What follows are the leader’s notes from a Worship/Workshop presentation by Rev. Shannon Mang, September 28, at both Osoyoos and Oliver United Church congregations.
Psalm 121
I lift up
my eyes to the hills-- from where will my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and
forevermore.
Psalm 121 is a Song of Ascents, meaning that it was a song
that was sung by pilgrims as they travelled to the Temple in Jerusalem for
festivals. I wanted this psalm to be in our head and hearts as we look back at
the patterns of Christian history, and United Church history and look ahead
just 10 years as the United Church. The pilgrims sang this song as an assurance
that they were being protected as they journeyed to the Temple for the great
religious celebrations, and then returned home afterward.
A RUMMAGE SALE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS
Last week I gave you a “heads up” that we would be looking
at the premise of Phyllis Tickle’s book called the Great Emergence. Phyllis was
a historian who saw, and wrote about a significant pattern. As summarized by Anglican Biship, Rt. Rev.
Mark Dyer, “Every 500 Years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant Rummage
Sale… we are living through one of those 500-year sales”
In Phyllis Tickle’s work, Christianity has gone through 3 of
these every 500-year cycles… and we are in our 4th great upheaval. The
upheaval has three predictable results once the dust settles:
- 1. A
new and more vital form of Christianity emerges
- 2.
Organized Christianity comes out with two new creatures– a fresh
expression of Christianity and a refurbishment of the former creature
- 3.
The new expressions of Christianity spread dramatically in new geographic
and demographic areas it has never been before
Christianity’s
last rummage sale resulted in the Protestant reformation. Reformers had
struggled to bring reforms to the church for at least 2 centuries- there was a
coming together of political powers with the reformers in the church.
Luther was at the right place at the right time- the brand
new technology of the printing press changed everything
- Luther’s-
and all of the other Reformer’s movements– Wycliff, Müntzer, Zwingli,
Knox, Calvin all brought the sweeping change of literacy to Europe
teaching everyone across class lines, both men and women to read for
themselves
- The
Roman Catholic Church had to address the corruption in itself– the Counter
Reformation
- There
was untold political and religious chaos for decades as all the
Reformation movements took hold- Calvinism, the Anabaptists, Anglicanism
all brought freedoms… and warfare.
It paved
the way for exploration and trade… and colonialism
·
the Protestant Reformation created the
conditions for the industrial revolution,
·
And the double mandate of colonialism– to spread
Christianity and to exploit the riches of the world…
·
and the trans Atlantic slave trade from the 15th
to the 19th Century… The good that comes from the Rummage Sale
plants the seeds of what ends up corrupt and needing another massive Rummage
Sale 500 years later
DEEP – BOLD – DARING: TOWARD 2035
In mid May of this year, all United Church congregations and
ministry staff received an Open Letter from our Executive Secretary, Michael
Blair called Toward 2035. This was just prior to the Centennial celebrations of
the UCC. The letter was an invitation to begin a conversation about what our United
Church of Canada might look like in 10 years…
I am going to share parts of the Towards 2035 presentation
from the General Council meeting in August 7-11, 2025, in Calgary. The Towards
2035 project takes seriously what Phyllis Tickle was writing about, and this
project is the United Church’s commitment to live faithfully in this chaotic
time. Trina Duncan, Regional Council
Executive Minister for Pacific Mountain and Chinook Winds Regions, and Cameron
Fraser, Director of Growth and Ministry Development led this information
session in Calgary…
Introduction:
Toward 2035 is a denomination-wide strategy. Inspired by our
call, this strategy needs to be rooted in truth - both decline and growth - and
address the likely trajectories, toward a better future. The United Church continues to be called to
faithfully witness to the God of abundant love, the Christ risen among us, and
the lively Spirit who works in us and others.
We are invited to embody this witness first and foremost in the lives of
faithful disciples gathered in communities across Canada, in small rural localities,
towns, suburbs, and the breadth of Canada's cities.
The Changing Religious Context of Canada from 1991 to 2021:
In 1991, most Canadians identified as Christians, and half
were Catholic, with the next largest group --very close to ¼ were made up of
mainline Christians: United; Anglican; Lutheran; Presbyterian. 7% were “other
Christians” and 4% were other
faiths. In 1991 a new category, those
who identified as “No Religion”, made up 13%. In 1991, it was normative to be
associated with a Christian church.
In 2021, thirty years later:
Catholics went from 49% of respondents to 33%, The United
Church went from 12% to 4%. The other Faiths category went in the opposite
direction– it grew from 4% to 13% but the area that grew the most is that “No Religion” category – it went from 13% in
1991 to 39% in 2021. In 2021, slightly more than ½ of the population still
identified as people of faith, but Christianity in Canada has gone through a
contraction in the past 3 decades.
Another way of looking at the same data from the last two
slides, is that the Catholic line and United Church numbers are both in decline
at approximately the same rate, the “Other Faiths” category has gone up at
about the same rate as the Catholic and United Church lines went down… but that “No Religion” line grew exponentially.
My immediate family is reflected in the data of this 30 year
period- there were 4 children in my birth family and 2 of us siblings continued
to have a relationship with church in our adult years and 2 of my siblings did
not. In the next generation of children and cousins, not one of them is
involved with church– including my own offspring. Are your children and
grandchildren reflected in that red line too?
Congregational Participation in The United Church of Canada
The next section of Treena and Cam’s presentation showed
data from within the United Church of Canada, comparing membership, Sunday
Attendance, participation in Sunday School and the total number of pastoral
charges from 1992, 2023 and a projection to 2035 just using straight
mathematics and a straight line projection.
Total Membership
1992: 767,055 > 2023: 321,054 > 2035 projection:
111,000
Average Sunday Worship Attendance
1992: 324,222 > 2023: 110,877 > 2035 projection: 8,174
One thing that jumped out for me
in this set of figures is why were there only 324,222 people showing up for
church in 1992 when the membership of
767,055… in 1992 more than 50% of the membership of the UCC was staying home on
Sunday mornings(442,833 were missing)
(In 2023—> 321,054
members-110,877 attendees= 210,177 –missing
In 2035 à 111,000 members- 8174
attendees = 102,826 -missing??)
The fact that more than half of
our members weren’t going to church shows us that we were having an issue of
relevance for some time.
Participants in Sunday School
1992: 185,033 > 2023: 18,048 > 2035 projection: 2,554
This slide shows us what most of
us who have been in the church for the past 3 decades have experienced directly. The overall national
birthrate has been in steep decline, and those Canadians who are having
children are simply not including church in their lives.
Sunday Schools and youth and
young adult groups were an expected part of church life, but I now see any
programming for children or youth is the exception, not the rule.
Total number of Pastoral Charges
1992: 2,423 > 2023: 1,976 > 2035: 1,633
The message of these numbers is a
bit confusing after seeing the previous numbers.
If there are 8,174 people showing
up for worship in 2035, across 1,633 pastoral charges, that shows that
mathematically, we can expect about 5 people coming to worship in each Pastoral
Charge--- which is goofy. Trina called this the thinning down, or a hollowing
out of congregations, which is very prevalent now--- while there are fewer
people in worship, congregations are proving to be much more resilient than we
expected ten years ago in 2025.
Treena did say that we are, in
fact only 2 years away from a national pivot point in the United Church where
there will be cascading closures of congregations leaving large areas of Canada
where there will be no UC presence.
2022 and 2025 public research results indicate that 60% of
Canadians express a felt sense of stress or concern for mental well-being,
wondering about living to life's fullest potential, lacking meaningful
relationships. 49% express a belief in God or a higher power and 45% of these
engage in a practice of prayer.
In our current context, these 60%
of Canadians DO NOT see the church as a place where they could have their needs
met--- or they do not yet see the value of living out their belief in God or a
higher power, or coming together to pray AT A CHURCH…
That is the hard news – the reality of us living through the
current Rummage Sale of Epic Proportions…
And now some good news--- our story has not ONLY been about
decline… let’s look at actual growth. In 2023, out of a total of 1976 Pastoral
Charges, 205 reported an increase in membership; 604 reported an increase in
worship attendance; 189 adults (12 years or older) were baptized; 316 people
were welcomed by profession of faith. In total, in 2023 around 1500 people
joined a United Church.
And there are Emerging Communities of Faith: 11 new
communities of faith were funded within Pacific Mountain Region; 30 emerging
migrant communities of faith supported by the General Council; other newly
emerging communities are initiated by local congregations.
When taken as a whole, the following PREFERRED FUTURE FOR
THE CHURCH IN 2035 has been stated for our denomination:
·
Resilient, inspired, diverse United Church
communities of disciples, coast to coast to coast, urban and rural continue the
story of Jesus, by embodying Christ's presence in our time and place.
·
In the broadest of terms, and in diverse
expressions across the country, inspired communities embody all aspects of the
denominational Call - Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, Daring Justice.
·
The United Church as a whole, more closely
reflects the racial and ethnic diversity of Canada, with Indigenous and
Francophone presence, and includes the presence of all generations, notably
children, youth, and young adults.
Like the pilgrims of old who sang Psalm 121 as they
travelling to Jerusalem, we have been travelling through these last 3 decades
and have witnessed huge changes in our communities and our congregations. We
can be assured that God has travelled with us, and has been our protection. Our
lived experience of the Christian church in North America going through a
massive Rummage Sale, and changing dramatically has meant that those of us
still gathering on a Sunday morning, have become a rare, but deeply resilient
group.
(In twos and threes, attendees at the September 28 service
were then invited to engage in conversation, with these questions: What do you
take from what you’ve seen and heard today? Where do you see God at Work doing something
new in our communities of Osoyoos and Oliver?)
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