The Good Ship Jesus Christ

Bruce Hood

Over the past two weekends most of the thirteen regional Conferences of the United Church of Canada have met, including our Bay of Quinte. At virtually all of them there has been discussion of the Comprehensive Review, the "everything up for grabs" review of how we are a denomination initiated by last year's General Council (national.)

Some of the comments I read on Twitter from those annual meetings raised concerns that this supposedly wide-ranging review was quickly becoming about church structure rather than faith community culture. Of course both are important to change, but without a new vision of how we can effectively live out the gospel for our time which takes hold in our congregations we can tinker with structure forever and ever, amen.

It was interesting that our son, Isaac, who is a United Church minister, tweeted some extraordinary photos of a 100-year old barge in Australia. This ship was hauled to a bay where vessels were dismantled decades ago but the shipyard failed and so this vessel was left, derelict. Over time it became a nursery for what is now a forest on the water. Isaac's comment was "I'm sure there is a metaphor for the mainline church somewhere in these photos."

I agree, especially knowing that the boat or ship was a symbol for the church for centuries before the cross became significant. Those of us in mainline or "oldline" churches wonder if it is only a matter of time before we are derelict, "dead in the water." We want to believe that the Holy Spirit can create something new and alive for our day, but it can be unsettling and even painful to let go of what gave us our sense of security.

I wouldn't mind if this image of the lush forest sprouting from the rusting hulk became our United Church logo, but I'm not holding my breath.

Is anyone else amazed by this photo by Bruce Hood? Would this be a discouraging or hopeful church image for you? Do you trust that the Holy Spirit will enliven the good ship Jesus Christ once again?