Musical Prelude and Service.

Ephesians 1:15–19, 3:16-21 & John 17:1, 2, 6, 7-23
What would the people who gathered 100 years ago to celebrate the forming of the United Church
of Canada think if they had a glimpse of this church now?
The United Church of Canada came into being on June 10, 1925, with a huge worship service at the Memorial Street Arena in Toronto. Filled with people and officials from the Presbyterian Church of Canada, the Methodists Church and the Congregational Church as well as people from the Union Church Network from Western Canada, representative of those four groups processed to the front. A liturgy was worked through solemnizing the union of these denominations and the new church came into being. Why did this happen?
As with anything there were several motivating factors. The various churches in Canada had been discussing some sort of union for a few decades. Most congregations of the Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists were struggling to stay viable in their communities. A number of commentators had already expressed frustrations with having two half-filled churches operating next door to one another. It didn’t make sense.
So, prior to World War I, talks had already progressed on some form of union. They had even agreed on a framework for a constitution uniting the denominations. It was that framework that the Uniting Churches utilized in amalgamating a number of congregations in Western Canada. My home church in Dryden was among those uniting churches bringing together the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in that town.
But the First World War put all of that on hold. And then things stalled, or people lost their motivation in the years after the war. Well, some did. As I noted, several communities in the prairie provinces and northern Ontario moved forward with their plans, but in most of Canada the movement stalled.
Until they started talking again.
But, beyond the practicality of merging denominations there was another vision – The creation of a national Protestant Church. It was the vision of arresting the seeming steady fracturing of denominations, the growing number of protestant religious expressions. To return to the idea of being One in Christ. This was the vision that drove much of the work by the leaders of these churches, to create a Canadian Protestant church. That was a vision that was never realised.
Other denominations just never responded. In 1968, the United Evangelical Brethren joined. And a union with the Anglican Church was very close but failed to emerge in the end. It was with that scuttled arrangement that the vision of a national Protestant church officially died.
I offer this version of the history of our United Church for a reason. As a vision for a church, I’m not sure that being the Protestant church in our country was the most realistic or advisable. It’s not something I take pride in that’s for certain. Much of the anti-Catholic writing you can find from that era is cringe worthy. But for all of that, I am grateful for the work and the drive of so many people who brought the United Church into being.
Whether it was intentional or ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit, they created a church that was open to the spirit in ways that moved the church in remarkable directions. And for that I am truly grateful.
The first woman ordained in Canada in 1936 was Lydia Gruchy. Ordaining married women in the 1960s. Elinor Leard was the first married woman ordained, in 1957. In fact, a policy of disjoining forced most women to give up their paid ministry positions upon marriage prior to this.
“I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Paul’s letter to the Ephesians)
The spirit can often lead us in unexpected ways and to unanticipated destinations. I am certain that is the case with the United Church of Canada. The evolution of this United Church from its starting point in 1925 and its component parts in the years prior to that, would at best I think befuddle those who originally celebrated its union.
In 1974, the church elected Rev. Wilbur K. Howard, its first black moderator. In the 1980s, we elected our fist woman moderator, Lois Wilson. We elected our first indigenous moderator Stan McKay in 1992.
In 1986, the church issued its first apology to the indigenous church. Not specifically for its complicity in the Residential School system, but for the racism and white supremacy that was at the root of so much exploitation and pain over the centuries.
In 1988, the United Church opened the door for the ordination of gay and lesbian ministers when it stated clearly that any member of the United Church, regardless of sexuality was eligible for ordination. It took another three years for an openly gay man to be ordained; Tim Stevenson.
That same year, General Council also elected its first moderator of Asian heritage, Rev. Sang Chul Lee. It also inaugurated the All Native Circle Conference, a significant step in addressing the myriad of concerns of the church’s indigenous members.
1988 was a significant year in the history of our church.
None of these events happened without controversy or tension. In every case and in so many other decisions that have come our way in the last four decades, there was opposition and frequently criticism from outside the church.
“I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” (Ephesians 3)
In seminary we studied the history of the United Church of Canada, its roots and the various bumps and turns this denomination has experienced over the years. My professor once made the point that with the failure to join with the Anglican Church of Canada, our national imaginary – that story we tell ourselves of why we are here, came to an end. But it has yet to be replaced with a new one.
He argued that is one of the challenges our national church struggles with now.
What is the story we can share about our vision for the church?
In 1998, the United Church of Canada officially apologized for its part in the Residential School system and continues to reiterate that apology and our efforts to live it out in our work and our lives to this day.
In 2003, General Council voted to endorse same-sex marriage.
In 2016, the church elected its first openly gay Moderator, Rev. Gary Patterson; incidentally the husband of Rev. Tim Stevenson.
I would also be remiss not to mention the Iridesce project. This was initiated in 2017.
At General Council 42, the church voted to have a national project of story-sharing and dialogue with people affected by the Church’s 1988 decision. These stories would then help the church to discern if, and how, it might live into an apology to the church’s LGBTQ and Two-Spirit people.
Its work is ongoing.
Do we need a new imaginary? Or is that our imaginary is now constantly shifting as we as a church continue to follow the Holy Spirit which is always on the move, guiding us to new adventures and new views of this world of which we are a part?
Could it be we as a church are always finding new places and new circumstances; new people in need of our love and our care? Could it be we as a church are confronted by a world that is growing both closer together and further apart at the same time, and we struggle to find our way to be a loving presence in this world in a way that genuinely communicates what can be heard outside our doors?
Could the people who gathered at an arena in Toronto 100 years ago, ever have imagined what would happen to this church they willed into being? That it would never fulfill their vison of one unified protestant church for all of Canada, but that it would be a church that renounced much of its actions of the past century? That it transformed into a church that rethought much of its theology and practise and flung open its doors to many who had unconsciously and intentionally been excluded in the past?
I would argue that the United Church is now a community of faith that frets about its future while struggling with its place in the present, but also being open to the work of the Holy Spirit and Christ’s call to love one another. That takes seriously Jesus’s prayer to be one in Christ, even while celebrating our diversity. And all the time, finding the courage and the peace to be moved by God’s spirit to live out the love and the justice and the mercy we are called to make a part of who we are.
I obviously can’t say what figures such as Samuel Chown or George Pigeon would say if they saw the United Church today. But I hope they would recognize that it is a church that takes seriously Christ’s prayer to be one with God and in God, and to trust in and be strengthened by the Spirit as we are inspired to carry God’s love to the world.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789