16 years ago today, I knelt before the assembled congregation of London Conference of the United Church of Canada and was ordained to a ministry of Word, Sacrament and Pastoral Care ... I rose from my knees with the honourific title of Reverend amended to my name ...16 years on, and I am no longer welcomed in the United Church of Canada ... my ministry has been driven out by lies, half-truths, gossip and cowardice ... the powers that be found it expedient and prudent to remove me rather than deal with the real issues ...
Today, I remain in Ministry to the Church - not the United Church, they've rolled up the welcome mat and beaten me with it ... I love the UCC with all of my being ... but the feelings are far from mutual ...
Today I am, for the first time in several years proud and comfortable to call myself Reverend Shawn again ... I've learned that God truly does work in mysterious and wondrous ways despite the best efforts of those who have appointed themselves guardians of God's way to the contrary ... as Desmond Tutu noted once - "our God will NOT be mocked ..."
Sadly in the Church today, many of those in leadership positions believe they are doing the will of God, and can not, and will NOT open their eyes to the possibility that they have been simply, utterly and breath-takingly WRONG !!!
Such behaviour makes a mockery out of God and God's presence in the world ... and like the man says - "Our God will not be mocked !!!"
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Sadly in the Church today, many of those in leadership positions believe they are doing the will of God, and can not, and will NOT open their eyes to the possibility that they have been simply, utterly and breath-takingly WRONG !!!
One year ago on July 1, I made a decision, quit the job I could no longer do in the face of the opposition I faced, in the field that I loved, caring for the disabled folk that I felt ferocious love for.
Shawn, those who are not tested, are not true. Thos who are tested, either give up, or do what the heart demands.
Sometimes I wish for the comfort of what I left behind.
However I am on a new path now, facing new challenges, skills that must be unlearned and learned again properly in a new discipline.
I remind both you and I of this song:
Here I am Lord.
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night...
If you call Lord, If you lead me,
I will hold your people in my heart...
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