There is a small, old Anglican church sandwiched between Toronto's famous Eaton Centre shopping complex and a number of office towers. The church is a historical landmark and known for its café with great, affordable food.
I've always thought this little church was a great metaphor for the church in Canada: historical, surrounded, but with the ability to make a mean chicken salad sandwich (anyone who's ever been to a church potluck knows what I'm talking about).
But September 11, 2001 added another aspect to the symbolism: surprisingly comforting.
It was on that dark day that two of my colleagues, who had never shown any sign of religious belief, quietly slipped out of the office to pray in that little church. Surrounded by those cathedrals to the gods of materialism and the almighty dollar, that small, out-of-the-way church provided them with spiritual solace in a time of crisis.
The idea for this series on the data emerging from the 2001 Canadian census and its relation to the church was born that day.
No writer can approach a project like this without some preconceived notions. Mine are straightforward: These are times of seismic changes for Canada and the church must do a better job of "understanding the times" if it is to be relevant in people's lives.
Most of the people I work with in the corporate and political worlds are either non-believers or what I call "cultural religionists." The church, synagogue, mosque or temple provides rites—baptisms, bar and bat mitzvahs, marriages, funerals—and means little else to these people.
For many "cultural Christians," the church is either too rigid and graceless or else it stands for nothing. It's still living in the past, an anachronism with no future.
I believe in the church, warts and all. However, I also believe that what Martin Luther King Jr. thundered prophetically in 1963 from the depths of the Birmingham city jail is as relevant for us today as it was for white church leaders of the segregationist American South.
King proclaimed "the judgment of God is upon the church as never before," and that if the church, "does not capture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions and be dismissed an irrelevant social club."
Closer to home, Canada's foremost historian of Christianity, John Webster Grant, wrote in 1967: "The image of Christian Canada—churchgoing, moral and devotedly partisan—strikes both believers and unbelievers as somewhat archaic."
The vast majority of Canadians do not attend church regularly. Postmodernism, secularism and political correctness have all undermined the church's claim to moral authority, as has the abandonment of moral absolutes by many mainline churches today.
The more recent portrayal of faith-based social conservatism as ugly, fanatical and intolerant—whether true or not—obscures the humble and mostly anonymous serving of churches and parachurch groups across Canada.
This ChristianWeek series will examine the changing face of Canada, tell the stories, examine the work and shine a light on the failings of the church. It will not always be pretty, but it will hopefully also inspire—warts and all.
Joe Couto is a government and communications professional working on Bay Street in Toronto. A keen observer of the church in Canada, he formerly served as communications manager for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and is a frequent contributor to ChristianWeek and Faith Today. This is the first in nine-part series.
