My vision of the church is based on Matthew 22: 37-39 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

I am happy to say my experience in the Anglican Church, and in particular at Church of the Redeemer, is very close to what I am looking for. I am cared for by the clergy and by the community – on a personal, everyday level and on a spiritual level. The music is gorgeous with mostly classical and traditional hymns, but it ventures into gospel and other types of music (including a few services based on contemporary music such as U2). We are incredibly blessed to haveCanon Andrew Asbil as our incumbent. He is a truly gifted minister - who offers sermons week after week that intelligently blend the experiences of every day life with profound Christian messages. I am always inspired. He is also a skilled listener and spiritual counsellor who is generous with his time. His door has always been open to me in times of sorrow and joy.

My wish for the church in the future is that every Anglican could have such a wonderful experience in their parish. Everyone should have a place like this to come and learn how to love God with all their heart and mind and soul. A place that they can bring their questions and struggles. Most importantly, it should be a place to learn about the limitless love of God for themselves and the world. It should be a place that expresses the love of God in all that it does. (And yes, for me, that means it is an inclusive place that does not distinguish between people based on race, gender, ability or sexual orientation. We should continue to reach out to people who are concerned about the authority of scripture and disagree with same-sex blessings on that basis. We have to express the love of God to them too, but my own belief is that this is a matter of love and justice, and the church has to stop discriminating against gays and lesbians.)

Which brings me to the second commandment and my view of the way the church will survive and grow in the future. Love your neighbour as yourself. For me, that means we need to love the person next to us in the pew, the people we encounter in our daily lives, but especially the poor, the hurting and the oppressed in our own land and abroad. Redeemer does this well with a lunch program for the poor and marginalized in the neighbourhood, but I want to see us do more. I know that PWRDF does this globally, but I want to see us do more.

This kind of outreach is also what I believe the church needs to do to survive in the future. People in both the developed world and in developing countries are disillusioned by the injustice of current economic and political systems. We are all crying out that we want to change the world, but I think many people feel powerless and don’t know where to turn to channel their desires and efforts to make the world better. In Canada, I think it is particularly important for the church to work for justice for First Nations people and to protect the environment. I think the church needs to work with ecumenical and interfaith partners to show people that religion is a creative force for good, not division. We should gather momentum with other partners, including social justice and environmental organizations, to work for change. I know churches already do this. I want to do more, but I think we also need to get better at telling the world that this is what we are about. Maybe then they will see that the love and light they long to see in the world can be found in the church.

Where  is our Church now, and where do we want it to be in 2019?

I appreciate deeply where our church is now – wrestling, seeking, working to understand how God is calling us today, and exploring new forms of discipleship. It is easy to criticize ourselves for how we are failing – and I can be at least as critical as the next person. (Perhaps even more since I am now retired and don’t have the responsibility I once carried!) But I have to say that there is so much I cherish in the church, and I am grateful to be a member of it.

For some years I was fortunate to serve in the Diocese of Cariboo and, most recently, in the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior. When our name was ‘Cariboo’, I delighted in belonging to a family that truly was a family. When we became the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior, that sense of belonging continued (and continues.)  But there was a wound in our life – one that resulted from the dreadful legacy of our colonial history, including that of the Residential Schools. Many persons in the schools suffered loss of identity.  When the diocese was winding up its operation, Bishop Jim Cruickshank noted that now “we would no longer have Cariboo as our name”. In some small way, we were being called to learn something of what losing identity was about. But mostly God was asking us learn to be brothers and sisters in a new way. Perhaps it took us into a place where we were discovering something about healing. I long for a church in which we understand that healing – the healing of our souls, our neighbourhoods, our church, our world – begins when we acknowledge the wounds we have caused and those we have received, admit our need and pray for mercy and grace, recognize our deep need for each other, and seek the risen life offered through the wounds of Christ. My wife loves to quote a favourite phrase from U2, ‘We get to carry each other.”  Indeed, that is what sharing in the cross is about. Resurrection finds its beginnings in wounds.  I was thankful to share in a community of persons who had experienced a deep injury in our common life, carried each other and sought to hear God’s voice of new life in the midst of that.

For nearly a year now, I have been privileged to belong to an urban Toronto parish that is seeking to grow more deeply in discipleship. Like many urban churches, it has an old and large heritage building that is immensely costly. It was built for another age when church-going was integral to the culture. Yet even with the frustrations that come with such a plant, my sense is that the primary question at the heart of the parish’s life is mission. How will we serve God in our neighbourhood and world? How will we faithfully “proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ”? Many are engaged in some form of outreach – with young people, the homeless, the hungry. And, it seems, there is a willingness to listen to what the Spirit is saying through people in the wider community. It is a kind of paying attention that assumes God is calling us through other voices outside the church and in events that take place in the neighbourhood.

Last Sunday (September 27) was billed as ‘Back to church Sunday’ in the Diocese of Toronto. Vested in copes and mitres, The Toronto bishops greeted commuters at Union Station with an invitation. With other churches, members of our parish were encouraged to invite non church-going friends (or formerly church going friends) to come and see. As it turned out, Queen Street East, the main thoroughfare on which our church is located, was going to be blocked to traffic on that Sunday from 8.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. for a major marathon. Travel by car or public transit was not possible. My first response was frustration and disappointment – not a particularly helpful or faithful response! But leaders in the congregation started an email conversation and turned the occasion into a moment of mission. 4000 marathoners would be running by St. Aidan’s – how could the parish reach out to them? The idea of lawn signs welcoming and encouraging them was born. Signs greeted the marathoners that had the following captions: “Is there a patron saint of blisters?” ‘”Repent. Mile 25 is coming soon”, “Hit the wall? Come in and pray”. At the bottom of each were the words “God Bless Marathoners – from St. Aidan’s”.  A lot of people saw those signs. Some of the runners paused to take pictures, others wore a broad smile. When the priest was taking the signs down after the run, a race marshal came to tell her “This was a tough part of the race, and many runners got a laugh and encouragement.” That is mission – paying attention to what is going on and speaking to it as Christians with humour and grace.

Learning to be brothers and sisters in a new way.

Carrying each other in this broken world.

Paying attention to what God is saying to us from beyond our walls.

Engaging the world with creativity and compassion.

Keeping a sense of humour.

It seems to me that these are gifts we already have – at least in seed form.  When I dream of the Church of 2019, or any age, I hope that the seeds that are already present might be nurtured and flourish so that “we and all God’s children might be free and the whole earth live to praise God’s name.” I am glad to be a member of Christ’s body engaged in this sort of mission today.

Gordon Light,
St. Aidan’s, Toronto

Vision 2019

Thank you for your urgings to write and for your insistence that one may respond at any level. I joined the Anglican Church in late1998 after several decades of ministry in another denomination, and I was priested in March, 2000. I feel as though I have found a spiritual home in Anglicanism, and consequently, I am very interested in its future in Canada.

Your questions use the word “church” in two different senses. In the first it is “church,” implying a local parish. In the second it is “Anglican Church of Canada,” a denomination. My response to both questions focuses on “church” as denomination.

Where is the Anglican Church of Canada Now?

There are many signs of spiritual life in the ACC which hold promise for the future. I mention briefly the Faith Works program of the Diocese of Toronto and the fact that the word “mission” appeared in diocesan discourse recently. Faith Works has been a part of our diocese for some time, but the idea of msssion seems to have caught on perhaps having noted the way some parishes do look beyond themselves. St. Peter’s, Cobourg, under the leadership of Canon Peter Walker would be one and perhaps St. David’s, Weston, is another. I am sure there are others. Bishops in full episcopal vestments handing out invitations to church in Union Station, Toronto would be a further encouragement to mission.

In addition to these strengths, we Anglicans are blessed with a deep and rich spiritual tradition and profound liturgies. Added to this we Anglicans as a group have an extraordinary place of interest among the cultural elites of our society—journalists, politicians, and leaders in the business community. Regrettably, all of this is being seriously threatened. The threat—an extemely soft spiritual and theological centre.

This condition is being illustrated in many ways. These may be exceptions to the rule or they may be the rule to which there are expections. (1) In my hearing and in committee, an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Toronto stated that she would not permit her life to be shaped by the Bible.  (2) There is a persistent religious relativism which has appeared from the episcopal chair to the pew. (3) We have permitted societal values to shape belief and policy to a remarkable extent.

Speaking of the 1950s and 60s, Robert Bellah, Episcopal layman and renowned scholar, and associates, in their analysis of American life, outline reasons which explain “. . . the quasi-therapeutic blandness that has afflicted much of mainline Protestant religion at the parish level for over a century. . . .”[1] One was the loss of confidence among religious intellectuals. I take that to mean that the biblical and theological liberalism which dominated most North American seminaries at the time made it difficult for them to offer clear and substantial teaching regarding historic, orthodox Christianity. As a student in the 60s in two seminaries, which were not Anglican I might add, I experienced precisely this. This has left “mainline” denominations, including our own, particularly vulnerable to non-Christian influences from our society. In another place, Bellah muses about the extent to which “. . . the world in which we live so invaded and eviscerated those communities [religious communities in the United States] that they have difficulty understanding their own core meanings.”[2]

The consequences are striking. We have lost members. These are not those who “are not leaving, they’re just not coming.” They have left. The ACC reached its highest number of persons per 1000 of Canadian population in 1921. It was 160 per 1000. It began to decline then, a decline which became rapid after 1961,until it reached the number found in the 2001 census—68 persons per 1000. This has meant the undermining of parish life and outreach and the slashing of budgets. Prominent American sociologist, Rodney Stark, in an interview in 2004 was asked what he thought about churches which choose to make themselves more popular by being very undemanding in either thought or practice. Stark replied: “They’re death wishes. People value religion on the basis of cost and they don’t value the cheapest ones the most. Religions that ask nothing get nothing.”[3]

It seems to me that we are in a position in which our basic theology threatens everything we are doing. We may be able to generate some enthusiasm by promotion and intense communication, but eventually the soft theological centre will again derail us.

Where Should the Anglican Church in Canada Be in 2019?

Led by its clergy, the ACC should be embracing the historic creeds and the biblical revelation of God in Christ, resulting in more people being drawn into relationship with God through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. There should be less reliance on old “liberal”, bultmanian modalities, and there is plenty of help available. To name only a few, The Rt. Rev. N. T. Wright, Prof. Christopher Seitz, Prof. Richard Bauckham, and Prof. Anthony Thistleton, Anglicans all, are doing brilliant work. What they are writing and saying should trouble fundamentalists of the left as well as those of the right.

The ACC should be open and receptive to all, acknowledging that all of us stand under scripture and are subject to the judgment of God. The scriptures make very clear how we are to live our lives both for God’s glory and to our own benefit. The denomination should be characterized by people committed to Jesus Christ and acknowledging him as Lord who are going into society at all levels to help others find the lives that God intends for them.

The Rev. Dr. Ronald Kydd
Honourary Assistant, St. Peter’s, Cobourg
and Research Professor of Church History,
Tyndale Seminary, Toronto

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[1] Robert Bellah and Associates. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Live (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 238.

[2] Bellah, The Robert Bellah Reader, Edited by Robert N. bellah and Steven N. Tipton (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), p. 215.

[3] Posted July 22, 2004. Stark and associates expanded on this in What Americans Really Believe: New Findings from the Baylor Surveys of Religion (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2008), p. 29-36.