than I can as an individual.  On October 15th, the session of Southminster Presbyterian Church sent the following overture to Cascades Presbytery.   The change from last time is the removal of Evolution Sunday.

If Cascades approves we will still need another presbytery to concur.  Can you give it a try?

Overture Regarding Endorsing the Clergy Letter Project

The Presbytery of Cascades overtures the 222^nd General Assembly (2016) of the PC (USA) to

join with the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, the Southeast Florida Diocese of the Episcopal Church, the Southwestern Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and with 13,013 members of Christian Clergy, 514 Rabbis of Judaism, 286 Clergy of Unitarian Universalists, and 25 Buddhist Clergy in endorsing the Clergy Letter Project and the Christian Clergy Letter printed below:

Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible – the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark – convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

Rationale:

This overture is brought in the spirit of faith that joyfully acknowledges

• that God brings all things into being by the Word. (W-1.2001),
• that God transcends creation and cannot be reduced to anything within it (W-1.2002),
• that God created the material universe and pronounced it good, and
• that the material world reflects the glory of God. (W-1.3031), and,
• with the understanding that in prayer we earnestly thank God for creation and providence. (W-3.3613)

Evolution has been wrongly viewed in some Christian communities as contrary to Christian beliefs. According to a Gallup Poll in May 2014, 46% of Americans think that evolution is “inconsistent with [their] religious beliefs.” 

As a scientific theory based solidly on extensive scientific evidence, it has shaped our thinking in the natural sciences and has become the underlying theory for numerous medical advances. As a scientific theory it does not contradict the existence of God, but can be seen as a natural, creative process in God's creation.  It is important for the Presbyterian Church (USA) to be clear that people do not need to reject Evolution to affirm their faith.

In a recent study of why young people are leaving the church, 29% of the youth reported being discouraged by the church's antagonistic view of science, and that many young people are “turned off by the creation-versus-evolution debate.” The research also “shows that many science-minded young Christians are struggling to find ways of staying faithful to their beliefs and to their professional calling in science-related industries.”

(Ref. You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church...and Rethinking Faith. David Kinnaman, 2011, The Barna Group.)

The 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has stated that it:

1. Reaffirms that God is Creator, in accordance with the witness of Scripture and the Reformed Confessions.
2. Reaffirms that there is no contradiction between an evolutionary theory of human origins and the doctrine of God as Creator.
3. Encourages State Boards of Education across the nation to establish standards for science education in public schools based on the most reliable content of scientific knowledge as determined by the scientific community.
4. Calls upon Presbyterian scientists and scientific educators to assist congregations, presbyteries, and the public to understand what constitutes reliable knowledge.

Other denominations have also recognized the compatibility of modern science and theology. For example, The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church - 2008 states, in part, "We recognize science as a legitimate interpretation of God’s natural world. We affirm the validity of the claims of science in describing the natural world and in determining what is scientific. We preclude science from making authoritative claims about theological issues and theology from making authoritative claims about scientific issues. We find that science’s descriptions of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution are not in conflict with theology."

The Clergy Letter Project, www.theclergyletterproject.org founded by Dr. Michael Zimmerman, and signed by over 13,000 Christian clergy has helped clergy and congregations present the scientific theory of Evolution in a manner that respects and engages a thinking faith.

A Gospel Vision for the Church

The Session of Southminster Presbyterian Church of Beaverton, Oregon at its October 15th meeting approved the following overture to be sent to Cascades Presbytery.   Thanks to the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and my friend and justice-seeker, Aric Clark, for drafting this!

This is pretty much the opposite of an overture that was sent by Foothills Presbytery.   Check Gene TeSelle's column in the Fall Network News for an analysis of that overture (p. 8).

We need more action for social justice and more voices heard, not less.

A Gospel Vision for the Church

Overture on choosing to be a church committed to the gospel of Matthew 25

The Presbytery of  Cascades overtures the 222nd General Assembly (2016) of the PC (USA) to:

Recommit ourselves at the congregational, the mid-council governing bodies, and the national levels of our church to locate ourselves with the poor, to advocate with all of our voice for the poor, and to seek opportunities to take risks for and with the poor (in the soup kitchens and catholic worker houses, among the immigrants, with those working to end mass incarceration, and with those who seek to protect all of us, especially the poorest of the poor around the world, from the vagaries of climate change).

Call on our churches to commit to a year of bible study focused on issues of social justice. 

Call on our Presbyteries and Synods to examine their own practice, placing these commitments at the center of their concerns, and to streamline the way that issues of immediate significance can be forwarded to the General Assembly by adopting procedures so that overtures and proposals on peacemaking and social justice concerns from sessions and committees may be considered quickly. 

Facilitate the processes by which these concerns can be brought before us as a national body by resisting new barriers to overture submissions such as additional concurrences, tighter deadlines, or new overture topic restrictions at any General Assembly.

Commit to focusing a significant block of the time alloted for future General Assemblies on creating opportunities in consultation with the Committees on Local Arrangements to engage all of the commissioners, delegates, and observers in acts of service to and with communities at risk.

Assure that there are voices of those who are most at risk from within our church and outside of it (including interfaith voices), who are invited to share with and challenge the assembly, both in the plenary and committee sessions. 

Create a “cycle of social engagement” that will assure that concerns around confronting racism, environmental concerns, standing against violence and militarism, and advocating for the dispossessed come before the Assembly on a regular and consistent basis, soliciting overtures from presbyteries before each General Assembly on topics of the most immediate concern. 

                                                            

Rationale

This is a moment of great opportunity for our church. Momentum is building within our denomination and throughout our society to courageously confront the challenges of our time. A new Civil Rights movement, a new Peace movement, a new Economic Justice movement is on the rise and we are in a position to stand in solidarity with the poor in a uniquely powerful way. It is a time for us to define who we will be for decades to come. May we choose to be a church committed to the gospel of Matthew 25:

In the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids Jesus tells a story about the church waiting for the moment of the Lord’s arrival. Some of those who are waiting are prepared when the time comes, and some are not. The zeitgeist of our age is one of rapidly changing and endlessly creative activism exemplified by the Black Lives Matter movement. Let us be like the bridesmaids whose lamps are trimmed - ready to seize the moment.

In the Parable of the Talents Jesus tells a story about a bold slave who was punished for refusing to participate in the empire value of domination. Increasingly we see brave individuals and groups calling out the powerful and standing against the rampant exploitation in our marketplaces, in our prisons, and on our streets. Let us resist evil like that slave, and go stand on the margins of society - in the outer darkness.

In the Parable of the Judgment of the Nations Jesus tells a story about how he is encountered among “the least” - the poorest, the most isolated, the imprisoned, the sick, and the hungry. We hear with sober conviction Jesus declaring that a church which fails to serve with and for the poor does not know Him. We agree with Pope Francis who stated that a church that is not actively supporting and serving the needs of the poor has no right to call itself church at all and should be prepared to give up its tax-exempt status to operate as a church. Let us be counted among the sheep who met their King as a stranger.

We see the Spirit blowing through our society, bringing to fruition seeds of peace and justice long dormant. The harvest will be plentiful. Let us heed the call to service, and recommit ourselves to the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in deeds as well as in words.

Does God Have A Future? Find Out at Southminster!

I am thrilled about our Jesus Seminar on the Road, November 6th and 7th at Southminster.  Southminster has been hosting JSORs each year for years.   This one could be the most interesting yet.  Here is what I sent to the media:

Southminster Presbyterian Church of Beaverton welcomes religious scholars Thomas Sheehan of Stanford University and Jeffrey Robbins of Lebanon Valley College to a “Jesus Seminar on the Road” November 6th and 7th. The weekend conference is called “God, Christianity, and the Human Future.” 

The supernatural, interventionist understanding of God is no longer credible in a modern understanding of the universe. Galileo put this god out of a home and Darwin put “God” out of a job. What do we mean by God today? Has God any value for humanity? What about Christianity? 

In a significant departure from traditional emphases on beliefs concerning Jesus and the confession of creeds, modern scholarship talks about Christianity as an attitude. What does that mean? And is religion an inevitable part of the human experience? In what ways does religion challenge and change humanity? 

Westar Institute - home of the Jesus Seminar - invites members of the general public into conversation with scholars of religion at national and regional events throughout the year. These events provide opportunities for scholars to discuss questions that matter about religion with people from diverse backgrounds and interests.

Here is the website to register!  Hope to see you and bring a friend!

Catch my interview with Jeffrey Robbins via podcast beginning Sunday October 25th!

Thomas Sheehan is Professor, Department of Religious Studies, at Stanford University, and the author of many books including Making Sense of Heidegger (2014), Becoming Heidegger (rev. 2011), and The First Coming (1986). Sheehan's interests in biblical history and exegesis include first-century Christianity and early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic.

Jeffrey W. Robbins is Chair and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Lebanon Valley College, where he also serves as the director of the American Studies program and the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Awarded the Thomas Rhys Vickroy Award for Outstanding Teaching at LVC in 2005, Robbins is the author or editor of eight books, including the forthcoming Radical Theology: A Theological Method for Change.

Gifts of the Dark Wood, Worship Guide for Fall 2015

Here is the plan for worship for the Fall based on a new book by Eric Elnes, Gifts of the Darkwood:  Seven Blessings For Soulful Skeptics (And Other Wanderers).   An interview with Eric about his book is upcoming on Religion For Life!

Worship Guide for Autumn 2015, Via Negativa (the way of letting go and letting be)

October 11^th through December 20^th

Summer—      Path 1:  via positiva (the way of awe and wonder)

Fall—              Path 2:  via negativa (the way of letting go and letting be)

Winter—        Path 3:  via creativa (the way of creativity and imagination)

Spring—         Path 4:  via transformativa (the way of justice-making)

During Autumn we travel the spiritual path of the via negativa, the way of letting go and letting be.   This is the path, while often not chosen, that leads to self-awareness and spiritual growth.   It is the path of darkness, silence, pruning, and emptying.   It is the negation of images, the deconstruction of beliefs and truths, and the stripping away of certainties, so that we are vulnerable and open to a direction and calling. 

Our guide this season will be a book by Eric Elnes called Gifts of the Dark Wood:  Seven Blessings For Soulful Skeptics (And Other Wanderers).  Eric was a year ahead of me at Princeton and now is the pastor of Countryside Community Church (UCC) in Omaha, Nebraska.  In 2006, Eric walked 2,500 miles from Phoenix to Washington D.C. to promote awareness of progressive Christianity.   He hosts an interactive weekly webcast called Darkwood Brew.

He has just published his latest book in which he uses Dark Wood as a metaphor for the place of “awakening and discovery.”  The things that we find in the Dark Wood that we might judge as bad or unpleasant, are if we pay attention, gifts.   He writes about seven gifts or blessings of the Dark Wood:  uncertainty, emptiness, being thunderstruck, getting lost, temptation, disappearing, and misfits. 

I will spend a Sunday on each of these blessings or gifts—gifts of the Dark Wood.    Let’s enter the Dark Wood and see what we find. 

If you have a creative element (poem, song, children’s sermon, etc.) for one of the services, it will be most welcome!   Look up the readings and if something sparks your creativity, send an email to me.

October 11^th                Entering the Dark Wood                               

Theme:                        The Dark Wood Is As Light To God                      

Scripture:                    Psalm 139:7-12

This Sunday will be an invitation to enter the Dark Wood.   What is that invitation?  What are we invited to do?  We are invited to recognize that where we are right now, with all of our bruises and faults, insecurities and broken dreams, is where we are.    And no matter where we flee we are still here, as the psalmist writes:  “If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.”  God’s presence is the Dark Wood.   The invitation is to discover its blessing.

           

October 18^th                Rev. Don Ludwig Leads Worship

October 25^th               

Theme:                        Uncertainty

Scripture:                    1 Corinthians 13:11-12

In Paul’s famous chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13, he admits that he “knows only in part; then I will know fully….”  Then.  It is a statement of trust and acceptance that we live in ambiguity and uncertainty.   We don’t know what will happen and for the most part, we can’t control it.  But uncertainty is a gift of the Dark Wood.   When we have as the Buddhists call it, a “beginner’s mind” we can be open to possibility, a gift denied us when we think we “know it all.”      

November 1^st              Nancy Ellen Abrams:  A God That Could Be Real

We stop at a rest area in the Dark Wood and welcome Nancy Ellen Abrams via Skype to worship.  She will engage with us about her book, A God That Could Be Real:  Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Our Planet.   This book was our summer “Southminister Reads” selection and we are thrilled to have the author share with us her insights and field your questions. 

November 8^th                        

Theme:                        Emptiness

Scripture:                    Thomas 97

Jesus tells a parable about a woman who is walking down the road with a jar full of meal.  She doesn’t realize it, but the jar breaks and the meal pours out.  She arrives home with an empty jar.  Jesus says the realm of God is like that.  Huh?  Emptiness is a gift of the Dark Wood.  

November 15^th           

Theme:                        Being Thunderstruck

Scripture:                    1 Kings 19:11-13

In the ancient world thunder and lightning were viewed as signs that the gods had something to say.  Today, we might call it a flash of insight.  One of the gifts of the Dark Wood is the moment of awareness, an “aha” moment.    Call it the voice of God, call it insight, call it as Ebeneezer Scrooge did, “bit of undigested beef,” but it could be calling you!

                         

November 22^nd           Reign of Christ           

Theme:                        Getting Lost

Scripture:                    Matthew 2:1-2

Wendell Berry is a wise man.  He said, “It may be that when we no longer know what to do,

we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.”  Being lost in the Dark Wood does not feel like a gift.   But like the wise men who came from the East looking for Jesus, sometimes you have ask directions. 

November 29^th           Advent One

Theme:                        Temptation

Scripture:                    Luke 4:1-13

Usually we begin Lent with the story of Jesus tempted in the wilderness.   Since we are lost in the Dark Wood, we’ll mix it up a bit and begin Advent with this story.   The Dark Wood is a place where “the adversary” wants to mess with us, to test us, to tempt us, not to do bad things, but as Eric Elnes points out in his book, to do the things that are not ours to do.    

December 6^th              Advent Two

Theme:                        Disappearing

Scripture:                    Luke 4:14-30

Eric Elnes writes in this chapter, “refuse to let any situation or circumstance mark you in a way that does not reflect your highest identity.  You must disappear.” P. 129.   We disappear to the allure of a false self.   That is a gift of the Dark Wood.   This is knowing when to let go and let be.

December 13^th            Advent Three

Theme:                       Misfits

Scripture:                   Luke 6:20-21

We need companions.  The best companions are those who have “spent a little longer in the Dark Wood than you have” writes Eric Elnes.  P. 157.    The Dark Wood is best travelled with another, with someone who has been there, who knows.    Sometimes we enter a club we would never want to enter, but it is what it is.  We take our place with the other broken misfits.  It is home. 

December 20^th            Advent Four

The children will present a program during worship. 

Interview An Atheist At Southminster

This Sunday I am thrilled to welcome Kile B. Jones to Southminster.  Kile is the founder of "Interview An Atheist At Church Day."

Why would we want to interview an atheist?  Here are Kile's thoughts on that: 

Interview an Atheist at Church Day is a project created by Kile Jones, a Ph.D student at Claremont Lincoln University, an inter-religious school to train ministers. Kile is an atheist who is interested in helping liberal religious people work together with unbelieving communities for the betterment of society. 

Interview an Atheist at Church Day is a community project aimed at bettering the understanding between atheists and religious persons. We hope to connect atheists who are willing to be interviewed with congregations in their area that are interested in developing ties with atheists in their area. The “day” represents our desire to grow into something far-reaching and beneficial to atheists and churchgoers alike. 

As unbelieving populations around the world continue to rise, dialogue and understanding between atheists and people of faith is more important than ever. We live and work in the same world: understanding better what both unites and divides religious and non-religious people can only help us make this world a better place.

I interviewed Kile about this project a couple of years ago.  You can hear that podcast.   Kile has posted a number of the interviews on the website.   

On Sunday, I will ask him about the project, his experience of being an atheist in America, and why it is important for liberal religious people and atheists to develop ties.   We will open up questions to the congregation as well.   He'll stay after church for a while for further conversation and dialogue.

If you are near our evergreen, join us at ten a.m. and share the Interview an Atheist Facebook event with your friends!

Also, this Sunday is the beginning of Sunday Starter, our adult education hour.  I am presenting the first four weeks on "The Evolution of God."   Get up a little earlier and join us in Room Seven at nine a.m!

Southminster is Purchasing the New Hymnal

Southminster will be singing from a new hymnbook.

We need 175 of them.  We are asking everyone who worships with us to purchase at least one.  You can dedicate each one you purchase in memory or in honor of a person or organization even Planet Earth. Be creative!  (We will probably dedicate one in memory of Zach, another for my mom and one in honor of Katy and Amber and another to all the wonderful folks at Southminster).  We will make a very attractive book dedication plate for each one. Each hymnal is $25 and this includes shipping.   Forms are in Mary's blue folder, narthex, and in bulletins.   Fill out a form for each dedication.

Or, you can email your request to Mary.

Here is what you need to include:

Name of Donor (as you want it in the book dedication plate).

Choose:  In Memory or In Honor

Name of person, place or thing to be memorialized or honored (again as you want it in the book dedication plate).

Gretta Vosper: Can't We Talk About It?

My conversation with Gretta Vosper airs this week on Religion For Life.   She is being reviewed as to whether she can continue as a United Church of Canada minister.   With her public statements can she  still affirm her ordination questions?  She tells her story on the radio program that airs on stations beginning tonight and then via podcast on Sunday.

I wrote a letter of support for her and for her church to church officials.  I am posting it below.

Here is my issue.  It isn't about believing stuff or not believing stuff.  It isn't about vows and other means of control.  It is about actually engaging the world as it is.   It is about asking the questions and being straightforward about what we see, hear, and think.

More than that, it is about conversation with one another about what we see, hear, and think.   Can we not talk about the challenge the modern world brings to the concept of God?   Why must our conversation devolve into identity politics?   Gretta and her church invite the conversation.

Will the United Church of Canada have a conversation or close down all discussion through disciplinary means?  Everyone loses with the latter approach.   With the former, there is hope for growth and understanding.

If you are just catching up with her story, go here for background.

*My apologies to West Hill United Church.  In my letter I called the congregation, West Hills United Church.  I corrected it.*

August 21, 2015

The Right Reverend Jordan Cantwell
Moderator, UCC
3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4

Nora Sanders
General Secretary, UCC
3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4 Canada

David Allen
Executive Secretary – Toronto Conference
65 Mayall Avenue, Toronto, ON M3L 1E7

The Reverend Bryan Ransom
President – Toronto Conference
65 Mayall Avenue, Toronto, ON M3L 1E7

Dear Esteemed Colleagues in the United Church of Canada,

I am writing on behalf of Rev. Gretta Vosper. Gretta is a friend and colleague. I am a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I host a radio program, Religion For Life, and Gretta has been a guest twice.

I am writing in hopes that you will be an advocate for Rev. Vosper. I have nothing to say about polity and process within the United Church of Canada, of course. What I wish to write to you about is larger than Gretta, you or I, or our respective denominations. I wish to write about the intellectual future of Christianity and the importance of ministers like Gretta Vosper as they fearlessly present to us the issues we face.

What are these issues?

We live in a universe that is 13.75 billion years old. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. It is a pale blue dot in the suburbs of a galaxy that is one of billions. Humans have evolved through a process of natural selection. We share a common ancestor with all of life going to back to single-celled organisms from perhaps three billion years ago. It is an incredible universe that science is unfolding before our eyes. Yet religion with its ancient creeds and symbols is still in a pre-modern era.

All of the symbols and doctrines of faith from creation to eschatology including “God” are products of a pre-modern era in which humanity was “created” around 6000 years ago in a garden in the midst of a geocentric universe over which Father, Son, and Holy Ghost could be imagined as real entities existing in real time and space. These doctrinal formulations are little more than poetry today.

As one wag put it: Galileo put God out of a home and Darwin put God out of a job.

A supernatural interventionist deity, a god called God, is no more credible than a hammer-wielding Thor scaring humanity with his thunderbolts. By virtue of living in a modern world, we are all a-theists whether we want to admit it or not. No one expects a divine being to send rain, heal diseases, stop the sun in the sky, spin the planets, or cause my team to win in battle or in football, except perhaps fundamentalists.

What we do with our symbols of faith, how we approach them, what we keep, what we reject, what we redefine and reimagine is the responsibility of our generation of ministers and theologians. “God” must be on the table for dissection. That is our task. The one thing that will cripple our work is the silencing of our most creative minister-theologians. This is from American biblical scholar, Roy Hoover:

“Those who insist upon the unaltered retention of traditional forms of religious understanding and language and who retreat from the challenge posed by the actual world after Galileo want to direct the Christian community into the confines of a sacred grotto, an enclosed, religiously defined world that is brought completely under the control of scripture and tradition; and they want to turn the ordained clergy into antiquities dealers.” The Fourth R, Jan. – Feb. 2004

Gretta Vosper and courageous clergy who tell the truth are our last hope for a faith that will have any integrity. You may not agree with the approach that Gretta and West Hill United Church are taking. We will not agree on one clear approach to theology in this time. Agreement isn’t the point. The point is not to punish voices and force people to mouth a wooden formula created in a pre-modern world.

We need ministers and theologians to experiment and to try out new ways of being church. We need ministers and theologians to articulate new ways of doing good in our world. Both our denominations have strong commitments to social justice and ethics. That is the heart of the church. Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity After Religion quotes Harvey Cox:

“Faith is resurgent while dogma is dying. The spiritual, communal, and justice-seeking dimensions of Christianity are now its leading edge….A religion based on subscribing to mandatory beliefs is no longer viable.” p. 109-110.

West Hill United Church and Rev. Gretta Vosper are Christianity’s leading edge. I hope you will consider the larger picture as you reflect on this particular situation. Once we start down the road of silencing creative clergy, then all clergy begin to run scared. Once we do ministry from a context of fear, the love vanishes.

This is an exciting time. The world is watching The United Church of Canada, a denomination that Rev. Gretta Vosper loves and serves. May your church be a leader in exploring a faith for a 21st century mind.

Sincerely,

Rev. John Shuck


I received this reply:


Hello Mr. Shuck,

I’m responding on behalf of Moderator Jordan Cantwell, General Secretary Nora Sanders and Toronto Conference President Bryan Ransom. Thank you for sending your letter regarding Rev. Gretta Vosper.

You raise many good points in your letter, not least of which is your regard for Gretta as a friend and colleague. I experience her in both of those ways too, and am glad of it.

The process we are going through does not have a predetermined endpoint. Our Executive heard many people asking how a minister can say the things Gretta says and still be a minister. Others, like you, have written eloquently in her support. My hope is that at the end of the process, we’ll have a good reason for maintaining her as a minister – or we’ll have a good reason for saying she is not to continue in that role. What we have not done is to pre-judge the outcome and we, like many others, await the recommendations that will eventually come to us.

Again, thank you for writing, and for being a good friend to Gretta.

David W. Allen (Rev.)
Executive Secretary, Toronto Conference
The United Church of Canada