Why I Left the United Church of Canada, by Rev. James Love

Why I Left the United Church of Canada, by Rev. James Love

While doctrinally the UCC Articles of Faith express a faithful Christian doctrine, in practice the ethos and general practice of the United Church of Canada has allowed for a substantively different doctrinal expression to become dominant. The unity which gave rise to the United Church of Canada in the early 1900's has essentially been squandered by leaders in the denomination who would seek doctrines which run contrary to the Articles of Faith and the Bible itself. The worst examples include the substitution of an inclusive gospel for a redemptive one, denying the particularity of Christ's atonement in favour of a quasi-Hindu belief that all religions lead to God, and abandoning trust in the Scriptures as our central authority in favour of personal experience and autonomy being the determining factor in our congregational and theological lives. Due to this unfaithfulness to our mission of unity through theological essentials and faithfulness to the witness of Scriptures, I could not in good conscience retain the title of United Church clergy. While those who would promote an inclusive Gospel rather than redemptive one say I am welcome, in good conscience I can not do so. It is like remaining in an unfaithful marriage, where the unfaithful partner says, "Don't leave, you can refrain from adultery and be who you are! But I'll keep on with my adultry." Having encountered clergy who deny the divinity of Jesus, deny Jesus existed, deny the redemption of the cross, teach that there is no personal resurrection/afterlife, and deny the centrality of the Bible for the life of the church, amongst a host of other errors, to have stayed would be to lend legitimacy to these errors. With no sign of any motivation for church discipline for these errors, staying would continue to legitimize these unofficial but operative theologies which run contrary to essential agreement to the Basis of Union and are sometimes outright heretical.

I also feel compelled to state that while I initially cautiously affirmed that persons with homosexual desires could find expression for their sexuality in covenanted relationships, such a position was taken in the hopes that perhaps the Holy Spirit was doing a new thing. In retrospect and in reading Stanley Grenz's "Welcoming but Not Affirming" I have concluded that I was wrong. While some who hold an affirming position encourage me to "stay in dialogue", it is clear by the actions of the majority of the United Church leadership that such calls for dialogue are disingenuous. The General Council vote on affirming "homosexuality as a gift from God" was a clear example of the dominant ethos of the United Church being unwilling to hear concerns from with in the United Church of Canada as well as from the wider church. Indeed, I consider the vote to be the ecclesiological equivalent of "flipping the bird" at the wider church. The denomination has effectively elevated eros love over agape love and in time will see a harvest of pain and suffering in Canadian society.

The United Church of Canada has run contrary to the wider church's wisdom through its effective support for women's access to abortion. This has contributed to the deaths of two million pre-born people in the last 16 years. I mark this period since it is the time in which my wife and I have tried to conceive or adopt children. While we were successful in adopting a child in 2003, I believe that the denomination's support for access to abortion in Canada ended the lives of many children who would be joyfully alive today and living in many good Christian homes. While the most important issue is the lives of the pre-born human beings who were killed, I personally understand the suffering caused to infertile couples due to the United Church of Canada's active support of abortion access. Concretely, had there not been free access to abortion in Canada, my wife and I would now be parenting a number of children. The United Church of Canada, in its folly, has chosen to value women's autonomy over the value of children's lives and the hundred of thousands of infertile couples who would find purpose in being a family with them. They had effectively supported infanticide. While I understand the tough issues facing women who have an unwanted pregnancy, these terrible situations do not warrant the disregard for the lives of these pre-born human beings. The United Church of Canada, by supporting abortion access, misdirect women who may have chose to adopt their children to childless couples. The UCC denies birth mothers the better choice of staying in relationship with their children through open adoption, rather than killing these children. I believe that future humanity will harshly judge the United Church of Canada as barbaric in its disregard for basic human life, lack of social justice for the pre-born and generally denying the dignity of human relationships.

I believed and still believe in the motto of the United Church: that "all may be one". I believe that the United Church of Canada, since the 1960's and most especially in the 1980's, abandoned its founding purpose of nurturing unity amongst Christian Protestants and the wider Church. In keeping with the thinking behind the Anglican Church's "Windsor Report", I believe that the United Church of Canada has also walked away from the wider church and is no longer faithfully a Christian church. During the last four decades, the leadership of the United Church of Canada took one of liberalism's virtues, a spirit of criticism, and elevated it above all other considerations, even faith itself. An ethos of hyper-criticism of tradition and scriptures gave rise to teaching which abandoned the building up of people's faith and confidence in Jesus Christ. This has led to a self-absorbed denomination devoid of an enthusiastic laity. While many lauded teachings from sources like the Jesus Seminar and Marcus Borg, this hyper-liberalism effectively overshadowed more faithful conclusions from a broader range of current ecumenical scholars ex. Tom Wright. Indeed, in many churches, a breadth of theological teaching from the center of the Church has all but been abandoned for a narrow sectarian hyper-critical stance. Such theologies, combined with affirming sexual intercourse outside of heterosexual marriage, have led to an abandonment of the United Church's mission to be a force for unity. While some will declare this change was worthwhile, it has essentially gutted the founding purpose of the United Church of Canada and is a reflection of the underlying and massive doctrinal drift of the denomination. As a basically Methodist clergyperson, I can no longer in good conscience consider the dominant ethos and general practice of United Church of Canada to be in essential agreement with the Basis of Union and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hereby, with sadness, that in on Dec. 31 2006, I renounced the United Church of Canada in favour of remaining in communion with Christ's wider church. With regrets, it is my hope that Christ will embolden leaders who will challenge the denomination to return to communion with the wider Church. I, however, see little sign of repentance throughout the majority of the denomination and would thereby primarily encourage those who would seek to remain faithful to the wider church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to join my exodus from this unfaithful denomination and its captivity to the spirit of the age. I encourage the faithful to go peaceably but not quietly. It is an act of love to speak the truth regarding the unfaithfulness of the United Church of Canada to its mission of unity and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While I and others will certainly miss many of the people and aspects of the United Church that were pleasing to us, perhaps in leaving we will bring some of the remaining best of the United Church to the other faithful denominations to which Christ will surely lead us.