Diana Butler Bass Preaches at Ecumenical Worship

The two faith communities of Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican) and St. Andrew’s-Wesley (United Church of Canada) gathered together on the Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost, Sunday, October 18, 2015, at St. Andrew’s-Wesley for an ecumenical Celebration of the Eucharist. Since May 2015, the Christ Church Cathedral community has been on a pilgrimage away from their building located at the corners of Burrard and Georgia, as extensive renovations take place to the 120 year old church structure. St. Andrew’s-Wesley has welcomed the Cathedral’s 8am Book Of Common Prayer (BCP) congregation and the main 10:30am Celebration of the Eucharist is regularly taking place in the Burrard Ballroom of the Century Plaza hotel, located next door to St. Andrew’s

There are a variety of good reasons for the two communities to worship together but this time the purpose was quite specific and that was to create an opportunity where both congregations could gather and experience a homily, preached by well-known author/historian/theologian/sociologist Diana Butler Bass. Butler Bass is a respected progressive Christian voice in North America and arguably one of the keenest observers of the world of (primarily) mainstream Christian churches in our post-modern era.

She is currently touring to promote her latest book, GROUNDED – Finding God in the World – A Spiritual Revolution. The October 18 Sunday sermon was followed by a lecture and book promotion half day event facilitated by Butler Bass on the morning of Monday, October 19 at Vancouver School of Theology (VST). This event, titled “God in a Post-Religious Time” was sponsored by: VST, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Andrew’s – Wesley United Church, St. Andrew’s Hall and the diocese of New Westminster.

On Sunday, October 18, Diana Butler Bass chose the first reading, Job 38: 1-7, 34-41 as her text. She began her address making reference to the Children’s talk that had occurred a few minutes previously where and when the Children and Youth Ministry coordinators of both communities gathered the younger members of the combined congregation at the chancel entrance and spoke about the previous Thanksgiving weekend. This combined with all the election talk she had heard since her arrival in Canada a few days earlier had her quite confused, as for her, an American, Thanksgiving and elections take place in November not October. She was worried that the touring was catching up with her.

She set the scene for her analysis of the chosen scripture by making reference to the past 15 years which are the first 15 years of the new millennium. "The world that we live in, is a world in travail" Many ask "Where is God?...God 's power is found in the fact that God is the life-giving essence of everything."

Her sermon was eloquent, but presented in language and tone that would be accessible to a broad range of listener from first time church-goer to divinity school graduate. Her preaching is refreshingly direct, the messages delivered with skill and sincerity. She compared the many tragedies that have taken place in our world in the past decade and a half to the terrible misfortunes that befell Job. When faced with a horrible event like the murder of 20 six year olds and six of their teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School like Job many of us ask “Where is God?” But when God communicates with Job, God does not supply Job with the solution to the existence of Evil, God does not provide an answer but directs him to look all around at the beauty of creation. Butler Bass describes this as “the meeting of prophetic grief and the meeting of prophetic beauty.” In Job, God’s response shows a divine intuition about where we are going now, which she describes as a “holy Möbius strip”. Many who question their faith in our post-modern world look for and find the divine in the wonder and beauty of creation instead of giving up and saying “there is no God.” This is a concept that has its roots in the Hebrew Bible.

For more information about Diana Butler Bass and how to obtain copies of her books and lectures please visit her website

PHOTOS

• Diana Butler Bass preaching at St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church the morning of October 18
• The St. Andrew's-Wesley Gospel Choir sings "Holy Ground"Vocational
• Deacon at Christ Church Cathedral, the Reverend Alisdair Smith reads the Gospel
• Diana Butler Bass; Cathedral server, Ann Kowalchuk; St. Andrew's-Wesley's senior minister, the Reverend Dan Chambers and Dean of the diocese and rector of Christ Church Cathedral, the Very Reverend Peter Elliott listen to the Gospel
• Over 500 gathered at St. Andrew's-Wesley for the ecumenical Celebration of the Eucharist.