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The United Church of Canada in the 1960S Decade of Ferment A Holy or a Broken Hallelujah: The United Church of Canada in the 1960s Decade of Ferment by Philip Alan Tennant Gardner A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Emmanuel College and the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies of the Toronto School of Theology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology awarded by Emmanuel College and the University of Toronto © Copyright by Philip Gardner 2018 A Holy or a Broken Hallelujah: The United Church of Canada in the 1960s Decade of Ferment Philip Alan Tennant Gardner Doctor of Theology Emmanuel College and the University of Toronto 2018 Abstract Arthur Marwick, in his seminal book, The Sixties, describes that decade’s crucial significance. What happened during these years transformed social and cultural developments for the rest of the century. Religious historians have described the period as a “watershed” and a “seedbed.” The most remarkable religious phenomenon in 1960s Canada was the rapid acceleration of a process of dechristianization that began to push the very denominational faith communities that had first evangelized Canada toward extinction. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine this “decade of ferment” through the lens of one of those denominations, the United Church of Canada. The saga of the United Church provides an important piece to the puzzle: “What happened to Christian Canada?” The era began well. Many new United Church congregations emerged in the suburbs while others embarked on ambitious building programmes. Exciting change was in the air. Voices both inside and outside the church announced that a New Age was dawning, bringing with it both challenge and opportunity. Early in the decade, John A.T. Robinson’s Honest to God inspired a flood of inexpensive theological paperbacks that cheered modernization and reform. Most of these books (including those commissioned by church leaders as a catalyst to renewal) were highly critical of the status quo. The United Church’s liberal leadership invested in “the big change” through a New Curriculum, by embarking on ecumenical ventures (including union ii conversations), through new approaches to mission and even by flirting with a “new morality.” Within a very short time, however, the denomination found itself navigating a chaotic, fast-paced and destabilized world. The vaunted New Age witnessed a drop in church affiliation across all age groups. Further, internal fractures appeared that incited conflict across the conservative, moderate and liberal spectrum. “Managing” the decade’s challenges proved an elusive goal. The long sixties were, indeed, a revolutionary time. Sadly for the Canadian churches, the 1960s marked the era when John Lennon and others would begin to “imagine” a public square from which religion had been evicted. iii Acknowledgments In many ways this dissertation had its origins during the 1960s in an overheated Sunday school room that lurked under the south transept of Westdale United Church, Hamilton. Here, one Sunday, a gathered group of wary boys received their brand-spanking New Curriculum hardbound materials. The books had rolled off the Ryerson presses so recently that the fresh ink smell permeated the small space where we met together to read and learn. The curriculum writers aimed to make the Bible accessible to various ages of church school students, but they also sought to make the stories exciting and to render the biblical characters interesting. This was not an easy undertaking—but their work was soon evaluated favourably by what might be called “a very tough room.” I am not the only member of that small gathering to be sufficiently hooked by what they discovered between the covers of those newly minted books that they grew up to pursue careers in ministry. It has been a pleasure to return to the New Curriculum books within the framework of a larger study of the United Church of Canada as it attempted to negotiate the ferment of the 1960s. I am indebted to all of my learning colleagues at Emmanuel College and within the Toronto School of Theology for their support, their encouragement, and their interest in this project. I have had the good fortune to be guided by three excellent historians: Prof. Brian Clarke, who has been both mentor and friend, Prof. Stuart Macdonald, whose perceptive criticism and insightful questions have made for a far better product, and Prof. Phyllis Airhart, who is wise and compassionate and who has a famously keen eye for detail. She is undoubtedly the best supervisor anyone could ever hope to have. I must also offer thanks to my family and friends, as well as to the congregations of St. Andrew’s, Olivet, and Melrose for their kind tolerance over the many years of this project’s gestation. I am grateful to Brian Gedcke for generally keeping me on an even keel, but particularly for remaining unfazed during several frustrating computer glitches when he politely ignored my recourse to a vocabulary that threatened the good health of my office plants and set about quietly solving the problems. Finally, I thank my parents, Kenneth and Lillian Gardner, whose passion for life-long learning delightfully infected their children and grandchildren. This study is dedicated to them. Requiescat in pace. iv Table of Contents Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgments ………….………………………………………………………………….. iv Table of Contents ……..…………………………………………………………………………v Abbreviations ..............................................................................................................................vii Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Chapter 1: Behold, I Make All Things New ………………………………………….………13 The Signal Shot: John Robinson and the Honest to God Debate ………………….17 Ferment across the Pond, Dead Deities, Secular Cities and Uncomfortable Pews …………………………………………………………………………….….27 Can These Dry Bones Live?......................................................................................40 Chapter 2: A Brief Spin in Our Ford Edsel: The New Curriculum ......................................55 Design and Development of The New Curriculum ………………………….…….57 The New Curriculum Encounters a Bumpy Road……… …………………………68 Needed for the Future: A More Streamlined Model……………………………….87 Chapter 3: Ut omnes unum sint………………………………………………………….…….97 A Letter from Christ to His World………………………………………..………..98 The Second Vatican Council………………………………………………...……103 Vatican II and United Church Worship…………………………………………...112 Jilted at the Altar: The Proposed Union of the United and Anglican Churches…..121 Chapter 4: Feast or Famine: The United Church and Sex in the Age of Aquarius …...…144 In Intercourse at Hearth or Board…………………………………………………149 From Pulpit to Prison to Pop Record: The Horsburgh Scandal………………...…154 The New Morality…………………………………………………………………161 Jumping the Gun ………………………………………………………………….163 v The Joy of United Church Sex: A Handbook for the Distraught, Mature Adult………………………………………………………………………………168 The Promiscuous Girl and Her Friends …………………………………………..178 The Sacrament of Sex …….………………………………………………………186 Chapter 5: Learning to Live With Uncertainty: United Church Mission in the New Age ………………………………………………………………………………..189 Discerning God’s Mission in the New Age …………………………………...….192 Good Morning, Vietnam ………………………………………………...………. 206 The Unholy Land …………………………………………………………………215 An Ox Cart on the Trans-Canada Highway ………………………………………230 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………...……..232 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………..241 vi Abbreviations AOTS As One That Serves BCOQ Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec CCC Canadian Council of Churches CGIT Canadian Girls in Training E&SS Board of Evangelism and Social Service GC United Church of Canada General Council M&M Missionary and Maintenance ROP Record of Proceedings of the United Church of Canada SCM Student Christian Movement UCA United Church of Canada Archives UCO United Church Observer UCRF United Church Renewal Fellowship UCW United Church Women WCC World Council of Churches vii Introduction Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today... Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one1 -John Lennon The desk of my study sits in front of a large window from which I enjoy a fine view of the downtown core of the City of Hamilton, Ontario. For 135 years, a prominent feature of the architectural landscape has been Irish-Canadian architect Joseph Connolly’s impressive James Street Baptist Church. As I write, a team of demolition workers is in the process of dismantling the church’s massive wooden roof beams. Over the decades, these beams have supported an elegant vaulted roof, sheltering worshippers at first crowded, then of later years scattered, in the pews below. The band of James Street disciples had been dwindling for the past half century, while concurrently the structural repair needs of Connolly’s impressive stone monument increased. As a result, the congregation made a painful decision that led to their building’s purchase by a developer who moved with lightning speed to obtain a demolition permit. The plan is to replace the Victorian sanctuary with a thirty-storey glass condominium tower, but to retain the east elevation of Connelly’s edifice as a unique marquee entrance. The James
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