Broadview Magazine

“The way we have church today, if you look at Jesus’ time, they didn’t really have any of these things,” notes Atlantic School of Theology president Rev. Heather McCance. The Apostle Paul simply trained locals to do what was needed to lead communities. As membership numbers decline, McCance sees churches reverting to that apostolic way of being and becoming more decentralized and ecumenical.

Every Sunday morning, on the westernmost edge of Toronto’s Cabbagetown, 45 or so worshippers cram into the tiny chapel at Saint Luke’s United. Every seat in the pews is spoken for, with extra chairs squeezed into the aisles. But the tight quarters haven’t cramped the church’s sense of community. For decades, Saint Luke’s has been known as the “House of Friendship.” Longtime congregants, many of them Filipino, welcome every newcomer who’s Googled “church near me” or walked in off the streets.

Zionism was not always a word uttered by so many people with such vitriol, scorn, and disgust. Perhaps because of that, those of us who identified as Zionists rarely had to give much thought to what that identity actually meant to us. That has changed post-October 7, 2023. Zionism has moved to the forefront of conversations about Israel-Palestine, Palestinian liberation, Jewish nationhood and sovereignty. Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Above the kitchen window of St. John’s United Church in Kemptville, Ont., a small mural depicts a community sharing a meal, a family singing around a campfire and a young boy in quiet reflection as a dove flies overhead. Created by two local artists, it was designed to help the congregation imagine its next chapter — a process that unfolded over the pandemic.

One morning in May, John Pentland, a minister at Hillhurst United Church in Calgary, opened his newspaper and read about a group of Albertans who were trying to divide his country. Something inside of him felt like it cracked open. He started to weep. Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. This field is hidden when viewing the form Which newsletters are you interested in receiving? Δ You may unsubscribe from any of our newsletters at any time.

Earlier this month, former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon shocked the world with a dire warning: “The people building artificial intelligence earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” But what does our rush to develop increasingly powerful technology say about how we understand ourselves, our responsibilities to one another and the kind of society we want to build? Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

On Sept. 1, Rev. Janet Anstead was appointed general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC). The CCC is Canada’s largest ecumenical body, representing a majority of Canadian Christians. Anstead currently serves as minister for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In addition to her pastoral background, she is a lawyer who practiced family law in the 1990s. Anstead succeeds Peter Noteboom, a Christian Reformed Church in North America pastor who led the CCC for nine years.

Preaching runs in Ins Choi’s family. While his grandfather, dad, uncle, aunt and seven cousins told stories from the pulpit, Choi ultimately chose a different stage. He studied theology in university and tried preaching, but he also trained as an actor before falling into writing. His 2011 Fringe hit, Kim’s Convenience, about a Korean Canadian family with a corner store in Toronto, led to the popular television show of the same name.

The future direction of St. Columba’s Anglican-United Church changed unexpectedly during an unusually cold winter in 2021. On Dec. 21, temperatures in Port Hardy, B.C., on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island, fell to -5 C, then to -5 C again on Christmas Day. A few days later, they plunged to an unthinkable -12 C. In other parts of Canada, these winter temperatures might be considered a warm spell.

When most people think of church growth, they think of membership size. But Rev. Cameron Fraser, executive minister of growth and stewardship with The United Church of Canada, spoke to Broadview about how small churches can look at growth in more expansive ways, regardless of whether membership increases. Ashely Crouch: What do growth animators do? LinkedIn This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.