ISSN 1499-111X PLEASE NOTE Material published in The Gathering Newsletter is the property of its authors, who are members of The Gathering. If you wish to download the material from any issue, it is polite to ask our permission first. Editor: Ray Hobbs
The Friday sessions consisted of an informal meeting in the afternoon, and an evening session on using the Bible today. Saturday consisted of formal Bible studies - but with a difference from the norm. With her characteristic thoroughness and analysis, Professor Trible did a ‘close reading' of the traditions concerning Miriam, and then the stories of Elijah and Jezebel. The reading was fascinating and challenging, and demonstrated that indeed, ‘The Lord has yet more light and truth to show forth from God's word.' Over one hundred folk registered for the meetings. As usual, the fellowship was deep, the fare was rich, and the spirit of the meetings exciting. In this issue Robert Campbell, of Ottawa, reports on a decision made by the Baptists of Ontario and Quebec for Peace and Justice to ‘merge' with the Gathering. For them this seemed the right decision. Many of the members of each group are the same folk, and our concerns for a Gospel of Justice and Liberation mesh. In response to the growing awareness of the presence of same-sex couples in our congregations, and the fact that many folk in our churches are struggling with their sexual identity, a Gathering sub-committee has arranged a day of discussion on the topic of Biblical Ethics, especially as it relates to ‘homosexuality'. Barbara Bishop provides details on this. Ellen Jaaku offers some responses to Ken Jackson's ‘Jottings'. As she suggests, they might provoke further discussion. The BCOQ has
produced a ‘White Paper' on changes on governance which will generate considerable
discussion in the months ahead. Your Editor offers some commentary on the
document which, it is hoped, will give food for thought.
June 9th Seminar/Symposium/Colloquium ‘Biblical Ethics', or ‘Ethics and the Bible'? Barbara Bishop - Hamilton I have always heard it said that the growth of "fundamentalist" denominations and congregations was about the desire for simplicity and stability in a changing world. No doubt there are research instruments that would verify that thesis, though I suspect that there are more intricate causes for our globalized lean-to-the-right which has included a religious one. Perhaps, as we are beginning to understand in the matter of corporate vs democratic interests, it could also have something to do with funders and money. Perhaps it has to do with a longing for emotional affect, when we are so numbed. Perhaps it has to do with the loss of liberal arts as the crucible for leadership, since good old liberal arts ensured, at its best, a nice integration of head and heart. What do we really expect from a world which believes that "CEO's " should hold in their hands the delicate fabric of health, education, history, and faith. Test question: What was it Holden Caulfield said in response to the question of our age: "What would Jesus do? Hint: Remember Catcher in the Rye? Having said
all this, I am writing to say that I am sympathetic, as I age, to the anxieties
that shifting sands under us present. Who can make sense of that huge wall
in Quebec City, Canada, land of the "glorious and free"? Or of Jane Fonda
becoming an "active Christian" and thus causing a divorce, (so says her
ex, Ted Turner, who has never forgiven God for permitting innocent deaths.)
Or Rwandan nuns participating in the slaughter of Tutsi children? Or of
DNA for sale? But then I am inclined to agree with Thomas Cahill that history
is but a series of "stunning reversals". We can only hope that as the reversals
shake our world, some will be
Perhaps it is because of the way the world changes that we need to ask very hard questions of how we use the Bible. It is comforting for us to see God as unchanging and eternal. It is important for us to know the Good News of Jesus, which is for all people in all times. It is scary to see our scriptures as a detailed guidebook which will give us a code of unchanging personal morality, a kind of Ten Commandments + + to live by. Or else... Once it was believed that "Slaves, obey your masters" was God's command for personal conduct. "Women, submit to your husbands" is another personal favourite. Once, we did not allow divorced people to remarry. Once, we did not allow clergy to divorce at all! (Though we never worried about polygamy among the great kings of Israel, for some reason.) Once, someone came to see their minister to ask of s/he was condemned forever because s/he was in love, with someone of the same sex. Except, that "once" is still happening. A small group of us (Mimi Allan, Parish Nurse, Linda Sparks, retired Baptist chaplain, and Rev. Michael Steeves, former Executive Minister of the Canadian Baptist Federation and retired director on Ontario Chaplaincy Services, and myself, a Baptist Minister) have initiated a subcommittee to listen to people's stories, to recommend reading, and to support and encourage those who want to do good pastoral care of gays and lesbians and their families who are in our congregations. We have no official mandate, only our own concern , our own desire for love, justice, and reconciliation in people's lives and in our churches. We have heard some of our own Baptist family speak of their experiences. We have read and benefited from the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America's excellent binder, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth , with its Bible study, congregational stories, and other good things. We are reading and preparing reviews of a number of current books on the subject of sexual orientation and faith. As part of our process, we invite you to a day of enquiry and learning. On Saturday,
June 9, we are offering a Seminar/Symposium on one simple question:
Place: Woodbine
Heights Baptist Church
Please register
with me,
Recent Merger - Important News Robert Campbell - Ottawa Following lunch at the Spring Gathering at Dundas Baptist Church on Saturday, April 28th 2001, some 15 members of the Baptists of Ontario and Quebec for Peace and Justice met together under the faithful and dedicated leadership of Neil Hunter. Together we agreed to fold our concerns and resources in with the overall agenda of the Gathering for the foreseeable future. Several folk, especially the Furry family, are now deeply involved in the planning and facilitation of the life of the Gathering. Several circumstances have conspired to make this outcome appropriate. For several years now Baptists for Peace and Justice have loosely gathered annually in what might be called a regional expression in Ontario and Quebec only to discover that similar regional efforts across the U.S.A. have had limited success. It's a matter of geography. Large distances are not well accommodated by the format that we have followed. In response to the issue of distance, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America has invited congregations across America to partner together and through their office a wide variety of written resources have been made available upon request to nurture and deepen congregational response to issues of peace and justice. The very presence of Rev. Jane Esdale, the Development Director of the BPFNA at the Gathering enabled us to consider a more satisfactory relationship between the BPFNA and individual congregations. Consequently we want to encourage individuals and churches to align with others who actively seek to respond to local, national and international issues of peace and justice. Hopefully new links will be forged through the BPFNA partnering process. Also we hope that the steering committee of the Gathering will continue to include one or more persons who will represent our concern for peace and justice themes at future Gatherings. Finally as a gesture of support for both the BPFNA and the Gathering we agreed to equally distribute our remaining bank balance of $165.00 between them. In hope that others will carry our concern for issues of peace and justice, we have agreed to dismantle the organization of the BOQPJ and distribute our personal resources in favour of the Gathering's evolving programs and emphases. We trust local congregations will partner in natural groupings to share BPFNA resources to meet their needs to be faithful witnesses where injustice and oppressive attitudes prevail. We trust that you will remember our representatives Bob Patterson-Watt and Lindsay Matheson as they serve on the international level of the BPFNA and that our concerns will also be reflected in the work that has become the soul of the Gathering. We would remind you that the BPFNA Peace Camp this year will be held July 9-14 at Oberlin College in Oberlin Ohio. The theme is "Called to Wage Peace in a Warring World." In 2002 the summer peace camp will be at Acadia University, Wolfville The website of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America can be found at: http://www.bpfna.org. NETWATCH Nathan Nettleton, a Baptist pastor in Australia, has constructed a very valuable web site which concentrates on liturgical resources for Baptists. It is found at http://www.laughingbird.net. Check it out, it is a gold mine of information. Nathan is also
one of the architects of the ‘chat-group' Baptists in Worship. This can
Also on Liturgy
is the site OREMUS (Latin for ‘Let us pray'.) The hosts of this site
Update:
Dr. Mark Goodacre
of the University of Birmingham, UK, has greatly extended his
NEWS FILE McMaster Divinity College have announced the appointment of a new Principal to succeed Dr. William Brackney. The new Principal is Dr. Stanley Porter, currently Professor of New Testament at the University of Surrey, Roehampton, England. Dr. Porter was born in the United States, and received his early secondary education there. He was also awarded the Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield. Dr. Porter is a member of the Evangelical Free Church, and has served as adjunct professor at the Association of Canadian Theological Seminaries, in Western Canada. In addition to carrying out the duties of Principal, Dr. Porter will serve as Professor of New Testament. Terry Laing, Gathering member, has accepted the call to the ministry at Ontario Street Baptist Church, Stratford, Ontario. Terry begins his ministry there in mid-May. We wish him, Karen and Rebecca God’s richest blessing for the future. JOTTINGS IN RESPONSE TO SOME OF KENNETH JACKSON’S JOTTINGS Ellen Jaaku - Toronto I don’t disagree with all or not even most of what Ken wrote in the last issue of the Gathering Newsletter. I don’t even disagree with all of the points that I have chosen to comment on. However, I do have some thoughts and queries about some of his jottings, to which perhaps Ken or others can respond. Ken wrote:
Ken went on:
Easter and Pentecost are proper days for the enactment of Baptisms. Are these the only proper days? Do they have some mystical or symbolic power as opposed to any other day? Worship is not entertainment. Entertainment is done much better by other agencies and at more expense than the church can do or afford. I agree whole-heartedly with this one. On the other hand, what is considered entertainment. Some sects consider any music in church as "entertainment". Is liturgical dance and /or drama "entertainment"? More traditional services may not be as attractive to those not raised in the church. In being "contemporary" or in its use of recent technology, the church must heed Marshall Macluhan's insightful observation that the medium is the message. The church needs to ask itself about the ways in which overhead projectors and guitars shape our view of God. First of all, overhead projectors and guitars are hardly "recent technology". Secondly, I don’t remember, pipe organs and formal choirs being prominent in scripture either. I have participated in formal choirs that were more a performance than an act of worship, and I have sung with guitars and drums in what was definitely an act of worship. A contemporary service may be more appealing to younger people and/or the unchurched. However, I do agree about overhead projectors. They are an abomination. Spoken words should be only those necessary for essentials of worship: the call to worship, the prayers, the reading of the sermon and the blessing. The people can be instructed that the order of service as printed will be followed. Many words are extraneous. What does this say to the sight-impaired, or those both young and old who cannot read a printed order of service? Studiously avoid the words "program", "audience" and "auditorium" for obvious reasons. Clapping should be avoided as a congregational response. I assume Ken means applause, although personally I don’t like clapping along with songs either. However, we have one lovely lady in our congregation, who insists on applauding whenever our group sings, and I’m not going to be the one to embarrass her by asking her to stop. Announcements
should be done outside the service either verbally or written in the bulletin.
A whiff of huksterism too closely clings to the making of announcements
in most churches.
Children's stories (a recent insertion) ought not to "moralize" nor should they be analogies. To moralize is to please the parents. The use of analogies misses most of the children. The teller of the children's story cannot go wrong with a straight telling of story of Jesus. What is wrong with pleasing the parents by moralizing? I don’t think analogies miss most of the children. It depends on the age group. The same could be said of the sermon, which may miss many of the adults. In any case, the adults are listening to the children’s story as well, and perhaps it will reach them. Sermons should be responses to the Gospel for the day. Following the lectionary is not only needful discipline but is also an antidote for homiletic narcissism. Isn’t this a bit restrictive? Following the lectionary would seem to preclude a series of sermons on one topic. BCOQ NEWS ‘White Paper' - Commentary Ray Hobbs - Hamilton The following comment appeared on the BCOQ web page recently. It concerns one of several decisions made by the BCOQ Council. Council also approved in principle the Planning Committee's document "Proposed Governance System for the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec." Similar to the ways that both the Canadian Baptist Ministries and the Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec now govern themselves, this system focuses on the Assembly (with a dramatic new alignment being proposed for the Assembly) driving the "big picture" issues, a smaller Board working on the strategies and management issues and staff implementing the strategies. The aims of these changes are: to stress our missional identity, to give visionary leadership, to have greater efficiency and effectiveness, to have organizational flexibility and to allow for a more effective decision making process. After a final revision this proposal will also be sent out to churches and associations for their feedback and discussion. Depending on the response and the future development of the proposal, it is hoped that it will be presented to Assembly in 2001 for approval in principle, leading to further development by Council until it is brought for a formal vote in June, 2002. This document has very recently been distributed to interested Baptist folk for reaction and commentary. On the evening of May 14th, I attended a meeting of the Niagara Hamilton Association. I am not impressed either by the contents of the document, nor by the way in which the issues were presented that evening. In the light of the ‘organizational mentality versus community mentality' dichotomy we as a Gathering have examined recently, I think there are some serious questions to be asked. The very asking of such questions has been interpreted by some as ‘negative', and the implications behind the questions labelled ‘unfair'. My response, in part, is to suggest that the proper answer to what is perceived as ‘negative' is to provide truthful answers to questions posed. These questions
would include:
Assembly, of course, in traditional Baptist practice is not the annual meeting of delegates, but rather the churches acting in concert. One could well argue that Convention (a ‘coming together') only exists during the three or four days of Assembly. In the larger picture, this plan suggests a move to a ‘corporate' style of governance, and away from a ‘civic' style of governance, and the two should never be confused. In recent years universities, hospitals, education boards, and other civic institutions have adopted the ‘corporate' governance style with mixed, and sometimes disastrous results. In many cases lack of accountability at the top, manipulation of communication channels from the top, the disempowerment of the ‘rank and file' - all of which are potential dangers in the ‘White Paper' proposals - have led to an increase in spending, shrinkage of service and questionable management. Dissent has been silenced rather than encouraged. Within the civic governance model, efficiency is never the touchstone of action. Great charters of societies have always focused on the individual, the small, and the seemingly insignificant first. Efficiency is a Mike Harris word. Gospel words, more appropriate to governance of elements of the Gathered Community are ‘compassion', ‘everlasting love', ‘bearing other's burdens', and other difficult concepts. Like the attitude of the sower in Jesus parable, wild extravagance is more characteristic of the Gospel. After all, democracy is not ‘efficient', it is fair, and it is just, and as a consequence, a bit messy. Many pastors churches, for various reasons, have become estranged, and even alienated from the business of the BCOQ. In my opinion, it is doubtful that this ‘White Paper' will narrow the gap between them. Also in my opinion, the reduction of the ‘Convention' bureaucracy to this small, apparently self-regulating body will leave the business of Convention up to those who are comfortable with bureaucracies and control of them. The Gathering Newsletter is published three times per year. ISSN 1499-111X
Editor: Ray
Hobbs
Gathering Web Page: http://Jubal9.tripod.com/home.html Feedback can be directed to: The Gathering Newsletter c/o Ray Hobbs e-mail ray.hobbs@sympatico.ca or to Ray Hobbs
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