Moderator offers vision for future of United Church

“We May Not Be Big, But We’re Small.” That was the motto of The Vinyl Cafe, a fictional record store owned by Dave, a character featured in the stories of the late Canadian author and CBC radio host Stuart McLean.

It could also be the motto for the United Church of Canada, according to moderator Kimberly Heath.

I spoke with Heath last September, after she was elected to that position. Looking ahead to her new role, she noted that United Church members still liked to think of their church as big — even though that was no longer the case.

The numbers prove the point. From a high of just over one million members in 1965, the church reported having about 325,000 in 2023. According to the Church’s own projections, that figure may decrease to 110,000 members by 2035.

But being smaller doesn’t mean being insignificant, Heath said.

“There are plenty of examples in the Bible of God using things that were small,” she said. “We shouldn’t bemoan we are not the church we were in the 1960s. Yes, we are small now. But maybe that is what we are called to be at this time.”

Heath came into the position with three visions for the denomination, starting with wanting to help members connect more deeply with their faith.

“We are fantastic on the justice side of things, but we should also go deeper into our faith, develop a deep spirituality,” she said.

Her second vision was about helping members connect with each other.

“We are living in an antisocial century, when people are isolated from each other,” Heath said, adding that churches are uniquely placed to bring together people of different cultures, ages and political views. “It’s a place to come together and get to know each other.”

Heath’s third vision was for members of the denomination to let go of the past and embrace a new and uncertain future.

“We are so afraid to die, we want to cling to our old life,” she said of how the memory of what the United Church used to be still hangs around.

“If we follow Jesus, who died and was resurrected to a new way of life, then we also need to die to our old way of being church to see if we can be something new and part of something bigger,” she added.

I caught up with Heath recently to see how things have been going since her election.

Now that the former minister of Wall Street United Church in Brockville, Ont., has been able to travel across the country to meet United Church members and visit churches, she said there’s no denying the reality that some churches are declining and struggling.

They know they are in trouble, she said, but “there are no easy answers.”

But Heath is also seeing vitality and growth, especially in migrant and newcomer churches, and in churches that are becoming more intentionally intercultural.

“It’s delightful to see,” she said, noting that one church she visited welcomed over 100 new members on one Sunday, while another is growing with a mix of people who speak English, French and Swahili. “There are some amazing stories,” she said.

Heath’s travels have also convinced her that going deeper into faith is vital for the United Church.

“It’s an increasingly unstable world, and we need a deep faith to meet the challenges so that when a crisis comes, we are ready to move into it,” she said.

At the same time, she has come to realize anew that the church needs new ways of connecting people.

“It’s not only through Sunday services,” she said, noting that people are connecting with each other and the church through mid-week programs or volunteering at church-run food banks and other ministries.

“We want people to be able to encounter and experience God in all sorts of ways,” Heath said, adding while some still treasure traditional Sunday services, others aren’t interested in “three hymns and a sermon on Sunday mornings.”

One area where the United Church can play a role today is addressing the affordable housing crisis — like how St. Mary’s Road and Westworth United Churches in Winnipeg are exploring ways to use their buildings to provide housing.

“We have more buildings than we need,” she said, adding the denomination has a strategy to see how excess and underused church buildings can be creatively used for housing or community centres.

One thing Heath doesn’t see happening is a merger with other struggling mainline denominations, such as what happened in 1925 when the Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists came together to create the United Church. She could, however, see more collaboration as churches share programs, buildings and staff.

Despite the challenges, Heath believes there is still a role for the United Church to play in Canada today.

“I’m pretty positive it won’t be in the same way it was in the past,” she said. “But God can still use us, however God wants to use us. We need to be open to the new ways God is moving.”

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