Considering a Complexity
Comments. Considerations. Questions.
by Kenneth Bagnell
Every sizeable and sensible organization, from service clubs to volunteer causes to the professions –law, medicine, education – has a process in which it can, in one way or another, exercise disciplinary action. That includes the Christian Church. The Anglicans and Catholics have what’s known as the Episcopal system where the Bishops, along with general oversight, deal with varying forms of clergy misconduct. In most major Protestant denominations, United and Presbyterian for instance, serious misconduct is dealt with in Presbytery, whose decision making process is usually described as “conciliar.” (If presbytery wishes, it can call upon counsel of external church leaders.) Right now, the United Church has a complex matter on its hands, one that a lot of people wish would just fade away.
Most of you have read in the papers of the life and career of a provocative minister named Rev. Gretta Vosper. In and of itself there’s nothing wrong with being provocative. But in this case there are many ramifications. For it all depends on the cause of the provocation. Rev. Ms. Vosper now has a national reputation for a very simple reason: she’s a minister whose website includes this descriptive word: atheist. I know, I know. It means this or that to some of you. It’s complex I know I know. But to the public at large you know, as well as I, that it means “unbeliever.” So the guy on the bus says to his buddy: ”What in God’s name is going on in the United Church? They’ll take anybody who wants to be a minister, even atheists. Can you believe it? “
Well, the Reverend Ms. Vosper has at last been tapped on the shoulder. She’s been advised she’ll be appearing before the church court. It may take a while because it has to go through this office and that administration and so on. Anyway, I keep my opinions private for now. But I want you to read the opinion of three theologically sophisticated United Church senior ministers. One is Dr. Peter Wyatt, whose credentials including being the former Principal of the United Church Seminary, Emmanuel College on the campus of the University of Toronto. (He’s also Editor of one of Canada’s most sophisticated theological journals, Touchstone.)
Dr. Wyatt first mentions that the United Church, democratic as it is, also has the right, indeed obligation to set boundaries: “No one is telling Gretta Vosper what she can or can’t do as an individual. But what she can teach as a United Church minister is not her decision only. The United Church has official statements of doctrine authorized by General Councils and indeed by presbyteries and pastoral charges. In order to become an ordained minister one must be in essential agreement with these statements. Denying the reality of God as One capable of receiving prayer and praise and of responding to them, would be to flout United Church teaching – and one’s ordination vows.” He further mentioned that congregants may be helped in strengthening faith through routes other than a-theism: “Questions of atheism, post-theism and contemporary atheism are being discussed not only in the academe but also in congregations other than those flying the ‘progressive’ banner. Frequently it is in pastoral issues arising from the experience of suffering that give rise to questions about the nature of God, divine providence and prayer…Every church sets boundaries in its statements of doctrine; might it be time for the United Church actually to stand up for what it says it believes?”.
Another respected scholar, Alan Davies, with a doctorate from both McGill and a highly respected university in New York leading to decades of teaching the faiths of various religions at U of T — recalls a telling memory: “Many years ago in New York I met an ex-Baptist minister who became an ardent member of the Ethical Cultural Society. He was an ex-Christian who wanted to retain the ethics but not the theology of the church. Vosper reminds me of him. The problem however is that the ethics are founded on the beliefs. And without the latter they eventually become thin and shallow. When Vosper speaks of love does she mean agape? Surely not, for New Testament agape is derived from the theistic belief that ‘God so loved the world…’ and Vosper has ruled that peculiar belief out. She believes in humanism and humanistic ethics which rest on reason, but reason has many variants, especially when applied to difficult problems… Faith, in its Jewish- Christian sense is dialectical, because it involves questioning and debate: I believe, help thou my unbelief. It is therefore more profound…”
My final friend, like the others, has an earned doctorate from major universities in Canada and the United States. (At his request my friend, for professional reason, is here anonymous.) He is distressed at what he calls “the rigidity of her position. In a strange way she is almost a fundamentalist. In her insistence that there is no God. Most of us, I suspect live with a fair amount of uncertainty when it comes to ultimate things. Some days I can really embrace the term agnostic… Other days, for whatever reason, I have a strong sense of something beyond and beneath me, something that defies neat description and something that cannot be controlled by human action or thought… On those days I am a person of ‘faith’ – which in the Greek means trust more than belief. Or as John’s gospel would put it: ‘blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’ I am a person of faith. Which in the Greek as you know means ‘trust’ more than ‘belief…’ Or as John’s gospel puts it ‘blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe’…”
At the end of our exchange he said something I can at least sympathize with, if I pondered it for a time as he has. It’s this: “I have distress at the thought of the United Church having any kind of heresy trial, or the equivalent. Out strength has always been our diversity and our inclusivity. Besides, I’m not sure how many of us could swear allegiance to those ordination vows any more. It would depend on the day. What I would look for as a ‘bottom line’ is a willingness and openness to struggle with the deep questions of life and faith recognizing that most of us swing between doubt and faith from day to day. I still pray that Gretta may find it in her heart to embrace ‘mystery’ with the same enthusiasm as she currently embraces ‘atheism.’” I was thanking him for his time and we paused as he added what, in the big picture, I also add: “Hope this helps.”
All past blogs are archived on my website: your comments are welcome there: www.kennethbagnell.com.