HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE: PASSION MEETS THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION BERWICK CAMP THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2015
AGENDA FOR THURSDAY MORNING • A brief digression: Church Attendance • The Post-War Context: We Have Questions! • Reshaping Sunday • Abolishing the Laity • Youth Movements: Jesus People, SCM, Kairos • Taking it to the Streets – Urban training projects BREAK • Activity Time Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
PROTESTANT CHURCH ATTENDANCE: CHALLENGING THE MYTH • Prior to Mid-1800s: Church attendance was spotty (although the church had significant power in society) • The wealthy “owned” or “rented” prominent pews and usually filled them • Others did not feel compelled to attend except on special occasions • Mid-1800s to 1950s: Evangelization (tracts, religious “spectacles”) led to massive increase in Sunday attendance in Protestant churches – unparalleled, as far as we can tell, in history Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
POST-WAR CANADIAN CONTEXT: 1945-65 65 • Worldwide demand for Canadian resources as Europe rebuilds and North American economy grows • Women return to homemaking (from war work) • Technology booms: TV enters most homes • Population expands rapidly due to births and immigration • Suburbs, schools, new universities, community colleges • New churches; existing churches build “education wings” • “Welfare State” emerges • Quebec’s Quiet Revolution Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
POST-WAR CANADIAN CONTEXT: 1965-85 85 • Canada celebrates its Centennial - growing sense of national identity • Human Freedom Movements: • Second-Wave Feminism • US: Civil Rights; American Indian Movement • Ending colonial ties in Africa, Asia • Most immigrants are now non-Northern European • “Multiculturalism” ; Quebec sovereignty debates • Rapid secularization leads to loss of churches’ cultural power and fall in membership • Youth Culture: Protest against the “Establishment” • Growth and Empowerment of American Religious Right Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
THE CHURCH RESPONDS: RESHAPING THE SUNDAY EXPERIENCE • Desire to respond to the new realities releases a variety of responses for Christian life: • “A New Creed” (1968) • New Hymn Books: 1971, 1995 – fresh theological language, then inclusive language, global music, shorter songs • Liturgy : Ecumenical movement (esp engagement with Roman Catholics) leads to use of lectionary, more frequent communion; fuller liturgical life • Language : Major shift in ways of speaking about humanity, God, and all of life • Ecumenical Partnerships: Theological Education; Justice Initiatives; Shared Ministry congregations; almost to the altar with the Anglicans! Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp • … Which of these were/are passions for you?
THE CHURCH RESPONDS: “ABOLISHING THE LAITY” • 1950s-60s – United Church sees a need to educate and reinvigorate adult membership • Lay Training Centres are built across the country to prepare the laity for their lay ministries • “New Curriculum” is first released to adults • Question : Did the “re - empowerment” of the laity adequately address a new role for the ordered ministry? Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
THE CHURCH RESPONDS: JE JESUS PEOPLE, SCM, KAIROS • Churches seek new approaches to youth and youth culture, along with continuing leadership progams: CGIT, Tuxis, Hi-C, etc. • Some young adults find a home in the “Jesus People” movement: anti -materialistic, anti- mechanistic, collective living, charismatic, apocalyptic • Student Christian Movement focuses on justice • YPU becomes “Kairos” – justice-focused organization for young adults Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
THE CHURCH RESPONDS: “URBAN TRAINING” • Ecumenical impulse to link theology, economics, unions, industry – through action as well as theory “Some of us have to get onto the frontier, where there are no beaten • 1945 – First SCM “Student -in- Industry” Work paths of how or what to do….The Camp formed in Welland ON ‘other’ world of the working man … is • Students work in industry; live collectively completely isolated from the and discuss theories of social change church ….God will have us where the • Some students choose to work permanently people are, with them in their life and in blue collar industry as their Christian work …” vocation - Bob Miller, co-founder of • Canadian Urban Training Project (CUT) trains Howland House worker co-op theological students and others in urban activism around poverty and homelessness Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
PASSIONATE RESPONSES? Each of these approaches: • Reshaping Sunday • Education for Empowerment of the Laity • Engagement with Disaffected Youth • Entrenchment in urban social issues was initiated by passionate advocates for new ways to live the Gospel in the late 20 th century. • How well did they engender passion in Canadian Christians? Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
ACTIVITY TIME FOR… • 1. ACTIVE BODIES: Skit/Role Play - “Mom/Dad, I’ve joined the Jesus People.” • 2. ACTIVE MINDS: Re-describing Humanity – discussion of a brief excerpt by Maurice Boutin (see handout) • 3. ACTIVE IMAGINATIONS: Meditations on being “Realer” (see handout) Sandra Beardsall/July 2015 Berwick Camp
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