Gretta Vosper likes discussing The Evolution of Religion and is the minister of West Hill United Church, a church which is so inclusive and diverse that it is desperately seeking someone who would not be welcome, so that it can find a way to entice them in; I am writing this from a hiding place in my basement, trying to look inconspicuous.

The inclusiveness of West Hill United doesn’t just extend to sexual diversity, it extends to every kind of diversity one can imagine.

“As soon as we recognize a group there that is not identified as being welcome, we will change that,” she said.

Inclusive though it might be, the West Hill United Church doesn’t actually have much room to include God; in fact, just in case he shows up by mistake, to encourage his rapid departure no-one talks about him:

In order to not have any confusion about what “God” means when said at a service, it was decided not to use the word at all, because each individual sitting in the pews could have a different belief about who or what God is to them.

Ms. Vosper doesn’t have much time for “truth” preferring, instead to be “open”; after all, what is truth?

The concept of truth is an elusive one.  As we open ourselves to exploring it, we always find that, just when we think we know it, something else needs to be explored.  But one of the “truths” about the truth is that we need to be completely open to whatever it may be.

She doesn’t believe in God, but may believe in god, depending what you mean by “god”, which is a bit confusing – depending on what you mean by “is”.

Ms Vosper is the author of “With or Without God”, a title she came up with after attending a U2 concert. The book’s sub-heading proclaims that the way we live is more important that what we believe – which appears to be a statement of belief that, if true, could be disproved by living as if it were not true.

Ms. Vosper’s theology is difficult to pin down, but this sums it up adequately:

The United Church of Canada has a new Moderator, Mardi Tindal. According to recent reports, “She tweets. She’s green. She’s media savvy. She’s animated.” – all laudable accomplishments which St. Peter and St. Paul sadly lacked. In addition to a new moderator, the United Church has also invented a new language where “belief is a noun and faith is a verb.”

New Moderator, new language and, new Creed –  some would say, new religion. In keeping with modern family life, the Father is absent:

We are not alone,

we live in God’s world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.

We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

Indeed, we are not alone; The Truth Is Out There; I Want To Believe.

Judging by its 40th General Council, the United Church of Canada has become a concoction of self-loathing:

Apologies were offered first to aboriginals forced to attend residential schools in Canada

There was formal recognition this week of an apology made in June, for the church’s confiscation of Japanese-Canadian property during the Second World War.

We confess that the church, too, was tainted by the prejudices and fears of that era, and that even best intentions were warped by often-subtle forms of racism.

I’m sorry,” offered a church official. “If I said something that sounded like an accusation, I apologize for that.

anti-Christian – no, make that anti-God:

Gretta Vosper is the minister at West Hill United Church in Toronto and author of With or Without God: Why the way we live is more important than what we believe. She explains that she doesn’t refer to God anymore “because there is no single meaning for the word.”

lunatic-fringe, gaia worshipping, gobbledygook spouting eco-bigots bent on making David Suzuki look moderate:

The kind of old assumptions of the United Church are falling away,” answered Russell Daye, an ordained minister from the Maritimes. “New archetypes are starting to emerge,” he added. “I think we’re finding a language that is grounded in Earth and some kind of eco-feminism, in a way…I think our new paradigm, if you want to use that, is going to be ‘wholographic.’

thinly disguised anti-Semites:

Hoping to stop a fire from spreading through their ranks, delegates at a major United Church of Canada conference decided on Thursday to put on hold a proposed boycott of Israel and to side-step anti-Israel resolutions put forward by church activists.

What is truly baffling, though, is that the United Church is dwindling, having lost half its members since 1965; why is that, one wonders.

The United Church, in its zeal for punishing Israel’s commitment to democracy and protecting its own people, is calling for a boycott of the following products (page 78):

Ambi Pur, AOL Time Warner, Aoste, Apax Partners & Co. Ltd., Aramis, Arsenal FC, Auchan, Bali, Ball Park, Biotherm, Banana Republic, Bryan, Buitoni, Café Pilāo, Calvin Klein, Carnation, Carrefour, Caterpillar, Champion, Clinique, CNN, Coca-Cola, Danone, Delta Galil, Dim, Disney, Donna Karan, DYNK, Estée Lauder, Express, Expo Design Center, Evian, Fruitopia, Gap, Garnier, General Electric, Georgia Lighting, Giorgio Armani, Gossard, HarperCollins, Hanes, Helen Rubinstein, Henri Bendel, Hema, Hillshire Farms, The Home Depot, Huggies, Hugo Boss, ICQ, IBM, Intel, Intimate brands, J. Crew, JC Penney, Jimmy Dean, Johnson & Johnson, Jo Malone, Just My Size, Kimberley-Clark, Kia Ora, Kiwi, Kleenex, Kotex, Lancôme, La Roche-Posay, Lea-Perrin, L’eggs, Lerner New York, Lewis Trust Group Ltd., Libby’s, Lilt, The Limited Inc., Lindex, L’Oreal, Loveable, MAC Cosmetics, Maggi, Maison Café, Marks & Spencer, MAST Industries, Inc., Matrix, Maybelline, McDonald’s, Nestlé, News Corporation, News of the World, New York & Company, New York Post, Nokia, Nur Die, Nursery World, Outerbanks, Origins, Perrier, Pickwick, Playtex, Prescriptives, Pryca, Ralph Lauren, Redken, Revlon, River Island, Santex, Sara Lee, Schweppes, Selfridges, Sky, Starbucks, Structure, The Sun, Sunkist, Superior Coffee, Tchibo, Timberland, Time, Tommy Hilfiger, Twentieth Century Fox, Vichy Laboratories, Victoria’s Secret, Villager’s Hardware, Vittel, The White Barn Candle Co., and Wonderbra.

I think this is an excellent move since United Church ladies will not only be braless, but also without computers, McDonald’s hamburgers, Starbucks and – the real crippler – Victoria’s Secret. In fact, what’s left of the entire United Church might as well move to a cave in Afghanistan, clear their consciences and leave the rest of us to enjoy our hamburgers while reading News of the World.

Question: is there a dafter church than the Anglican Church of Canada?

Answer: you bet – it’s the United Church of Canada.

In many ways, the United Church has paved the way for Anglicans: it has pioneered absurd political correctness by expunging “Father” from it’s hymnbooks, embraced gayness with the enthusiasm of a bear finding a jar of honey, and championed every potty left-wing ignis fatuus  known to man.

And now, out of the plethora of demonically evil nations to select from, it has, instead, chosen Israel for special approbation while ignoring models of utopian harmony such as Iran and North Korea.

The United Church of Canada is back in the news this week for having its head trapped in its fundament, as attendees of its upcoming general council will be asked to vote on a resolution boycotting Israeli academic and cultural institutions for tiresomely familiar reasons. The language of the resolution suggests that Israel stands out amongst the nations of the world as a uniquely horrible monster: it is said to operate what is described as a “regime of exclusion, violence and dehumanization directed against Palestinians.”

As if there weren’t 50 other boycottable countries that routinely and intentionally inflict these things on their citizens in a wholly undifferentiated way, without the mitigating features of Israeli rule — democratic checks and balances, a code and ethos of individual rights, rules of engagement for the military and the police, a free press, economic freedom and an independent judiciary.

It looks like Fred Hiltz has some catching up to do.