Keith Howard's VST Convocation address
Christ Church Cathedral May 11, 2009

I would like to begin by saying thank you to the Chancellor, members of the Board of governors, Principal Fletcher, members of the Faculty, members of the Graduating Class, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity and for this honour. I am grateful, although I do feel that it belongs equally to my teammates on the Emerging Spirit project – Lesley Harrison, Aaron McCarroll Gallegos, Shirley Welch and Sharon Buttrey. (Emerging Spirit is a project of the national United Church mandated to reach out to those between the ages of 30 and 45 through advertising, the so-called new media and to encourage congregations to respond with radical hospitality.)

The Scripture passages read this evening speak of dreams and visions. Dreams and vision power hope; although, for others, those same images can be a nightmare. Dreams can be wonderful. They pull us out of the spiritual quicksand of our certitude. They dare us to wonder what might be and to ask Why not?

Dreams may also reveal our deepest longings.

We live in a time of deep longing; so our dreams should be rich and bold.

Never before have so many aspects of life been shaken and reformed with such speed. And in the midst of all, a great search for genuine community in which to engage the deep spiritual, theological, and ethical questions that surround us.

In the research which undergirds Emerging Spirit, we asked people between the ages of 30 and 45 their feelings about God, the church and spirituality. God polls very well; organized religion extremely poorly. Jesus would feel quite comfortable with such results, and not only because he is part of the demographic.

For those outside the church we are, at best, a secondary source for faith.

God is not the problem. We are the problem.

In the United Church of Canada, we are where we are because of the choices we have made. (And for those of you from other traditions, I urge you at this point to don your blue masks for it may be that sin has not yet spread beyond our boundaries; so my apologies to you.) We are not victims of post modernity or any other “ism”. The outcomes of life, personal and organizational, are the result of event plus response. We have chosen our responses. And the weakening virus comes not from theological and moral preference or matters of justice; it is our choice to baptize our taste as tradition, to idolize representation by every conceivable constituency and to tolerate processes that smother innovation.

We pretend we are open to change, and in some ways that is true; in others it is blatantly false. We accommodate outrageous beliefs and values but dare to question habit, structure and process? A postmodern deconstructionist attitude toward truth – fine; alter the soundtrack of worship, or move a pew - that may require a commission. Our processes for admission, ordination and commissioning have become a gauntlet. Many congregations find themselves in the ridiculous place of not being able to hire someone to perform a specific task for 8 hours/week without a year of discernment and a battery of interviews. We pretend we are concerned for just practices but mostly we are just afraid. And many of our brightest and best leaders self-define as “on the edge of the church” and wonder how long they can hang in before burning out or suffocating.

And all of this during a time of immense longing for new life and hope within the church. Over these past years I have talked with literally thousands of people from congregations and, if nothing else, I have been impressed by the depth of their desire to be part of a vibrant, challenging Christian community that lives in faithful interaction with this changing world. I have been moved by the depth of their ache that the church be a community in which their children, grandchildren and friends may find a place and in which the roots of their faith might sink deep into nurturing soil.

Dreams, visions, nightmares.

My personal opinion is that within 5-7 years only one out of three United Church congregations will be recognizable to its current form.

AND there will also be new gatherings of people seeking to live lives as authentic Christians - uncircumcised Gentiles in Jerusalem, Caesarea, White Rock, Coquitlam, Lumby.

The difference is they will not be franchised by us, nor will they feel the need. The technology and will now exist to allow groups, whoever and wherever, to gather in places of their choosing according to their schedule.

I was speaking in Nelson last weekend and a woman approached. “I love WonderCafe,” (a website set up to promote conversation) she said. “I was going to Ottawa on business. I put up a thread asking if any WonderCafe patrons would like to meet-up. We gathered in a pub and had a blast, which, in the canonical version translates as „We shared a wonderful time of spiritual insight and mutual support grounded in narrative.”

This search and link dimension of the new reality has profound implications for the church.

Property will no longer be the defining marker of a congregation. Any money that changes hands will be for a different purpose; most leaders probably will not be paid.

In this networked world clergy are not the gatekeepers. Relationships and roles are valid only to the extent that conversations and lives ring with authenticity and integrity.

Dreams, visions, nightmares.

I think it was in Calgary that a woman, probably in her late sixties, approached and said, “I just have one question and was wondering if you had a comment?”

“Do you think God has moved on from the church?”

I used to get in quite a funk about this possibility until I realized that this would not be foreign to our experience of God.

God always seems to be calling the people “out” from that which we pretend gives us security or valid reason to be loved or counted worthy. To those closest to him Jesus continually seems to say “Follow me” implying, at least, that he will be going on ahead. Perhaps it should come as no surprise to us now, immersed in this extremely exciting time, that God may be out ahead, on the loose once again, creating new and re-newed forms of community.

God is speaking – may we attend to those dreams, visions and longings.