When the United Church went to Sea

Yesterday  I had one of those "passing glance" moments with an article about the restoration of a hundred year old yacht by an American which turned out to have a strong connection with the United Church of Canada. What is now the Argonaut II was built for a wealthy individual and was purchased in 1934 by the UCC to be used as a mission ship along the BC coast, rechristened as the Thomas Crosby.  Here is the the description of this denominational use:

For more than three decades, it served as a vital link to more than 50 remote ports of call on the northern B.C. coast, visiting isolated lighthouses, canneries, logging camps and First Nations villages.

It brought supplies such as food, mail and equipment, but was also a floating library and had its own projector to show movies, along with an organ for church services and weddings. The cedar-panel organ is still in the collection of the Maritime Museum of B.C.

Many of the features the church added to the yacht remain, such as stained-glass cabinet doors. The church also installed a hydraulic windlass on the bow, and added refrigeration and benches that could be converted into bunks.

In its church era, the vessel was skippered by Rev. Dr. Peter Kelly, the first Indigenous person ordained in the United Church of Canada.

                                                   Rev. Peter Kelly and his wife Gertrude

I grew up in the Baby Boom era when the United Church was a robust Christian entity, the largest Protestant denomination in the country. There were more than a million members in the early 1960s, not to mention a bazillion children, when the population of Canada was less than 20 million. There was still growth in congregations  at that time and the UCC was actively involved in evangelism and social justice outreach. 

I remember well hearing about the work of the missionary team of the Thomas Crosby and the United Church hospitals in Bella Bella and Bella Coola. It seemed rather adventurous amidst the conventions of church life. 

In that era the United Church ran dozens of clinics and hospitals across the country, including one in Baie Verte Newfoundland. A wonderful parishioner in Belleville, a highly respected surgeon now "promoted to glory" served in these hospitals in opposite ends of he country in supposed retirement. A specialist, he became a generalist in these remote communities, addressing every imaginable ailment. 

My late aunt Noreen was married to a United Church minister who used a small boat to serve coastal communities in BC and sadly drowned in a storm. She eventually married my uncle, also a UCC minister. 

There is lots to commend regarding the United Church outreach in remote communities as an expression of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is also a dark side. When I did some snooping about Rev. Thomas Crosby, who was a Methodist before the United Church was created, I discovered that he was determined to "civilize" the Indigenous people he encountered, essentially as an extension of the Residential School system. The United Church Archives issues a warning about the Thomas Crosby: 

 This image of the Thomas Crosby I was taken at a time when the boat was used as part of marine missions run by The Methodist Church of Canada. Mission boats acted as mobile mission stations. Mission institutions actively participated in colonial attitudes and teaching methods that may have contributed to loss of heritage, culture and languages. These institutions may have contributed to a legacy of harm that is still pervasive today.

The Thomas Crosby IV was sold in 1966 as remote communities became more accessible by road and air while governments took over healthcare. I wonder if there was a succession of ships involved in this service with this name through the decades or if it was refurbished with different numbers until this mission ministry ended? It certainly looks the same today. 

This is part of our history as the United Church of Canada, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It seems important to remember it all as our denomination diminishes in size and presence in this country. 

Tenzing & a Sacred Mountain

Seeing a trailer for the Apple TV film Tenzing created enough curiosity in us to give it an exploratory look and we stayed for the whole film. It is a docudrama about the earlier life of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa guide who accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary to the summit of Mount Everest, the highest peak on Planet Earth. It's unlikely that Hillary would have accomplished this unprecedented feat without Tenzing. In fact, the two climbers of the team chosen to make the final ascent failed before Tenzing and Hillary succeeded.

A recurring theme in the film is the spirituality of Tenzing whose parents placed him in a Buddhist monastery as a boy because of their desperate poverty. He decided not to become a monk but this influence informed his perception of the mountain as a living entity to be respected and consulted rather than conquered. The British were determined to succeed where other nations failed and the irony is that in the end a Nepalese and a Kiwi were able to make the push to the summit. There is a scene in which Tenzing insists that before they climb the team participates in a ceremony within a monastery to honour Chamolangma, the goddess, rather than Everest, named after a British surveyor. 

Tenzing's son confirms that his father was a deeply spiritual person and offers this in his book Touching My Father's Soul: 

The scenery in the movie is spectacular because it is filmed on location, at altitude, a considerable challenge for the actors and the crew. Climbing Everest is still a major accomplishment although the entire perilous ascent is now roped to guide the climbers. Most of them have the most advanced equipment money can buy and guiding companies have camps with chefs. In 2026 1,000 people made it to the top counting climbers and guides. It is a commercial enterprise for the well-heeled and one of the big issues is the amount of garbage and human waste left behind. It is a desecration, a grim statement about our materialistic culture, although efforts are being made to change this. 

After we watched I did a bit of research about Tensing, as I'm wont to do, and I also got thinking about the holiness, the sacredness of mountains in my spiritual tradition. Moses had multiple "mountaintop experiences" from the burning bush to receiving the Ten Commandments in the Sina wilderness i to his final resting place on Mount Nebo. And Jesus climbed a mountain, perhaps Hermon, with several of his disciples, where they had their mystical experience Christians call the Transfiguration. We could see the snowy summit of Hermon when we were in the Galilee in 2023.

See the film, if you're able, and ponder the sacred mountains of different traditions. 

                                                                    Mount Sinai at dawn 

Justice for Fungi?

 

1 This is God's wondrous world,

and to my listening ears

all nature sings, and round me rings

the music of the spheres.

This is God's wondrous world;

I rest me in the thought

of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,

God's hand the wonders wrought.

                              Voices United 296 

There is a United Nations Biodiversity Conference underway in Armenia, one of those vital gatherings of nations most of us haven't heard about because of the endless news about conflicts as well as the noxious gases emanating from south of the border. There are times when I feel almost desperate that we give so little attention to the health of our planetary home but these conversations are better than silence. 

I was pleased to see that the CBC covered the call at this conference for protection of fungi as an essential aspect of global biodiversity. And I was surprised to see a photo of Giuliana Furci, a mycologist from Chile. I mentioned in a blog a few days ago.https://lionlamb-bowmanville.blogspot.com/2026/10/holy-wholly-entangled-life.html

I conceded that there are no mushrooms in the bible but bread and wine, the elements of one of our sacraments, depend on the marvelous fermentation brought about by yeasts, which are fungi. 

                                                                        Mycologist Giuliana Furci 

Here is an excerpt from the CBC piece with the title Biologists seek justice for forgotten kingdom of fungi: 

 As world leaders meet at a UN summit to preserve the world's animals and plants, a group of scientists is pushing to protect another diverse kingdom of species they say is too often forgotten – fungi.

The fungi on Earth weigh six times more than the world's animals combined, and there are an estimated 5 million species, ranging from edible mushrooms to microscopic organisms that play essential roles in ecosystems.

"Without fungi, the world as we know [it] wouldn't exist," says Chilean mycologist Giuliana Furci.Yet fungi traditionally haven't been included in efforts to protect plants and animals — something that struck her years ago.

"When I realized they weren't incorporated into environmental legislation, the sense of injustice was so profound," recalled Furci. Her response was to create the Fungi Foundation, which she believes is the first non-profit organization dedicated to conserving the world's fungi, in 2012. https://www.ffungi.org/

Yet fungi traditionally haven't been included in efforts to protect plants and animals — something that struck her years ago. "When I realized they weren't incorporated into environmental legislation, the sense of injustice was so profound," recalled Furci. Her response was to create the Fungi Foundation, which she believes is the first non-profit organization dedicated to conserving the world's fungi, in 2012. 

Since then, others have popped up — including Canada-based Mycosphaera — together forming the Global Fungal Conservation Network. On Wednesday, the coalition launched the Global Strategy for Fungal Conservation at the COP17 UN biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia. 

We do live in the Creator's wondrous world, even though we are inclined to miss the everyday miracles. I mean, Holy Moses, doesn't the mushroom below look like a burning bush? 

                        Jack-o'-lantern mushroom in Wolfville, N.S. (Submitted by Allison Walker)

We Fly Away

Lord, you have been our dwelling place

    in all generations.
 Before the mountains were brought forth
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn us back to dust
    and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”
 For a thousand years in your sight
    are like yesterday when it is past
    or like a watch in the night.

 You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning;
 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
    in the evening it fades and withers.

 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
    our years come to an end like a sigh.
 The days of our life are seventy years
    or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
    they are soon gone, and we fly away.

                                     Psalm 90: 1-6, 9-10 NRSVue 

I close my eyes

only for a moment and the moment's gone

All my dreams 

Pass before my eyes, a curiosity

refrain

Dust in the wind

All they are is dust in the wind 

                               Dust in the Wind -- Kansas, 1977

Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm inclined to read a morning psalm offered through the daily ecumenical lectionary, or table of readings. I often look at the other passages for the day as well. My go-to bible version is the New Revised Standard Version (Updated Version) but I regularly turn to the superb Hebrew Bible translation by scholar Robert Alter. From time to time I compare notes with the contemporary version of the late Eugene Peterson called The Message. 

Some times these passages are perplexing, maybe boring, occasionally disturbing, but most often thought-provoking and inspiring. The daily psalm actually repeats for three days and then moves on to the next. The latter part of this week is Psalm 90:1-6 but I've gone wild and read to the end of the psalm at verse seventeen. 

What strikes me about the verses I've highlighted from the psalm is the acknowledgement that life is fleeting, even when it is long and satisfying. Of course, the average lifespan in developed countries has extended through the millennia. Japan now has more than one hundred thousand citizens aged 100 or older. Eventually, though, we are all "dust in the wind" to quote from a surprisingly introspective and rather biblical hit by the rock group Kansas almost half a century ago -- yikes, time does fly! 

The psalmist encourages us to be aware of our mortality and to "wake up and fly right" in our relationship with God.  Yes, there is plenty of toil and trouble along the way yet we can do our best to live with purpose and a desire to follow in the path of justice and love God sets out before us. I suppose we could talk about this together but I might not be able to hear you!

Watching and Wondering and Bird Migration

Yesterday we paddled in to a spot in a Conservation Area in our region to enjoy yet another perfect Fall day. We built a fire, read books, and one crazy 72-year-old donned his wet suit and went for a swim. Yup, chilly. 

This morning we chatted about the profound silence and tranquility. The water was like glass and it was so still we could literally hear dropping leaves hit the ground. We felt blessed by the Creator.

What was missing on a late October day were the birds we saw on the same lake in May -- loons, ospreys, merlins, and kingfishers. They have departed for warmer climes. 

We are coming to the end of the Autumn migration season during which up to a billion birds are recorded in flight across the continent each night. This is a miraculous event which takes place while most of us are sleeping.  

During the Summer I read a book called Watch and Wonder: Birding as a Spiritual Practice. It is by Ragan Sutterfield , an Episcopal priest  in Arkansas. He reflects on his life-long passion for birding in the context of the twelve months of the year with chapter headings such as hospitality, abundance, vision, patience, and friendship. Every chapter was thought-provoking and an invitation to "consider the birds of the air" to use the words of Jesus, to be attuned to the world around us in communally or in solitude. 

I wrote to Ragan and encouraged him to create a study guide based on the book because I've discovered that there is a growing enthusiasm for birding, perhaps because we know that bird populations are diminishing. There is even a phrase, "early onset birding" to describe the growing number of young people who are taking up the pursuit, or practice, if you will. 

It is vital for all of us to ponder the natural world, to pay attention to the birds and Monarch butterflies, and dragonflies in migration, to appreciate the interconnectedness of all living creatures. There are no  national borders for these creatures, no Lake of America, no tariffs. 

Yesterday we watched and wondered, thanks be to God,  and Ruth may have heard the wild hoot of the elusive Demented Oldster. 

Ecocide Amidst the Olive Groves

                                                            Olive Trees on Fire in the West Bank 

If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. 

Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you?  

    Deuteronomy 20: 19 NRSVue

1 Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning,
give me oil in my lamp, I pray;
give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning,
keep me burning till the break of day.

    Oldie Goldie Chorus 

I have experienced what I would describe as visceral anguish over the destruction of the tiny enclave of Gaza, home to more than two million Palestinian people. In three years roughly 75,000 have been killed, the majority civilians. The UN estimate is that 20,000 children have died, including about 500 from starvation. 

Nearly 90% of the population has been displaced as homes, infrastructure, and heritage buildings have been destroyed. The amplification of cruelty and revenge by Israel after the Hamas terrorist attacks three years ago is so disproportionate that it's little wonder that the term genocide is used to describe what has unfolded.

What about ecocide? A recent report states that more than a million olive trees in Gaza have been destroyed as well. Olives are central to the agricultural economy of the Palestinians territories, both Gaza and the West Bank. The trees have been bombed, bulldozed, and burned by the Israeli military and settlers in the West Bank. The olive harvest is underway and in the West Bank the level of violence by settlers has escalated with burning of trees and physical attacks on Palestinian harvesters. Genocide is accelerated by ecocide. as soldiers stand by, refusing to intervene. 

In the past few days a Washington Post photographer was beaten and European Union observers during harvest attacks in the West Bank. Finally the Israeli government has arrested some of the perpetrators because of the international condemnation but based on history its unlikely that anyone will be prosecuted. 

This is hideous and the hypocrisy is glaring. Militant Jewish settlers make the claim that the bible gives them title to this land yet as I've written before scripture expressly prohibits the destruction of fruit-bearing trees. 

The olive branch of peace is biblical and there are many references to olive trees and fruit and oil. Olive oil was used for anointing and for light in lamps Where is the commitment to peace in this war torn region? Where is the light? 

The night before his crucifixion Jesus prayerfully struggled in the Garden of Gethsemane, an 

olive grove which still exists in Jerusalem. We should all feel anguish at this destruction at every level. An election is at hand in Israel we can pray that change is at hand, although I'm not holding my breath. 

                                             Garden of Gethsemane Olive Harvest 

Olive oil and table olives are crucial to Gaza's local agricultural economy, but in Palestinian culture, olive trees are much more than just a commodity. They are symbols of continuity, resilience, and attachment to the soil. Many groves are hundreds of years old and passed down through generations.

Holy, Wholly Entangled Life

 

                                                    Change Islands NL -- Ruth Mundy

There are no mushrooms in the bible, neither in the Older or Newer Testaments. Lots of trees and tons of grain but not a verse about mushrooms. There are religious practices which consider the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms as sacramental but that ain't happening in Judaism and Christianity. 

Just the same, I would argue that mushrooms and fungi in general. are an oft ignored gift from the Creator, a conviction that took me years to realize. While we were on Change Islands,  Newfoundland, in August I read Robert McFarlane's book Are Rivers Alive? where he writes about a demanding multi-day hike into the Ecuadorian cloud forest with a team including mycologist Guiliana Furci. She converted him with her evangelical enthusiasm for the astonishing variety of fungi they encountered. She promotes the notion that we should refer to flora, fauna, and funga because the complexity of our ecosystems are so reliant on the connectivity that fungi provide.

The same day I read about this we walked through the woods to a shoreline trail and encountered a variety of mushrooms along the way. We knew of another trail up to a height of land where we have been treated to lots of fungi in the past so we walked it the next day. Sure enough, we were treated to perhaps a hundred or more mushrooms of beautiful variety. We took our time pondering them because, well, why wouldn't we enjoy them? The kind friends who loan us their seasonal home there do consume some of the mushroom bounty of the islands but we're a little too chicken to harvest them. 

On our return to Ontario I borrowed the brilliant Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake with it's great introduction titled What's It Like to be a Fungus? This all got me thinking about Canadian Suzanne Simard's groundbreaking (soil-breaking) book Finding the Mother Tree which argues that  trees in a forest are interconnected, communicating and sharing resources through a complex underground network of fungi.

We live on a planet of extraordinary complexity and wonder, often spreading, interweaving beneath our feet without our awareness. We are meant to be lovers of the Earth and we must rediscover the the humility (humus=soil) to receive wisdom from Creation and Creator.

I began by saying that there are no mushrooms in the bible and no sacrament to go with them. Yet there is plenty of bread and wine in scripture, including the elements of Jesus' final meal with his disciples which became the sacrament, the profound mystery of interconnectedness  we call the Last Supper, among other names. Of course both bread and wine require yeasts for fermentation and they are forms of fungi. 

Thank God for fauna, flora and funga!

                                                                 Change Islands NL -- Ruth Mundy