My vision for the church in 2019 is that we will actually have a vision – a shared sense of what our common life and mission is about.
To get there will take work. In terms of church politics, we will have to “turn our swords into ploughshares” – stop fighting the win-lose battles, and start cultivating the ground for agreement in mission. We will have to stop claiming that the things that matter most are the things that are pushing others out of the church altogether. Maybe the only way to do that is to lock some of us in a (figurative) room long enough, until the war stops, and we rediscover our shared heart for the good news.
In real life, that can probably happen with some combination of theological conversation, shared experience – and unceasing prayer. I can picture a domestic version of “Volunteers in Mission” that helps rural and urban, eastern and western, northern and southern, social-gospel and evangelical, discover some of each other’s true devotion and service.
On a broader canvas, I look forward to hearing more, more directly, about what is happening in parishes across the country, both in church and out of it. The “Amazing Grace” project and this one are just the beginning. New technology really is giving people a voice, but there are still voices going unheard and unsought. We can change that. When we actually know what God is doing through our neighbours in the rest of the church, we can start learning to respect and celebrate it.
But there is also a role for national voices who can piece together what local churches are saying, and shape it into a form that can be offered back to the church as a way of capturing our shared vision. We need that, in part, so that we can actually operate as a national church, having something to say and something to offer to our country and to the world. But we also need to re-express our Canadian Anglican identity in a way that gives courage and confidence back to local churches – so that each of us knows it matters to the rest of us, that our particular church is where it is, doing God’s work in our own setting.
Over the next 10 years, I hope someone or some group will puzzle out that picture. Maybe it will turn into a new kind of mission statement – one that includes the realities of what God is actually doing in our midst, along with our sense of what we might be missing. Maybe it will be a story about Christ crucifed and risen, a story that is reflected in the many stories of the Anglican church across Canada. But we need some way of recognizing in ourselves, as a whole church in so many different expressions, the desire to “know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the sharing of his sufferings.”
Iain L.
St James’ Cathedral
Peace River AB
