Last Wednesday marked the 95
th Anniversary of our United Church of Canada. We are the largest Protestant denomination in Canada, ministering to over 2 million people in about 3,000 congregations.
The United Church was inaugurated on June 10, 1925 in Toronto, Ontario, when the Methodist Church, Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada, and 70 per cent of the Presbyterian Church of Canada entered into a union. Also joining was the small General Council of Union Churches, centred largely in Western Canada. It was the first union of churches in the world to cross historical denominational lines and received international attention. The movement for church union began with the desire to coordinate ministry in the vast Canadian northwest and for collaboration in overseas missions. Congregations in Indigenous communities from each of the original denominations were an important factor in the effort toward church union.
We aren’t a perfect church – no such thing exists. Racism, sexism, homophobia and intolerance have been part of our history and, sadly, still happen today. We have apologized for some of our actions, but we can still do much better.
I wonder what our founders would have made of the world that we face today. I cannot imagine what they would have made of going to church while sitting home in front of our electronic screens. I don’t know what they would have said about the racial tensions exploding across North America; possibly things that would make us cringe today.
And yet I believe that they created this church as a place that would nurture coming generations in a courageous faith, a compassionate faith, to share in our times, the good news that the Kingdom of Heaven is near!
Rev Kathi
