Romancing Jesus: an anatomy of renewal Transcript Date: Tuesday, 10 May 2005 - 12:00AM Location: Barnard's Inn Hall Romancing Jesus: An anatomy of renewal Revd Canon Dr Martyn Percy Dating from 1994, ‘The Toronto Blessing’ is the name for a phenomenon that is associated with the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. From its very foundation, the Vineyard Christian Church in Toronto had experienced many of the things that would be typical for Christians within the fundamentalist-revivalist tradition: miracles, healings, an emphasis on deliverance, speaking in tongues, and a sense of the believers being in the vanguard of the Holy Spirit’s movement as the millennium neared. However, what marked out the ‘Toronto Blessing’ for special consideration were the more unusual phenomena that occurred. A number of followers trace the initial outpouring back to ‘Father’s Day’, the result being that some prefer to call the movement ‘the Father’s Blessing’ (Chevreau, 1994). There was an unusually high reportage of people being ‘slain in the Spirit’. A number would laugh uncontrollably, writhing on the floor (the leaders of the movement dubbed this ‘carpet time with God’), make animal-like noises, barking, growling or groaning as the ‘Spirit fell on them’. Others reported that this particular experience of God was more highly-charged than anything that had preceded it (Hunt, 1995; Poloma, 1996; Percy 1996a; Percy 1996b; Percy 1998, pp. 281-289; Richter & Porter, 1995; Smail, Walker & Wright, 1995). Thus, the ‘blessing’ became known by the place where it was deemed to be most concentrated. To date, around two million visitors, or ‘pilgrims’, have journeyed to Toronto experience the blessing for themselves. Many of these pilgrims report dramatic miracles or supernatural interventions, substantial changes in their lives, and greater empowerment for Christian ministry. More unusual claims have included tooth cavities being miraculously filled with gold, and ‘dustings’ of gold on the hair and shoulders of believers, indicating a specific spiritual anointing. Some have even claimed that children born to believers will have supernatural resurrection bodies. A small number of other women of child-bearing age claimed to have had spiritual pseudo-psychetic experiences. In spite of the extraordinary success of the church, John Wimber (1934-1997), founding pastor of the Vineyard network, excommunicated the Toronto fellowship for ‘(alleged) cult-like and manipulative practices’. Some evangelical critics of the ‘Toronto Blessing Movement’ cited the influence of the Rhema or ‘Health and Wealth’ movement, through the Toronto Fellowship’s own connections with Benny Hinn and Rodney Howard-Browne, as another reason for Vineyard-led secession (Hillborn, 2001, pp. 4-10). In January 1996, the Toronto Vineyard became independent. But under the leadership of its pastor, John Arnott, it has flourished, and continues to exercise an international ministry in the fundamentalist-revivalist tradition. The Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship still meets in a converted trade centre on an industrial estate that is less than a mile away from the main city airport. Contextually, it is conveniently located in a matrix of highways that criss-cross downtown Toronto. There are no residential areas remotely near the fellowship, and members or visitors need a car to travel to meetings – but this is not unusual in North American church-going. Local hotels that are linked to the airport and conference economy also enjoy a good reciprocal relationship with the fellowship and its ‘pilgrims’. The fellowship building is functional, compromising offices and meeting rooms, and a large sanctuary area for celebrations. It is a spacious, adaptive building. For example, there was once a large area at the back of the church that was segregated into track lanes. This is where worshippers, at the end of a service, could stand waiting for individual ministry to take place. A minister stood in front of the worshipper, and a ‘catcher’ at the back. When or if a worshipper fell to the ground - ‘slain in the Spirit’ - they were caught, and the minister moved on to the next worshipper on their track, leaving the previous one on the floor to ‘marinade in the Spirit’. Worship or revival meetings can last several hours, but pilgrims can also avail themselves of café facilities if they need physical rather than spiritual refreshment. Yet as a cultural creature of its time, the ‘Toronto Blessing’, in spite of its claims to represent a pre-eminent type of pneumatological power, ironically seemed to place lessemphasis on aggressively reified spiritual power (a particular feature of John Wimber’s teaching in the 1980s – e.g., ‘power evangelism’), and through its distinctive grammar of worship, put more accent on concepts such as the.