UCC moderator ventures beyond belief
Church members distressed by leader’s reckless statements
By Doug Koop ChristianWeek staff
OTTAWA–Statements by United Church of Canada (UCC) moderator Bill Phipps are raising a theological furor in Canada’s largest Protestant denomination.
"I don’t believe Jesus was God," said Phipps in a late October interview with the editorial board of the Ottawa Citizen. "But I’m no theologian," he added.
According to an October 24 article by Citizen religion writer Bob Harvey, Phipps said he had "no idea if there was a hell," and that he doesn’t "think Jesus was that concerned about hell. He was concerned about life on earth," says Phipps.
Nor does Phipps offer much hope of heaven. "I believe in a continuity of the spirit in some way, but I would be a fool to say what that was."
While many UCC members are aghast at these statements, Phipps continues quite comfortably. "I don’t believe Jesus is the only way to God," he told the Citizen. "I don’t believe he rose from the dead as a scientific fact. I don’t know whether those things happened. It’s an irrelevant question."
What is relevant, according to Phipps, is mending a broken world. "Biblically, it’s an abomination that there are any poor people in Canada at all," he says. "Your soul is lost unless you care about people starving in the streets."
Since the Citizen article was published, Phipps has repeated and defended his views several times on CBC radio and television nationally, and on the United Church’s internet web site.
Heresy
Astounded UCC members were quick to respond to Phipps’s verbal volleys, accusing the moderator of heresy and calling for his resignation.
"With one sweep of his hand the moderator has repudiated both Christmas and Easter," says John Trueman, president of Community of Concern. He also argues that Phipps’s views are incongruent with the definition of "membership" in the UCC Manual, and that his "reckless declarations" constitute a serious "dereliction" of his leadership duties.
"In assessing the damages which the moderator’s ill-considered utterances have already done to the church morally, spiritually and financially, the executive of general council has an obligation to require his resignation," says Trueman.
"No moderator," adds Ottawa pastor Allen Churchill, "has the ability or mandate to redefine the theology of our church."
Dave Snihur, chair of the National Alliance of Covenanting Congregations Within the United Church, also rejected the moderator’s remarks, observing that the 1925 Basis of Union on which the denomination was founded upholds the historic Christian faith.
"Today we are pleased to say that there are many, many people within the UCC who do not subscribe to our moderator’s beliefs. Though he is our moderator, his theological views are strictly his own and in no way representative of the denomination he leads," says Snihur.
Beyond belief?
Still, Phipps was overwhelmingly chosen to the post just last summer and was already well known for his outspoken activism and his call for a renewed vision of the social gospel within the UCC. And he remains unrepentant, saying that "the opinions expressed by me were mine alone," and adding his belief "that nothing I said is outside the broad mainstream of UCC belief."
In a statement posted on the internet, Phipps says he believes "that in Jesus we know as much of God as is possible in a human being, but he did not reveal nor represent all of God." He welcomes the current widespread interest in Jesus as indicative of spiritual yearning in society.
"I believe there is nothing to fear in open, honest and informed debate among us about these and other faith issues. Indeed, the strength of the UCC is its acceptance of wide ranging viewpoints and encouragement of the lively exchange of ideas."
But the UCC’s online grassroots network was registering some different assessments. "Phipps has left many folk with the impression that the UCC has taken the Christ out of being Christian," observe Richard and Charlene Fairchild. "[He] appears to be nothing more or less than a deist–and a deist with agnostic tendencies. And so, as a result, does the UCC."
Meanwhile, Toronto lawyer Ian Outerbridge was circulating a five-page letter assessing the possibility that Phipps’s statements constituted grounds for disciplinary procedures against him by church members. He concludes, "a charge could be laid by any member who is sufficiently distressed." No charges had been laid at press time.
