I truly am in a bit of a state of shock this week. I don’t expect it to ease much at all over the next little while.
As some of you may know, the United Church of Canada had it’s triennial General Council meetings this summer. Overall, when I looked at the agenda beforehand, there didn’t seem to be a lot of controversy going in compared to previous General Councils.
The big news coming out was that they voted to support economic sanctions against perceived illegal Israeli settlements in disputed lands with Palestine. People weighed in heavily on both sides of the issue from all across the spectrum.
The decision has not landed well with people.
Also, the church is facing severe financial crisis at it’s national office level and spoke out against the Northern Gateway Pipeline. These also have caused ripples in smaller ways.
As I look around, the only way I can describe the state of the church right now is that it’s “broken”.
In communications with my peers across the country, I hear stories of heartbreak and pain. Both in themselves and in their congregations as people assess the future of the church, the decisions it has made just weeks ago, and their futures within it.
Over the years I’ve felt extremely broken in my relationship with the church, more than once, even this year. But I’ve never seen so many broken at the same time as I do right now. Now I wasn’t around in church in the late 80s, nor terribly involved 10 years ago when other extremely controversial decisions were made.
But I am shocked by the amount of pain and brokeness being expressed in the church today. Absolutely shocked.
Emails, Facebook comments, conversations, people are seriously questioning their future in the UCC, both clergy and members. I didn’t see it coming at all. I thought this was going to be a fairly tame General Council.
I was wrong.
This I find rather ironic as, after praying about it, I made a conscious decision this summer to attempt to be more positive in my “Words to the Church” than I had been over the last year, and trying to lift up the church instead of beating on it. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of beating being done from both inside and outside the church.
My prayers are with the my friends and all people who are connected to the United Church of Canada. May the Father of us all guide us into healing and strength, and may He heal our broken hearts.
As someone on the fringe of the UCC, this past General Council has helped push me further away.
I’m sure the settlements are illegal according to international agreements, not ‘perceived’ as illegal. I’m also not convinced that all that many people are ‘shocked’ by the United Church of Canada, whether they are part of the church or looking on from the outside. Those attending the General Council report a positive time and good progress on many spiritual fronts. I will concede that if challenge and change are distrubing to folks, some people are are going to be shocked.
I’m not saying they are “shocked” by the United Church of Canada, but are in a state of what I call “shock”. In that they are unsure of what is happening, where they are, and if their purpose within the church has any meaning. It’s not the change, in fact many want change that I am talking to, but there is a deep sense of pain and hurt in our church RIGHT NOW, and I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.
Revnick, your opinion is shared by many in the UCC across Canada. Thank you for posting your honest comments. And also thank you for using the word ‘perceived’. International law (as applied) is often inconsistent at best, and hypocritical at worst. Russia occupied the eastern 25% of Poland after WW2, annexed it, and precipitated a refugee crisis of 10 million people. Few talk about that. China invaded Tibet, killed hundreds of thousands, sent in ethnic Chinese to colonize it, and yet there is not much notice. Not within the UCC anyway. We pontificate against Israel from the United States and Canada, all the while from the comfort of our land that was stolen from the First Nations without their consent. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. From 1948-1967 when Jordan ‘illegally’ occupied the West Bank, it was the base of PLO terror against Israel. In 1967 Jordan attacked Israel, not the other way around. 6,000 shells landed in Tel Aviv in the initial Jordani attack. Israeli troops pushed them back across the Jordan river, and Israel has held the land since. Territory won in a defensive war has in the past been deemed to accrue to the victor, based on the precident of international law, as consistently applied. There are plenty of 20th century examples in Europe. Internation law often gets ‘interpreted’ based on the convenience of those in interpreting it.