TSP at 100 - Our Preoccupations in 1987

Editors Note: This section (originally entitled "Modern Times") provides some insight into the preoccupations of Trinty St. Paul's at the time this booklet was prepared in 1987. While Cruise missles are no longer an issue many of these concerns are still being actively pursued by TSP members.

The Peace Group

Contributed by Ruth Bradley

With the growing emphasis on nuclear weapons production came an increasing con­ sciousness on the part of ordinary people that individual effort was needed to promote peace With this in mind, a group of Trinity-St Paul's members formed the Trinity-St Paul's Peace Group. Its goals were self-education, education of the congregation, and participation in, and/or sponsorship of, other peace groups' activities.

Three of the main resource people in the group were Julie Salverson, Alyson Huntly, and Brian Burch. Their connections with the peace network in Toronto, particularly with Project Ploughshares, the Christian Movement for Peace (CMP), and the Cruise Missile Conversion Project (CMCP), enabled the group to "plug-into" resources, infor­mation and larger scale activities around the city. To educate themselves, group members read materials supplied by the Christian Movement for Peace and the Toronto Disarmament Network (TDN), among others. These materials included compilations of newspaper articles reporting on the arms race, special magazines and publications, and "A Matter of Faith", a study guide for churches produced by the Sojourners.

Education of the congregation was accomplished through the use of bulletin board displays, announcements in the bulletin and special events. Several members of the group made a banner depicting a dove, carrying an olive branch on a blue background, with the name of the church. This banner provided a focal point for members of the congregation during many peace marches. In addition, the congregation was invited to join the Peace Group in various vigils, including vigils at the Litton Industries plant in Rexdale where the guidance system for cruise missiles is produced.

Special events were also held at the church. The Peace Group organized a discussion evening around the film "If You Love This Planet", by Dr Helen Caldicott. After viewing this powerful film, people shared their reactions, questions, and suggestions. A special Remembrance Day service was held on the theme of peace, organized and presented by members of the Peace Group. During this service, various symbols of peace from around the world were used to illustrate how people can join together to express a common wish for peace. Another special event was letter-writing sessions, which took place following Sunday services on a periodic basis. Members of the congregation were invited to write letters to the Prime Minister, and other leaders, requesting more negotiations on the arms race and a halt to cruise missile testing in Canada. On behalf of the congregation, the Peace Group also endorsed concerts, demonstrations, petitions and special events organized by other groups in the peace network, as we'll as the creation of a special United Church Peace Coordinator. Throughout all its activities, the group's underlying philosophy was that Christians should express their faith through actions, and that individual efforts can make a dif­ference on a global level.

Inclusive Language

Contributed by David Fallis

The United Church as a whole has seen considerable controversy over the use of inclusive language, heated debate has been witnessed at the 1984 and 1986 General Councils and in many letters to the Editor of The Observer. Trinity - St Paul s looked at this issue earlier than many churches when in 1982 the Worship and Music Committee set up a group to study the question in order to make a recommendation to the Official Board in the form of a "Statement on Inclusive Language". The Worship and Music Committee found that the issue involved two basic aspects: the words we use to describe humanity, and the words we use to describe God. In regard to the former, the "Statement" recommended that all our language be inclusive, not only in terms of gender but also age. Some objections were raised that the term "man" in English refers to all humanity, but it is precisely for his reason that the word is problematic. Women, who are under-represented in our structures of power, who suffer in frequently abusive relationships with men, who are objectified as products in advertising and pornography, find themselves also excluded in society's myths and symbol systems, the most important of which is language. "Man" has come to represent all humanity, the male stands for the totality. The implications of this usage have a strong impact on women's psyches and spirits. Therefore the "Statement" that the language describing humans be inclusive.

Perhaps even more controversial were the suggestions regarding the language used to describe God. Clearly the Bible uses many images to describe God, from shepherd to eagle, from creator to judge. Jesus, in attempting to describe God's Kingdom, used many striking and unusual metaphors. In a congregational survey asking for individuals' principal description of God, even more variety was found words such as river, light, lion, mother, lover, strength, redeemer. Clearly, our understandings were varied, just as our gifts and callings were varied, and clearly no one description could encompass God, even God's principal attributes. Therefore, the "Statement" recommended that there be a balance between male and female images for God within a service and in our teaching.

Putting these policies in place has been an unsure and experimental procedure what to do with favourite hymns or the words set to magnificent music by Bach or Handel, how to print the words for use at services, how to introduce new music, whether to make the Bible passages inclusive. We are still struggling. Perhaps the enormity of the practical problems suggests just how important our use of language is. Our faith that change is possible is both our source of hope and the cause of controversy and struggle.

Sexuality and Gender Relations

Contributed by Anne Nailer

"God created them — male and female — in God's own image" (Genesis 1:)
"In the beginning is the relation." (Martin Buber)
"The rule remains with the husband and the wife is compelled to obey him by God's command. He rules the home and the state, wages and wars, defends his possessions, tills the soil, builds, plants, etc. The woman on the other hand, is like a nail driven into the wall." (Martin Luther)
"Where there is no justice - between two people or among thousands - there is no love. And where there is no justice/no love, sexuality is perverted into violence and violation, the effects of which must surely include rape, emotional and physical battering, relationships manipulated by control, competition, and contempt, and even war itself. (Carter Heyward)

These conflicting messages reflect the traditions and the confusion inherent in Christian theology and Christian tradition. Christian history reveals a legacy of dualism, a mind-body split, in which all that is associated with the mind - knowledge, control, maleness — is good and deeply valued, while everything associated with the body — lust, weakness, femaleness — is evil and despised. This legacy continues, fueled by the efforts of the religious and political "right".

Simultaneously, energized by the commitment and passion of feminists, lesbian and gay people, and anti-sexist men, communities of faith are engaged in efforts to affirm sexuality and to live in faithful relationships between women and men, women and women, men and men. The work of creating right relationships — relationships charac­terized by mutuality, respect, reciprocity, love and justice — involves us in confronting attitudes, behaviour, and social structures carefully constructed to preserve white, ruling class, heterosexual, able-bodied, male privilege. This privilege is reflected in theology, language, liturgy, decision-making structures, budgets, division of labour, curriculum, the kind of work which is valued, and in human interaction.

In recent years, the community of Tnnity-St Paul's has been challenged from within, and encouraged by the wider church and by secular movements for justice, to deal seriously with questions of sexuality and gender relations. One of the indications of the willingness of a community to struggle faithfully with change, is whom the commun­ity deems "suitable" for leadership. In the case of a congregation, this is particularly true in the choice of "ministry personnel". After decades of ordained men serving in the position of "minister" the community of Trinity-St Paul's found itself engaged in worship, education, pastoral care, and prophetic witness — with a "minister" who was a woman, a mother, and who was known by parts of the community as a self-affirming lesbian. While the community never worked corporately to discover the implications of Sue Mabey's leadership for our understanding of sexuality, of faith, of ministry, of right relationship, individuals and small groups were challenged and enriched by efforts to integrate new insights and deepened convictions into our lives.

When Patricia Lisson joined the "ministerial team", the community had the opportunity to struggle with the implications of a minister who embodied the creation of new life in her own pregnancy, child-birth, and parenting. As a woman, a mother, a feminist deeply committed to participating in the creation of abundant life for all, regardless of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, age, physical and mental ability, Patricia offers this community new possibilities for understanding God, sexuality, passion and right-relationship.

Efforts to be faithful within the community at Trinity-St Paul's have given rise to a number of groups and committees dealing with various aspects of sexuality and gender relations — the Women's Group, the Couple's Club, the group for separated and divorced people, the committee working on inclusive language in hymns, event-planning committees which strive to be inclusive and affirming of all members of the community. From time to time our corporate worship reflects a willingness to deal seriously with sexism — social construct fundamental to any discussion of sexuality and gender relations. At other times, our worship life reflects a malaise, an active denial of exclusion, of pain, of injustice. Some members are active participants in Affirm, Friends of Affirm, a variety of feminist and anti-sexist groups, efforts to assure procreative freedom, and strive to enrich and strengthen the community through these commitments. Other members feel strongly about preserving traditional theology and morality, believing that these efforts strengthen the community. The pulls are strong in many directions. Years, centuries, of conditioning, of silence, of repression, slow movement towards liberation, toward affirmation of sexuality, toward right relationship. But this movement is critical for our ability to be faithful.

"sexuality is fundamental, universal, the wellspnng of vitality in all relationships, all creativity, all productivity To be out of touch with our sexuality is to be literally cut off — physically, emotionally, spiritually, politically — from our remarkable and potent capacity to co-create, co- redeem, and co-bless the world It is to be out of touch with our strength, cut off from the movement of God in the world " (Carter Heyward)

Feminist Theology

Contributed by Shirley Small

Eating apples, lighting candles to affirm anger and drawing pictures of ourselves reflecting God's image. When I think about feminist theology I remember doing these things in the Women's Group at Trinity-St Paul's.

It began in 1975 when Sharon Thurston Phipps asked five or six women to meet and talk about how we might celebrate International Women's Year. Sharon said she was tired of "singing all those hymns about fathers and sons, no mention of mothers and daughters ". Another woman wanted to pray to "Our Mother who art in heaven ". Not everyone agreed but nobody felt put down. In 1979 Sharon again convened some women. We began to examine books by feminist theologians. The apple has become one of our key symbols. One ritual begins with a litany of thanksgiving for the women who have gone before us — for Miriam, a Hebrew prophet who helped lead her people out of slavery, for Mary Magdalene, the first to understand the meaning of resurrection, for the women of our own time "who have not forgotten how to smile, laugh, dance, sing and celebrate". Then we enact a "liberation of the apples". We affirm that the traditional interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve "does not convey truth to us about ourselves," that "Eve performed the first free act" and pledge ourselves to develop "the whole truth, to work for the liberation of women and men and the whole creation". An apple is cut, passed around the group and eaten.

It remains one of our most powerful liturgies, challenging the story in the Christian tradition which is the most destructive to women's self-image.

The year we studied A Different Heaven and Earth by Sheila Collins, we created a ceremony affirming anger. So many of us were brought up to feel ashamed of this emotion it was unladylike and unchristian. The evening began by each woman telling about a time when she had felt anger. What had she done? Then we reflected upon Collins' words "Whoever cannot become angry over injustice, oppression and cruelty is incapable of loving." In our ceremony we affirmed that anger was "loves answer to evil". Those who created the liturgy were nervous - would it seem ridiculous to light candles affirming anger? But at the end one woman spoke for us all "I can't go home unless I take my candle with me".

We meet to sing songs about the empowerment of women "Go, Daughter, be bold," begins the chorus of one of our favourite songs. We often draw our ideas, remembering the power of the non- verbal. One night we were asked to draw our answer to this question "If I am made in God's image, what do I look like"? One woman sketched a nursing mother seated in a rocking chair.

Next, "If God looks like us, what does God look like?" Then each woman discussed how each picture related to the traditional paradigm about women and about God Telling our stories, creating our own rituals and symbols, drawing from the authority of our own experience, doing it together. That is feminist theology.

Liberation Theology

Contributed by Roger Hutchinson

When our descendants are celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of this congregation, and when they ask about the significant trends of the 1980s, they will discover a high level of interest in liberation theology. When they ask what liberation theology was, and why it appealed to socially concerned Christians, they will no doubt ask if anything like it had ever happened before. They will probably decide that there were strong resemblances between the liberation theologies of the 1970s and 1980s and the social gospel movement of the 1920s and 1930s. They will discover differences as well as similarities. They will also find that this congregation has always included in its membership persons with varying degrees of enthusiasm for the particular causes promoted by social gospellers or proponents of liberation theology.

The social gospel movement was primarily a North American and European Protestant phenomenon. The transition from agricultural to industrial societies produced affluence for some and degrading poverty for others. The churches responded to the suffering by providing food, shelter and educational opportunities, and by fighting for more adequate welfare, housing and health care policies. In addition to promoting the broad range of policies that eventually became taken-for-granted parts of the welfare state, the more radical social gospellers placed themselves firmly on the side of the workers who were demanding the right to form unions and to bargain collectively.

Just as the social gospel movement within the Protestant churches had a close relationship to the labour movement in industrial societies, liberation theology has emerged in the context of liberation struggles in various parts of the world. American blacks, native peoples, Latin Americans, formerly colonized peoples in Africa and Asia, and women have all awakened to the fact that the dominant structures of their societies have unjustly excluded them from full participation. Efforts in the 1980s to achieve participation and justice for all persons, and in particular for groups which have been marginalized, are more ecumenical and global than the earlier social gospel. Protestants, Roman Catholics and persons of other faiths work together to meet the needs of the victims of oppression and to challenge the unjust structures which perpetuate poverty, racism and sexism. Life at Trinity-St. Paul's in the 1980s reflects the influence of liberation theology in various ways. The main evidence that would convince an eavesdropper from the 2080s of this fact is the extent to which our discussions and debates about charity and justice are cast in the language of liberation. A shared aversion to oppression and a common desire to achieve justice for the oppressed provide the framework within which we deal with our differing degrees of enthusiasm for the particular causes which thrive in our midst.

Global Learning For Living

Contributed by Bill Fallis

Global learning for living has been a part of Trinity - St. Paul's outlook for many years. Throughout the 1970's and half of the 1980's the Mission, Action and Service Committee was the main vehicle through which events with a global perspective were organized at the church. This committee had a mandate to encourage the congregation to gain a better understanding of social justice and developmental education issues, both locally and internationally, an attempt to provide outreach to local agencies. The committee has organized and implemented a number of programmes over the years to meet these objectives.

The Ten Days for World Development is one such programme. It is jointly sponsored by five major Christian denominations, including the United Church. These churches have provided resources so that materials can be created and activities coordinated for a ten day period each year. During this time the member churches provide activities to help their congregations reflect on world development issues. The focus of the past few years has been on food, or more precisely, the lack of food for many people in our world. Here at Trinity - St. Paul's we have critically considered the "Ten Days" topics, adding our own unique perception to the issues. To help our congregation better understand the issues, the committee has organized a number of events which have taken the form of role plays, assimilation games, small group discussions, films and speakers.

Another programme the committee has developed is the Global Gossip: "Global", because the content of the talks is international and "Gossip", because the sessions are informal by design. These sessions normally take the form of an hour-long talk after selected services throughout the year. Members of the congregation are invited to share their perceptions of recent trips they have had to developing countries. There have been many volunteers from the congregation to give Global Gossips, whom we thank for their participation. We certainly are fortunate to have members who value a global perspective to their lives and to their faith. It has meant that our Global Gossips have been well attended and have become a forum to share ideas on international issues. In the past few years we have had talks and slide presentations on Nepal, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, China, the Middle East, Korea and countries in the southern part of Africa.

One example of a Global Gossip that was quite special for us was provided by Marion Pope. Marion is a missionary for the United Church of Canada in Korea. She was in Canada for a visit and came to Trinity - St. Paul's one Sunday in the spring of 1984. She spoke to us of the imprisonment that was taking place in Korea. Many Christians were being arrested for their beliefs. What could we do? We involved the congregation in a letter writing campaign that gave faith and hope to the prisoners in Korea. Our efforts also made the Korean government aware of our concerns. The Mission, Action and Service Committees began to feel itself split in its dual mandate to provide outreach to the local community and global learning for the congregation. As it happened, in 1984 an Outreach Committee was established to support Patricia Lisson in her community work. This committee also began to support local agencies in our area. With the creation of this committee, the Mission, Action and Service Committee decided to change its name to better reflect its focus on global issues. Global Learning For Living was the name chosen. In the future this committee will endeavour to provide different programmes that will help us explore social justice and development education issues in our world. Through our explorations we hope to develop a deeper understanding of our place on the globe and a willingness to change our lives so that we can live in harmony with all members of our planet.

GLOBAL LEARNING RESOURCE CENTRE INDEX OF ISSUES "I"

1. AFRICAN FAMINE
2. AID & DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES
3. CANADIAN ECONOMIC CRISIS
4. CANADIAN PAROLE SYSTEM
5. CATHOLIC CHURCH & SOCIETY
6. COALITIONS
7. CULTS
8. CULTURAL MINORITY GROUPS IN CANADA

1. DIVISION OF WORLD OUTREACH
2. ECUMENICAL
3. ENERGY
4. EXTRA BILLING ISSUES
5. FARMING
6. FOOD ISSUES - ONTARIO - METRO
7. HOUSING 1,2,3 & 4
8. HUNGER
9. INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE
10. INFOPAC MISC.
11. MISCELLANEOUS
12. NATIVE DIALOGUE — CREE INDIANS OF CANADA
13. NUCLEAR ENERGY
14. PEACE ISSUES
15. POLITICAL PERSONALITIES — SAKHAROV BUJAK, RABBI MEIR KAHANI, etc.
16. POSTERS
17. POVERTY
18. RESOURCES LIST
19. TEN DAYS FOR WORLD DEVELOPMENT
20. TERRORISM
21. TRINITY — ST PAUL'S HISTORY
22. UNEMPLOYMENT
23. WOMEN NORTH AMERICIA
24. WOMEN THIRD WORLD GLOBAL LEARNING RESOURCE CENTRE INDEX OF MAGAZINES "M"
25. CHINA and OURSELVES
26. CONNEXIONS
27. DEVELOPMENT DIRECTIONS
28. GARGOYLE
29. GATT-FLY
30. IDRC — International Development Research Council
31. LINKS
32. MANDATE
33. NEW INTERNATIONALIST
34. NEWSLETTER — I.C.H.R.L.A.
35. NEWSWEEK
36. PEACH
37. PRACTICE OF MINISTRY IN CANADA
38. PROK (Korea)
39. ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH NEWS
40. SOCIALIST AFFAIRS
41. SOLIDARIDAD II
42. SPECTRUM
43. WRM — NEWSLETTER

The Global Learning Resource Centre is open 15 minutes before the Sunday service and 30 minutes after the service. All are welcome to select an envelope and read it during the following week. When you've finished please assist us by filing your envelopes alphabetically under the appropriate title — Issue, Magazine or Country. If you have any material to add to our Resource Centre, please place it in the envelope marked DONATION.

GLOBAL LEARNING RESOURCE CENTRE INDEX OF COUNTRIES "C"

• ASIA —GENERAL
• CENTRAL AMERICA
• CHINA
• EL SALVADOR
• GRENADA
• JAPAN
• KENTANZA (Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire)
• KOREA
• NICARAGUA
• PHILLIPINES
• SOUTH AFRICA
• SOUTH AMERICA
• TAIWAN