ORDAINED MINISTER DOESN'T BELIEVE IN GOD & IT'S OK

Gretta Vospers has been an ordained minister with the United Church of Canada since 1993. Gretta is an atheist. Does that surprise you? She neither believes in the Bible or in a theistic, supernatural, interventionist God about whom the Bible speaks. Gretta has made that clear for many years. She pastors West Hill United Church in Toronto. 

Does Gretta's non-belief pose a problem for either her local congregation or for the United Church of Canada? No, it does not. Most of her congregants have been supportive of her views, but some people have been critical that her opinions were contrary to church doctrine. 

Complaints resulted in a 2016 Toronto Conference Committee review of Gretta's ministerial suitability. With a split decision the committee ruled that she was unsuitable to continue in ordinary ministry because she did not believe in God or Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit.

GRETTA VOSPER’S GOD-LESS CHRISTIANITY

Website photo-no credit available

Two days ago I wrote a piece entitled, The United Church of Canada and One Atheist Minister , concerning Rev. Gretta Vosper, a pastor who is at the time of writing, pastoring an Ontario church. This has been no secret for many years, but now her qualifications are under review by an the UC Executive and an ecclesiastical court. She does not want to be bound by a belief in God, but she refuses to step away from her church or the denomination of which the church is a member congregation. She acknowledges that she has moved toward humanism.

Ms. Vosper's personal website, records occasional blog entries, and some links, personal opinions and positions. Some readers will question why she continues to speak from within a Christian framework. If you wonder about that then your understanding may be assisted by reading her references to progressive Christianity and Christianity for the inquiring mind. She commends the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity. She favours distilling salient points out of the Christian tradition but to do that one must cast away assumptions, one of which is god called God. She chooses to filter everything with the question,  “Is this text, symbol, person, ritual, or tradition going to help us in the important work of building right relationships with ourselves, one another, the planet, and the seventh generation?” If it cannot help, then she says it is not worth using to pave her tomorrows, her heart or her church home.

Gretta Vosper has books of poems and prayers entitled 'Holy Breath' and 'Another Breath,' as invitations to explore new ways to love ourselves, those around us, and the rest of the planet and those who share it with us. They are procured by contacting retail@progressivechristianity.ca.  She is also the author of 'With or Without God,' and you buy this book on Amazon, which is Gretta's case for a post-Christian Church.

Readers may still question why bother with the 'christian' trappings? I don't have an answer for you or for Gretta, although I am confidant book sales are up when controversy is stirred enough to get people like me drawing attention to her. I do so only because some Christians I know are developing liberal theological leanings, or let's call them hesitations about biblical truths and concepts. My caution is obvious. Ask questions certainly, study scripture. Consult respected Christian apologists, not Gretta. Gretta leads you to humanism, which appears as freedom and progress but bonds with non-theistic secularism human agency. Her Christ-less, godless views cannot pave my tomorrows, my life, or anything about my faith expression.

THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA AND ONE ATHEIST PASTOR

Colin Perkel/The Canadian Press

She is one of their own. They don't want her anymore. She is Rev. Gretta Vosper. The United Church ordained Rev. Vosper in 1993. We assume that she was approved because in good faith she agreed with the tenets of faith of the United Church which includes a faith in God, which is stated with astonishing theological liberality. Among the belief statements of the United Church of Canada, is the following statement entitled 'Multi-faith Relations', with its deliberate non-discrimination that submits Christianity as merely one of the many ways by which humans find their way to God.

"The United Church of Canada views the religious practice of all people of goodwill with respect and gratitude. We believe the Spirit of God is at work in many different faith communities.For Christians, Jesus is the way we know God. Our understanding is nonetheless limited by human imagination. God is greater still and works in our world by a mysterious Spirit that knows no distinction at the doorway of a Christian chapel; Buddhist, Hindu, or Sikh temple; Aboriginal sweat lodge, Muslim mosque, or Jewish synagogue.
We work together with other Christian churches whenever possible, and among people of other religions in Canada and throughout the world on matters of justice, peace, and human dignity.
Today, difference is everywhere around us and, we believe, a great cause for celebration.”

The United Church's doctrinal broad-mindedness afforded Ms. Vosper a vast expanse of theological possibilities that unpredictably brought her to the conclusion that she no longer believes in God and she went public with this in 2001. This incongruence has been quiet but unresolved for over a decade but now the United Church of Canada Executive is questioning her fitness to serve as a minister. Colin Perkel's article in the Globe and Mail quotes Ms. Vosper saying, “I don’t believe in...the god called God….Using the word gets in the way of sharing what I want to share…. Is the Bible really the word of God? Was Jesus a person?... It’s mythology. We build a faith tradition upon it which shifted to find belief more important than how we lived.”

This United Church statement acknowledges God as an entity who is accessible by way of Jesus, but not exclusively so, since God's Spirit works to make God known to Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, First Nations, Muslims and Jews. In our obsessively politically and religiously correct culture this is a commendably acceptable. But is it acceptable to God? Doesn't the concept of Jesus as eternal God, incarnated briefly for the purpose of dying a substitutionary, atoning death for sinners, define God to the exclusion of every other religious alternative? Well you can hear where I am coming from. Yet, Rev. Vosper insists that she should not be bound by a belief in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, even though that was basic to her ordination vows. Vosper believes that her movement to humanism should be embraced by her church as she explores new ways to express spirituality and values. An ecclesiastical court will decide this autumn 2015 whether she has gone too far.