[Dialogue] Spong 2/27

[KroegerD at aol.com]

February 27, 2008 
Holy Cross Lutheran Church: A  Jewel in the Frozen North  

The wind chill factor was minus 25 degrees. Snow showers fell regularly on  
the already icy white countryside. It was not the time one would normally visit 
 Newmarket, Ontario, a town about fifty minutes due north of Toronto, but I 
had  been invited by the Holy Cross Lutheran Church, a congregation of less 
than  forty families, to give two addresses, one in their Sunday liturgy and the 
other  before a sold out audience in a 350-seat public auditorium.  
The Lutheran Church in Canada does not have a strong presence in this  
gracious land to our north. Religiously speaking, Canada is dominated by three  
major Christian groups: the Anglicans, who are primarily the descendants of the  
first English settlers; the United Church of Canada, a Protestant tradition 
that  came into being in the early 1920’s with a merger of predominantly Scottish 
 Presbyterians with predominantly English Methodists; and the Roman 
Catholics,  who are fairly localized in the French-speaking province of Quebec. The 
Canadian  Lutherans tend to have ethnic ties to Germany and the nations of 
Scandinavia,  but are now attracting people from Canada’s beautiful and increasingly 
diverse  population. I have given lectures in Canada two or three times a 
year since  1988. In all of those Canadian opportunities, however, I had met only 
one  Lutheran, so I had no idea what to expect when we accepted this Lutheran 
 invitation to come to central Ontario in February. I was in for one of the 
great  surprises and most exciting assignments in my entire career.  
Arriving on Saturday night, we stayed at a lovely rustic bed and breakfast in 
 a two-acre plot of land in the sparsely-populated countryside. It was run by 
Tom  and Maryann Doherty, who are members of Holy Cross Lutheran Church. Tom 
met us  at the airport and took us to this B & B, where Maryann had prepared 
dinner.  Both of these industrious people have multiple careers. Tom, who is 50 
years  old, is an ordained Lutheran pastor who is doing interim work in the 
area, but  counts Holy Cross as his own parish church. He recently interrupted 
his ordained  career for three years to pursue his ambition to become an opera 
singer. It was  a powerful growing experience for him, but was probably 
entered too late in his  life to be a realistic dream. It left him, however, with 
wonderful memories and  with a beautifully trained voice that will still enrich 
the lives of many. What  struck me most about Tom and Maryann was their 
excitement when talking about  Holy Cross Church, their enthusiasm about their 
minister, the Rev. Dawn  Hutchings, and their genuine joy about ministry. This was 
no jaded ordained man.  I began to find out why as this weekend unfolded.  
To that “Welcome to Newmarket” dinner the Dohertys had invited their pastor, 
 Dawn Hutchings, and the woman with whom she shares her home, Carol Wagler. 
Over  dinner the story of the church poured out as we listened. Holy Cross is a 
 congregation committed to becoming a new thing. While this church’s respect 
for  the past is genuine, its people seem to know instinctively that they 
cannot live  in that past. Their vocation is to break new ground and enter the e
nchanted  future. They are quite intentional about doing just that. Yesterday’s 
theology,  which focuses on original sin, the blood sacrifice of Jesus on the 
cross as the  necessary path to salvation and the supernatural, 
miracle-working God who lives  above the sky, simply doesn’t work for them. The liturgy had 
to reflect a new  way to approach the holy so they work on liturgy constantly. 
They also live out  their faith dramatically. Recently they sold their 
parsonage since their pastor  preferred to own her own home. They sent 10% of that 
sale to the National  Canadian Lutheran Church for its ministry and with the 
balance began to enrich  adult education with a speakers’ series and other 
outreach programs. Members of  this church are currently involved in a hands-on 
building project of a six-room  school in a small town in northern Ghana in West 
Africa with a group from the  congregation now there completing the project. 
The fact that this pastor is a  woman indicates that there is no debate over 
that issue. They were, however,  judging from the conversation around the dinner 
table, also open to gay and  lesbian people, to the insights of other faith 
traditions, and to a quest for  new biblical knowledge, even that which 
relativizes traditional assumptions. I  went to bed that night eager to see if the 
next day this church could possibly  live up to its advance notices. It did.  
The church began to fill up 45 minutes before the service started. Its  
members represented a range from eager children to senior citizens, but the  
majority appeared to fall into the 40-50 age bracket. It was obvious that the  
members of this church had significant ownership of its life. The liturgy was  
shared between pastor and lay worship assistants. The volunteer choir was  
spectacular. The lessons were well read and focused on the penitential season of  
Lent. Tom Doherty’s opera-trained voice blended beautifully with the vigorous  
congregational singing, but also allowed others to turn their own volume up a  
bit.  
The thing that made this service so special to me, however, was the Sunday  
bulletin that announced coming events. This church was not ever going to occupy 
 a “ghetto” called religion. One announcement told of a weekly meeting at a 
local  pub called “The Crow’s Nest” for those who would like to “rethink 
Christianity.”  It was entitled “Wine, Beer, Conversation and God,” and was a 
weekly forum where  those turned off by the traditional church might come. Here 
there were no  theological boundaries, nor was any question or comment 
considered illegitimate.  This Christian church wanted to meet people in this 
non-church setting, whose  non-traditional journeys they were ready to affirm and 
whose secular searches  they wanted to legitimize. There was no hidden conversion 
agenda.  
The second announcement was about an “Adult School” on the Sundays of Lent  
that would focus on the Apostle Paul. That in and of itself was not unusual, 
but  when people read the titles of the weekly sessions this bulletin announced 
they  found these topics: “Did Paul invent Christianity?” “Do the Writings 
of Paul  Trump the Teachings of Jesus?” “What Was the Thorn in Paul’s Side?” “
Is Paul a  Friend or Foe of Women?” “Didn’t Paul Like Sex?” One got the 
quick impression  that this was not the typical Bible class! This invitation 
further urged the  people to bring their questions. This congregation did not 
traffic in set  answers. Other announcements contained an invitation to attend a 
documentary  entitled “For the Bible Tells Me So” that featured Gene Robinson, 
the Episcopal  Church’s openly gay bishop; Peter Gomes, the gifted preacher 
at Harvard’s  Memorial Church, who is also openly gay; and Desmond Tutu, the 
Anglican Church’s  champion of many justice causes. Finally, there was an 
invitation to attend a  “Broadway Revue,” put on to raise money for the benefit of 
the school that the  church was building in Ghana. With this bulletin stating 
the context for this  church’s life, it came as no surprise that when the 
Sunday liturgy came to the  Creed it was not the fourth century words from Nicea 
that were recited, but  rather the following:  
“We believe in God, who made the world, loves it and smiles upon it,
We  believe in Jesus Christ, who has shown us the human face of God, and a 
love that  
refused to be limited, who calls us to a life that even death cannot end. We  
believe in the Holy Spirit through whom God reaches us, surprising, prompting 
 and 
questioning us; who is the life breath of creation; and the source of  
nurture, humor 
and hope. 
We believe in ourselves as people made in the  divine image, capable of great 
creativity 
and great destruction, but called  to choose between them. 
We believe that Christ leads us now, calling us to a  life that is absurd by 
the standards of 
the world; calling us to resist  evil, including anything that would degrade 
or 
destroy another and to create  and protect love, justice, freedom and peace.” 
How real! How superior to “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God,  
begotten not made, of one substance with the Father,” words that reflect 
quite  well the heresy battles of the fourth century, but which leave the modern  
worshipper with a glazed-over look.  
When we came to the Lord’s Prayer, we prayed these words: 
“God, lover of  us all, Most Holy One, help us to create what you want for us 
here. .” 
Give  us today enough for our needs. Forgive our weak and deliberate offences 
just .”  
as we must forgive others when they hurt us.” 
Help us to resist evil and  to do what is good; .” 
For we are yours, endowed with your power to make the  world whole.” .” 
Newmarket is not a major Canadian city. It is not even a major city in the  
Province of Ontario. Holy Cross Lutheran Church is thus a small church in a  
small town, but what incredible power emanates from that congregation. Most of  
the small Christian churches in both the United States and Canada are  
discouraged. They feel impotent to impact the modern world. They are shackled  with 
the vestiges of yesterday that find expression in scripture and liturgy.  They 
feel like the mystical Sisyphus as they seek to roll that mighty stone  
uphill. I invite those churches to look at, correspond with, visit, get on the  
mailing list of and be inspired by Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket,  
Ontario. What I found there will energize my life for years. When I left they  were 
preparing to welcome John Dominic Crossan later this year.  
John Shelby Spong  
For those who would like to be in touch with this church or its pastor, the  
address is Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 1035 Wayne Drive, Newmarket, Ontario, 
L3V  2W9, Canada, or e-mail the pastor: _dawnhutchings at rogers.com_ 
(http://secure.agoramedia.com/spong/”mailto:dawnhutchings@rogers.com”)    
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
John Ford, from Australia, writes via the Internet:  
I have been fortunate enough to be a recipient of your newsletter for just a  
few months. I dropped in to your thesis on the Third Fundamental, which sent  
little shivers through me as you revealed something of which I had not been  
fully cognizant. Your words resonate with truth when you illustrate the nexus  
between God and evolution, in a way that I believe Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 
 always did. My questions are "Are we going somewhere? Is there purpose 
driving  evolution?" In other words, it would seem that a theology of God and 
evolution  demands human responsibility to see that plan through to fruition. This 
changes  the status quo somewhat, from patiently waiting to purposeful action. 
How say  you? May God bless you and your ability to make connections.  
Dear John,  
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was and is one of my favorite writers. You will  
find his work listed in most of my bibliographies, especially his book The  
Phenomenon of Man. De Chardin was both a priest and a paleontologist and  was one 
of the earliest theological voices trying to bring the Christian faith  into 
dialogue with the meaning of evolution.  
His work was not appreciated by the still fearful hierarchy of the Roman  
Catholic Church, who placed his writings on the Index List, forbidding his work  
from being read by "the faithful." Thus it seems it will always be for those 
who  step outside of theological boxes to engage "new ideas."  
De Chardin does believe that there is an evolving spirit, that human beings  
have a way yet to travel before they are able to embrace the fullness of the  
"Transcendent Consciousness." He sees Jesus as having achieved a kind of  
spiritual or consciousness breakthrough. De Chardin has always been more popular  
with people on a spiritual quest than with those who somehow believe that they 
 are in possession of the full and ultimate truth of God.  
For me, I am convinced that the pilgrimage of our lives is into deeper  
consciousness and deeper humanity. I have the feeling that 100 or 500 or 1,000  
years from now our generation will be regarded as somewhat primitive.  
John Shelby Spong 



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