Transforming The United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada Transforming Theology: Practical through a Relational Suspicion to Reparation From From Suspicion to Reparation through a Relational Practical Theology: Transforming The United Church of Canada Richard Manley-Tannis Richard Manley-Tannis From Suspicion to Reparation through a Relational Practical Theology: Transforming The United Church of Canada Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. K. Sijtsma, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de Portrettenzaal van de Universi- teit op maandag 17 februari 2020 om 16.00 uur door Richard Michael Guy Manley-Tannis, geboren te Ottawa, Canada. Promotor: prof.dr. S. McNamee Copromotor: dr. D.R. Bidwell Overige commissieleden: prof.dr. E.P.N.M. Borgman prof.dr. G.A.F. Hellemans prof.dr. J.M. Day prof.dr. A. Dillen prof.dr. J.W. van Saane dr. S. Sremac Contents Acknowledgements iv Abstract vi 1. An Introduction 1 Descriptions 9 Autoethnography 9 Hermeneutics: Suspicion & Reparation 9 Mutual Critical Correlation 11 Practical Theology: The Four Tasks 12 Practical Theology: Lived Experience 13 Relational Construction 13 Theology of Diversity 14 The Journey 16 Limitations 16 The Descriptive Task: The United Church of Canada’s Theological 17 Inheritance The Interpretive Task: Trauma, Power, & Creation 18 The Normative Task: Developing a Relational Practical Theology 18 The Pragmatic Task: Lament & Appreciative Inquiry 19 2. The Descriptive Task: 20 The United Church of Canada’s Theological Inheritance An Unfolding Historic Movement 21 Inheriting Empire 23 A History of Deconstruction 27 Preferencing Diversity 32 Intercultural Theologising 33 White Privilege 35 Suspicious & Reparative Hermeneutics: Family of Resemblance 40 Logs #01 & #02 43 Log #01 43 Log #02 46 Summary 49 3. The Interpretive Task: Trauma, Power, & Creation 51 Story as Interpretation 52 Violence in Interpretation 54 Violence: Political 57 Violence: The Individual 59 Holy Saturday: The Trauma of Homophobia 62 Logs #03 & #04 67 Log #03 67 Log #04 69 P a g e | ii Creation: Blessing & Sin 71 A Child: Grace & Freewill 76 Diversity 77 Summary 81 4. The Normative Task: Developing a Relational Practical Theology 82 Practical Theology: Multiplicity 84 Practical Theology: A Relational Orientation 85 Practical Theology & Relational Construction: Bridges 88 Why? 91 Deductive & Inductive: Unfolding Stories 93 Assumptions, Truth & Objectivity 96 Truth & Objectivity 98 From Assumptions to Mutuality 100 Why is it Important? 104 Imagination 104 “T”ruth 109 “t”ruth 111 Knowledge, Meaning-Making, & Epistemology 113 Lament & Witness 114 Constructing a Relational Practical Theology 121 Relational Practical Theological Values 123 A Constructed Practical Relational Theology 124 Summary 128 5. The Pragmatic Task: Lament & Appreciative Inquiry 129 Returning to Lament 131 The United Church of Canada 133 Appreciative Inquiry 137 A Relational Change Philosophy 137 Appreciative Inquiry: One Final Correlative Conversation 142 The United Church of Canada 147 Curriculum Framework 149 6. Conclusion 152 7. Appendix (Logs & Vignettes) 157 Log #01 157 Vignette: Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin … 159 Log #02 162 Vignette: A Statistic Waiting to Happen 163 Log #03 168 Vignette: 1988 169 Scene 1: The Hall 169 Scene 2: The Other Hall 170 Scene 3: The Soap Party’s Finale 172 P a g e | iii Scene 4: Awakening 174 Log #04 176 Vignette: Is Love Enough? 177 8. Appendix (Appreciative Inquiry: Exploring the Provocative) 180 9. Appendix (Social Media & Evangelism) 187 10. Bibliography 193 P a g e | iv Acknowledgements This work is the culmination of many journeys and explorations, which have been filled with awe and doubt, wondering and wandering. In each times and places that have informed this project, Creator has always been present. That presence, which defies being bound to words, has always been intimate and relational. I have experienced care and affirmation, challenge and encouragement through this presence. As well, I am honoured to have been able to navigate a path, through various untold stories, that has led me to this particular accomplishment. By way of offering gratitude and acknowledgement for support in the completion of this project, I first must recognise my mentor and friend Maureen McKenna. During my introduction to Appreciative Inquiry (AI), her own choices to risk and play with “tradition” were an inspiration to embrace failure and chance as the seeds planted in fertile soil of the mind and imagination. My introduction to AI led me to a rich conversation with my doctoral sponsor at Tilburg, Dr. Sheila McNamee. From the outset, Sheila’s insight and wisdom, engagement and relationality made it eminently clear that I had found a philosophical home in relational construction. Without that initial conversation, what has unfolded would not be the story that I am telling. After meeting Sheila and with her intention and nurture, I have had the great blessing to have shared this journey with my advisor and mentor, Dr. Duane Bidwell. Duane’s patience and ability helped me to reframe my musings that were percolating, but which could not always be articulated. He helped crystallise what I was seeking yet could not always reach. His playfulness and affirmation helped buoy me when waters seemed turbulent. The completion of this project would never have seen fruition were it not for his embodiment of midwifing this dissertation. Along the way, I discovered a cohort of PhD peers to whom we affectionately refer to one another as the Winged Ones: Heather, sam and Kim. For several years, once a month, we would meet in the digital realm. At times, when courses and schedules permitted, we shared physical space. On each of these occasions, their care and love, kindness and inquisitiveness made this journey not one of isolation, but of community and sharing. To them, the words “thank you” are inadequate, yet they are the richest gifts I have to give them. To Jeannette (may her memory be eternal) and Glorie, your gifts for detail and editing made the first submission of the project that much more accessible. Thank you for not just being editors but engaging as interested readers! Finally, to my spouse, life partner, and companion on this revolving solar adventure on a wee blue dot, I am blessed to know love. Shelly’s choices to support me on this journey defy words, whether prose or poetry, to impart my gratitude. I am who I am, this project is P a g e | v what it is, because of her presence to help me become the person whom I believe Creator sings into being. P a g e | vi Abstract Since 2008, The United Church of Canada (UCCan) has been engaged in structural change that has been driven by various deficit constraints, which range from diminishing financial realities to a contracting volunteer base. These fiscal and structural constraints are not particular to the UCCan and speak to a generality that is affecting mainstream Christian denominations throughout the North American context of Canada and the United States of America. This structural change requires the UCCan to confront demographic shifts that leave the institution unmoored from its history, especially its role as a moral leader. For much of the twentieth century, the church was able to influence the development of public policy. Inspired by the social gospel, the UCCan advocated for the social good and highlighted the ethical aspirations that the Canadian social democratic state explored in such areas as social welfare, universal health care, and a social network that cared for the least. In this shifting landscape, during the late twentieth century, the UCCan was involved in two major theological endeavours that continue to inform its own sense of mission and identity: right relations with Canadian Indigenous peoples and a theology of diversity as articulated through the experience of the LGBTTQ* community. Where the denomination once claimed a role in influencing public policy, it has shifted to a narrative of deficit as it finds itself marginalised in an ever-increasingly secular context. As the denomination begins to live into its enacted structural changes, there is a sense of both fatigue and malaise in some areas. As the institution has heavily invested in processes and structure to address fiscal constraints, there remains a lack of clarity about mission. When institutional change is driven by an orientation to deficit, it becomes very difficult to nurture an alternative narrative from within the context in which an organisation has been embedded. By utilising relational construction (RC) as an epistemological stance to navigate the current context of the UCCan, I contend that the UCCan can shift from a structural/financial rationale for change to a missional orientation. This (re)orientation allows the denomination to recognise the important work it has done theologically, in particular, its work around diversity as evidenced in its advocacy for and solidarity with the LGBTTQ* community. By engaging with the sociological insights and learning afforded by RC, the denomination can focus on significant milestones to help it to construct a relational practical theology. A theology of relationality has implications for both the practice of ministry and the practical organisational responses that are required during the UCCan’s restructuring. One practice that operationalises RC, Appreciative Inquiry, demonstrates how the theoretical and practical can assist in this time of denominational change. P a g e | vii By introducing the UCCan to a new conversation partner, RC, space is made for the church to become better equipped to respond in a generative way to both its internal change and the shifting realities of secular Canada. From within a Christian context, this exploration of a relational practical theology has implications for the ways in which the UCCan engages in practical theology both within its communities of faith and within larger relational connexions, such as with regional, national, or international secular, ecumenical, and interfaith partners.