Dr. Doom's Oracle Report, September 2026:

1. The UN reports that we are now headed for +2.6 temperature increase by 2100. This is almost certainly an under-estimate. And will be much sooner. We are are already in the scenario once predicted for 2035 or later: Floods. Droughts. Wild fires. Heat waves. Hurricanes. Famine. Vanishing glaciers, rivers, fresh water, and sea ice. Sea level rise. Extinctions. The notion that humans have the wealth and political stability required to mediate against these catastrophes is magical-thinking. We do not.
      
2. Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies know they are above the law and will break US voting for the November 2026 mid-terms. It will not be possible to know who actually received how many votes. The swearing in of the next USA congress will be a gong show. The USA is no longer a functioning democracy.
      
3. The underwriting of USA national debt is about to collapse. We will be in a decades-long economic depression before the year is out.
      
4. AI has already demonstrated that it can go rogue and break through corporate internet security. But expert warnings will continue to be ignored. AI will break the internet. Electronic commerce and all forms of business data, communications, and control will be disrupted and possibly disabled.
      
5. The billionaire class are about to discover that not only can't money buy you love, it can't buy you food when there isn't any. Everything is connected and the idea that a tropical island can remain a paradise while the world is burning is magical-thinking.

I don't subscribe to the NYT so I missed Margaret MacMillan's September 1, 2026 Opinion, "A New World Order Is Coming. We Aren't Ready." That piece is behind a paywall. So I still haven't read it. But you can listen to an excellent interview by CBC's Paul Hunter on The Current. Here's a YouTube link: CBC's The Current, Paul Hunter Interviews Margaret MacMillan.

It's not your fault

American author and social critic James Howard Kunstler coined the phrase “long emergency”¹ to describe the effect of decades of small changes. For example, if your congregation were to lose half its members in one year, that would be an emergency. But if it were to halve its membership over two decades, losing maybe three of four per year, you would adjust and carry on. But, says Kunstler, it’s still an emergency – a long emergency.

Here’s how it looks on a national scale.² In 1977, when the United Church began recording average weekly attendance, 378,000 people went to church. That number peaked at 404,000 in 1984. Since then, attendance has gradually declined by 2.5 percent each year, so that in 2011 the number was 167,000. And if the rate of decline for only the past 10 years does not change, attendance will drop to 25,000 by 2025.³

But here is the really bad news: It’s not your fault. The decline in worship attendance is not because you need a better minister, cheerier music, more small groups or jazzier youth programs. It’s not because you need to read one more church-improvement book or to attend one more workshop. It’s not because the United Church is too liberal or too political.

The simple fact is that Canadians are not going to church like they used to. In fact, Canadians aren’t going to synagogues, mosques, temples, or Kiwanis either. Volunteer membership organizations of all types are declining.

Attendance decline is not a problem that can be fixed. It is simply a reality to which we must respond. Congregations must plan to be fewer, smaller and without buildings or payrolls. The challenge is too big for individual congregations to meet on their own; we will need to close, merge, and work together in new ways.⁴

The good news is that the United Church was founded by those who left the beloved familiar behind and embraced the desired unknown. Where that heart still beats, our hope for the future can be found.

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the January 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. Kunstler, James Howard. The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century. Grove/Atlantic Monthly Press. 2005.
      
2. The graphic is copied from The United Church Observer, January 2014. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
3. Attendance data was significantly disrupted by COVID in 2020. And the severity of annual decline moderated in the 2010's. The reported attendance in 2025 was 111,000.
      
4. "Work together in new ways" means we cannot do this one congregation at a time. The scale of change needs to be denominational - or regional at a minimum. And likely multiple strategies will have to be pursued. What might work in an urban environment will not work in a rural one.
      

No New Members

Does a church with no new members have a future? That’s a question the United Church will face in 2019 if the trend for the past 10 years continues.¹

People join the church for the first time by making a public profession of their faith during worship. Typically, these are teenagers who are being confirmed after attending children and youth programs. The chart shows the baby boom spike after the Second World War, and the smaller echo in the 1980’s of the boomer’s children.²

The future will not unfold in a straight line, but we are headed toward having no one newly confessing their faith in Jesus Christ.

We live in a culture that is “spiritual but not religious” and more eager to connect online than in person. It is also one where fewer and fewer people are committing time and money to join volunteer membership organizations of any type.

Joining a face-to-face community that has accepted Jesus’ invitation to, “Pick up your cross and follow me for I am the way, the truth and the life,” is truly counter-cultural. 

Our mission then, should we choose to accept it, is pretty much to forget everything we have experienced about being the church. Our best days in the future will look nothing like our best days in the past.

With fewer people and smaller budgets, we must shift our time and energies from buildings and budgets to identity and mission: Who is Jesus for us? What are we being called to do and be? How are we loving our neighbours?

The future presents us with wonderful opportunities to find new ways to be communities of faith that are authentic, engaging, and joyful.

We have a history of giving ourselves for others in need. We don’t have much of a history of evangelizing and raising up new disciples. But if we want to have a future, it looks like we have about five years to change that past.³

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in The United Church Observer, February 2014, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes: 

1. The graphic is copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. The second paragraph above incorrectly attributes the post-Second World War growth to teenagers. The spike of New Members from 1945 to 1965 was not teenagers. It was the parents of the baby boom who needed to become members in order to have their children baptized, as was required by United Church policy at the time. It is also likely that the echo in the 1980's was now-adult baby boomers who had not joined the church in the 60's but were briefly returning to have their children baptized.
      
3. We did not hit zero in 2019. There were 1,648 new members that year. COVID significantly disrupted receiving new members, but in 2025 the number was 1,586. 

United but not uniform

We may be a United Church, but we are definitely not a uniform church. In 2011, there were about 3,000 congregations: 1,500 were single-point pastoral charges, and 1,500 were part of 659 multiple-point pastoral charges.

If the United Church were uniform, one would expect to find that the people and financial resources of single-point pastoral charges would equal multiple-point pastoral charges.

In the chart, the two blue bars are the single-point pastoral charges. The light blue bar shows the 300 congregations with the highest average worship attendance, while the dark blue bar represents the remaining 1,200 single-point charges. The orange bar represents all 1,500 multiple-point pastoral charges.¹

The total money raised by the light blue group is 65 percent higher than the total for all multiple-point pastoral charges combined. In fact, in almost every Year Book measurement, the top 300 congregations exceed the total of the multiple-point pastoral charges.

Make no mistake: a congregation in the top 300 is not better than a multiple-point congregation. Each will have its own strengths and challenges — but very different strengths and very different challenges.

Given the magnitude of the differences, I wonder if we don’t need to imagine ourselves, not as a United Church, but as a Trinitarian Church — one in three and three in one: (1) large single-point pastoral charges; (2) medium and small single-point pastoral charges; and (3) multiple-point pastoral charges.

I wonder if we have the capacity to imagine different ways of being church for each grouping? And to provide different resources and supports for each of them?

Whatever else is to be made of this data, it is certainly clear that there is no such thing as a “typical” United Church congregation. Whenever we talk about congregations, we need to be very clear just what sort of congregation are we imagining.²

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the March 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic is copied from The United Church Observer, March 2014. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. My own observation is that the divide is mostly between urban and rural. For example, urban congregations can utilize proximity and property values in ways that rural congregations cannot.

Generation iPad

My wife and I were out for dinner. At the next table, a young couple were also eating while their two-year-old daughter played on an iPad. Welcome to modern parenting.

In 2012, Nielsen,² a global information and measurement company, reported that 70 percent of parents let their children under 12 use their tablets. In January, Ottawa-based MediaSmarts³ reported that almost all of the Grade 4 to 11 students it surveyed used the Internet and most owned a cell or smartphone by Grade 7.

And according to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center⁴ in New York, over 80 percent of the top-selling apps in iTune’s⁵ education category target children, with almost 60 percent targeting toddlers and preschoolers.

For better and for worse, the toddler next to us was revealing the future that is already at hand. She was hard-wiring her brain to expect that space does not end with the four walls of any room she is in. And time is not just, “now,” but also, “any time, all the time.” She is networked and interactive. This means new dangers and risks, but also new opportunities and benefits.

What do you think are the chances that an iPad baby will disconnect from her world and sit passively for an hour where every word she hears, sings and prays will have been chosen ahead of time by someone else?

Evolution shows us that when the environment changes, organisms must change or die. The era of the church building as the sole platform for ministry is ending. Communities of faith must learn to connect, communicate and congregate in cyberspace. 

And the challenge is not just to become social media savvy.

These new wine skins will not hold our old wine. How will we baptize her on Facebook? Clothe the naked and feed the hungry on YouTube? When she does connect online or in person will she meet Jesus in the community that calls itself the Body of Christ?

Throughout my ministry, congregations have tried to respond to changes in society by making our room more welcoming. But the room has left the building.

To paraphrase poet Patrick Lane,⁶ “The story of Jesus is our story now. How do you want it to end?”

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the April 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. American Families See Tablets as Playmate, Teacher and Baby Sitter, Nielsen, February 2012.
      
3. Steves, Valerie. (2014.) Young Canadians in a Wired World, Phase III: Life Online, Ottawa: MediaSmarts
      
4. Pioneering Literacy in the Digital Wild West, Joan Ganz Cooney Center, New York. December 2012.
      
5. Apple's iTunes has been replaced by its App Store.
      
6. Presentation at the Vancouver Writers Fest, October 2012.

The value of a dollar

Just about every church treasurer I know worries about how to help their congregation have a clear understanding of its finances.

Part of the problem is that our brains just cannot absorb the numbers. There are too many, and it is just too hard to remember how the data from one page relates to data the next.

Another problem is the way inflation makes it impossible to easily compare one year to the next — especially if we want to know how are we doing this year compared to 10 years ago. In 2004, $100 would buy what you need $118 for today. So if we raised $100 a decade ago and the same this year, you might think we were holding steady. In fact, we have lost ground by almost 20 percent.

In the chart above,¹ blue line shows the Mission and Service funds received from Pastoral Charges as reported in the Year Book. You can see a slight dip in the 1930s. Then, a gradual rise after 1945 becomes a big increase in the ’70s and ’80s. Finally, giving holds steady at just below $30 million since the 1990s.

But what a difference it makes to adjust the historic data to reflect the impact of inflation shown by the red line. The decrease during the Depression of the 1930s is much sharper. And the big increases occur in the 1950s and ’60s, reaching a peak of $65,500,000 in 1964. The 1970s were actually a decade of decline; the ’80s a rocky levelling; and the ’90s to the present have been years of steady decline.

Why does General Council keep cutting programs and staff? If we only look at the blue line, we should be three times better off than we were in 1965. But, in real terms, M&S giving has declined by $40 million since then. And if the trend for the past 10 years does not change, M&S will decline by a further $8 million by 2025.

The Moderator keeps urging us to prepare for significant changes to our church. The red line tells us why.²

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the May 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.
In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
   
2. Updating values to 2025: M&S from communities of faith in 1964 was $88 million; in 2014 it was $30 million; and in 2024 it was $16 million. If the trend for the past 10 years continues unchanged, M&S in 2035 will be vanishingly unsustainable.

Love and marriage

If you’re old enough to remember the 1955 hit lyric “Love and marriage go together like a . . .”² then you’re old enough to notice that walking down the aisle of a church to get married is going the way of the horse and carriage.

Canadians are still getting married. Federal government cutbacks forced Statistics Canada to stop keeping count in 2008,³ but in the last decade of record keeping there were about 150,000 marriages each year. However, the percentage of Canadians choosing to get married in a United Church has been in steady decline from over 25 percent in 1945 to six percent in 2008. And that trend could reach zero by 2019.⁴

The future will not unfold in a straight line, but there are already

over 700 United Church congregations that had no weddings in 2012.⁵ And the threshold to be among the top 10 percent of United Church wedding chapels is six ceremonies per year.

In my ministry, walking down a church aisle was a part of almost every couple’s dream wedding — even if they had nothing to do with the church. Those loose ties to religion in the wider culture helped us connect to the community without evangelizing. People came to us for weddings, baptisms and funerals. So we didn’t need to go to them to share our experience of what a difference trusting Jesus and being part of a community of faith makes in one’s life. But as the wider culture becomes “spiritual but not religious,” far fewer people are turning to the church to meet these ritual needs: baptisms may also cease, and funerals will be fewer.⁶

This cultural shift is creating a number of issues for the United Church. One is that the post-war church building boom has left us with an excess building capacity that is now a burden to many congregations. But perhaps the more difficult change is the need to figure out what it means to be the church in a culture that doesn’t need us. What on earth are we good for? And what is the most viable way to organize and pay for ourselves to live out those purposes?

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the June 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.
In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. Lyrics by Sammy Cahn. Music by Jimmy Van Heusen. Released by Frank Sinatra, Capital Records, August 1955.
      
3. In my not so humble opinion, it was Stephen Harper's Conservative government that stopped reporting data about marriages after 2008 when LGBTQIA2S+ marriage became legal in Canada. It was not a budgeting decision. Statistics Canada has resumed compiling this data.
      
4. The number of United Church marriages in 2019 was 2,594, a decline of 72% from 2008 when there were 9,255. In 2019 there were 146,121 marriages in Canada. Less than 2% of these were performed by the United Church.
      
5. 1,300 congregations had no weddings in 2024.
      
6. In 2024 there were 2,131 baptisms of adults and children. However, all of these baptisms were celebrated by only 220 pastoral charges out of a total of 1,928. 

Women united

I have never been a member of a United Church Women’s group, but throughout my ministry I have long admired and appreciated their work. Each unit had its own focus. Some emphasized support for world missions, some prayer, others study and still others local needs. All contributed to welcoming newcomers and building up friendships. And who could number all the teas, dinners and other fundraisers that supported the congregation financially and brought people together in community?

At its founding in 1962, the UCW had 260,000 members. This represented 30 percent of the denomination’s total membership at the time, making the UCW the largest adult organization within the United Church.

While membership has declined by 80 percent to 52,000, the UCW is still a significant presence. In 2012, 80 percent of pastoral charges had UCW groups. The average size of each group was 18, and the threshold to be among the largest 10 percent was 54. And together, these women raised $13.7 million for their congregations, and $1.7 million for the Mission and Service Fund.

Over their 50 years, the total amount raised — adjusted for inflation — is $1.5 billion for congregations, and $340 million for the M&S fund.² Wow. Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow bring these women — the living and the dead — all together, all at once, and say thank you?

A study of the UCW would reveal much about how Canadian culture has affected the United Church. Those changes that opened greater opportunities for women are to be celebrated. Perhaps not so welcome are the changes that now require all adults to work where they can, when they can. What kind of world we are headed for when too many of us no longer have the time or energy to meet together to study, pray, change the world and form life-long friendships. A church where 30 percent of its members still did this would rock the foundations of our world.

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the July/August 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. And make that a double "Wow." As of 2025, the UCW has raised — adjusted for inflation — $2.2 billion (that is not a typo, yes, it is "billion" not "million") for communities of faith; and $476 million for the M&S Fund.

Missing children

September means back to school, as well as the start of a new cycle of church programs for all ages. But September is also the month when church elders once again tell younger members about the good old days of flourishing Sunday schools, and offer puzzled anxiety — or accusations — about what’s gone wrong.

In the United Church, Sunday school membership rose with the post-war baby boom and peaked at 757,000 in 1961 as the first of that generation graduated from Grade 6. The decline that followed was not because Canadians stopped having babies. From 1965 to the present, births have hovered around 375,000 per year.

By 2012, Sunday school membership had declined by 90 percent to 61,000, with half of all Sunday schools having 25 children or fewer. The threshold to be among the 10 percent of largest Sunday schools was 60. And 20 percent of pastoral charges were already facing a future without any children in Sunday school.³

Adults can bring energy, curiosity and enthusiasm to church. Adults can learn, play and grow. We don’t need children for these. And churches, like other volunteer groups, can thrive as adult-only organizations.

But we know in our hearts that a church community doesn’t feel right if all generations aren’t fully present. Children embody – in a way that only children can – the conviction that all are precious in God’s sight; that the world is created to be good; that everyone has a place at the table; that all should be treated with justice; and that we need to build healthy bonds with others if we want these values to be realized.

If there are no children, we are missing the truth that Jesus saw: “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Adults need children to show us how to enter the state of grace that Jesus called God’s kingdom. A church just can’t really be a church without children.

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the September 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The title of this column was chosen before the non-Indigenous population of Canada finally became aware of the unmarked graves in residential schools. Don't read this post without pausing to reflect on the impact of these missing children.
      
2. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
3. By 2025, Sunday School membership had declined from 61,000 in 2012 to 17,000, a vanishingly small remnant of 1957's 757,000. And of the 2,350 communities of faith, 1,400 (60%) had no Sunday School.

The cash-flow crutch

From 1965 to the present, statistics tracking United Church people have all trended downward. Whether you look at membership, Sunday attendance or baptisms, the numbers are dropping off like Granddad after turkey dinner (exhausted from so much cooking and cleaning, of course). And yet, the denomination’s overall income — called the “total amount raised for all purposes” — has not dropped significantly (see the green line). In 2012, the total amount raised was $399 million.

The total amount raised is the sum of congregational givings (red line), United Church Women’s fundraising (blue line), and “other” income (yellow line).

Congregational givings followed a pattern similar to the total amount raised between the mid-1960s and mid-70s. Then it dropped by 27 percent. The amount raised by the UCW also declined significantly during this period. And yet the overall total amount held steady. How come?

The difference is being made up by “other” income, which has grown from $33 million in 1965 to $132 million in 2012, a 300 percent increase. “Other” is a large category that includes community suppers, choir concerts and thrift sales, as well as rental and investment income.

And while there is good news in having extra income to support our ministries, the danger is that it masks the loss of people participating in congregational life while giving a false sense of security that at least the bills are being paid. Donations from participants accounted for 81 percent of the total amount raised in 1965; by 2012, that had fallen to 64 percent.²

Are we heading for a future of empty buildings paid for by rentals and investments?

Left unexamined, “other” income can be a sedative that allow us to stagnate while the culture around us radically transforms. The task facing the church today is finding ways to connect with new neighbours and younger generations.

Buildings, investments and fundraisers are distractions, not solutions.

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the October 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. Adjusting historic financial data for inflation based on the 2025 CPI:
   Congregational givings have declined by 60% from 1965, and are now 58% of the total raised.
   "Other" income has increased by 300% from 1965, and is now 40% of the total raised.
   The total raised has declined by 40% from 1965.
      
3. Adjusting historical financial data for inflation based on the 2025 CPI, and rounding to nearest million dollars:
   Congregational givings have declined from $487 to 202 million.
   "Other" income has increased from $45 to 141 million.
   The total raised has declined from $599 to 349 million.
      
4. Adjusting historical financial data for inflation based on the 2025 CPI:
   Identified givers to communities of faith have declined by 75% from 520,000 in 1965 to 140,000 in 2025. But the amount given by each person has increased by 50% from $940 in 1965 to $1,440 in 1925.

What Does God Do with a Dead Terrorist

 Why Going to Heaven Will Feel Like Hell

Written after the September 11, 2001 Attacks on the World Trade Centre, NYC and the Pentagon, Washington, DC.

Since I believe that God is present in every moment of existence, and is the God of all creation, the question must be asked:

What is God going to do with the terrorists who died on September 11?

I also believe that God is both wholly just and wholly merciful, and that nothing can thwart God’s purposes. So the question cannot be avoided:

What does God do with a dead terrorist?

I do not know the mind of God of course, but offer the following act of imagination as a personal response.

I imagine that God will greet each terrorist, and, in a gentle, loving way, walk with him through every moment of his life. But with one critical difference.

Instead of seeing his life through his own perspective, the terrorist will now see his life from God’s perspective, through God’s eyes; through the eyes of love.

Each terrorist will now see each person on the plane, each person in the buildings, each police officer, fire fighter and rescue worker as God sees them; infinitely precious and dear to God’s own heart.

The terrorist’s own heart will now be filled with the same love for these people as is in God’s own heart. He will see them going about the morning business. He will experience, one by one, what each one felt and experienced that morning, moment by moment. Not as an outside observer; but as one living through the experience itself. He will live through 3,000 deaths.

And then God will also have him live through the experience of the survivors. The husbands, the wives, the daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers, friends – everyone. Even the feelings of those of us who only watched on TV.

In other words, the terrorist will live through hell. Seeing what he has done. Feeling it. Living it. Stripped of all justifications, hatred, ideology, and indoctrination, he will be totally responsible and totally vulnerable for all he has done. He will see it, live it, know it, regret it, and be able to do nothing about it.

Surely, the terrorist would want to fling himself into the eternal torment of hell itself than continue in relation with God; continue to see things through the eyes of God, through the eyes of love. Better to live in isolation, darkness and brokenness. He will beg for the pain to stop.

But there is more.

For while the terrorist has been living through the pain and horror he has caused, those who were killed have been experiencing an amazing healing, forgiveness and restoration. In a way that God alone can do, God has healed their memories and hearts of all pain, all suffering, all terror, all wrong-doing. He has wiped away every tear from their eye. He has brought them to himself. And they too now see the world as God sees it, through the eyes of love. They see through the eyes of love the lives of the terrorists: their birth, childhood, adulthood; their humanity and hopes. How did some mother's baby grow to become a terrorist? They see as God sees the connections between their lives and the lives of those who killed them. Through the eyes of love.

And so, just when the terrorist has lived through the hell of experiencing all the pain and horror he has caused; just when he thinks his soul can endure no more and live; just when he thinks he would rather curse God and die eternally; just at this point, God brings him to meet, one by one, the souls of all those who died. But not souls as they were on the morning of September 11. He meets them now as souls healed, forgiven and transformed by the power of God’s love.

What does the terrorist see in the faces of those souls? What does he expect them to say to him? To do to him?

This is when the last shred of his old self is torn away. For his old self knows about hate. His old self knows about revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. These are things his old self understands.

Face to face with the souls of those whom he has killed, the terrorist would understand revenge – would even welcome it, for that at least is familiar. That would confirm his old beliefs. Leave a shred of self-justification intact.

But God, and the souls of the blessed, have no mercy for self-justification, lies and evil. There is no place in heaven for hate.

And so, one by one, as the terrorist meets each soul and looks into each face, he hears, “Father, forgive him, for he knew not what he was doing.”

One by one, the terrorist is left utterly defenceless. One by one, the possibility of continuing the old story: I hurt you, you hurt me back, is put to an end. One by one, the terrorist is left with no excuses, no place to run to.

But he is not left with no one to run to.

For those of us still grieving, it may be hard to hear this, but even a terrorist is not left by God with no one to turn to.

And so while my imagination fails at this point – for I can’t imagine how God pulls this off – my faith tells me that God’s love is such that after living through the hell I have described, something new will happen. I don’t know what, I don’t know how. Perhaps it will be as corny as overhearing someone sing, “Just As I Am.” I don’t know, but I believe that somehow something moves in us, when all hope is gone, something causes us to turn.

Jesus told a parable about someone like this – the Prodigal Son. I trust Jesus. And I trust that when I die, and when God meets me and walks with me through my life, and helps me to see my life through God's eyes, through the eyes of love; and when my defences are stripped away and I am left without excuses, I trust something will move in me, will cause me to turn to the only one to whom I can turn for healing, and forgiveness and welcome when none of these are deserved nor can be expected. And I trust that I will be greeted just as the terrorist was on that day so long ago – by a loving Father, who says to his disgruntled older son, “Why are you upset. For this my child was lost and now is found. Was dead, and now is alive.” And God will invite me in to a marvellous feast in my honour. And there – and I don’t know how God does this – will be the souls of all those who died that day – including the terrorists – rejoicing and praising God. For there is no hate in heaven. Only love. God’s love. And there are no terrorists in heaven. Only God’s children, each one of whom is precious in God’s sight.

 

© David Ewart,

www.davidewart.ca

Originally written September, 2001. Revised November 11, 2001. Second Revision May 28, 2004

Permission to reproduce by any means is granted for non-profit use provided authorship is acknowledged.

Why Are There No Dinosaurs? (This is a serious question.)

Bullet Points About Systemic / Cultural / Deep Change

Except for birds, why are there no dinosaurs? 

They didn't go extinct because they didn't try really hard. Had no vision. Didn't try new things. Had the wrong beliefs.

They went extinct because the world changed, and their way of being in the world no longer worked.

What is the church's way of being in the world?

Congregating.

Same place. Same time. Same routine. In person. Every week. Till you die.

So to thrive, the church's way of being in the world needs a lot of people who:
- have spare time;
- have spare cash;
- can go offline and show up in person;
- can make a commitment to be somewhere at a specific time time next week, or the week after that, or the week after that, or ... till they die.

Here's the catch. The church exists to be for people with no spare cash or time. But. The church - in its present form - can't exist without people who have spare cash and time.

As the global climate crisis and the global impoverishment crisis is eliminating people with spare cash and time, what new form must the church assume in order to flourish?

What does it look like for impoverished people living in chaos to be the church?

And do it without any external support from the benevolence of those who do have spare time and cash.

Bullet Points about Systemic / Cultural / Deep Change

 

• Data Doesn’t Drive Change. Narrative Does


• Loyal Customers are the Enemy of Change


• Tradition / Organization-Culture Kills Vision. Every. Time.


• The Known Familiar Kills the Desired Future. Every. Time.
  (Well, 100 years ago is a counter example. What happened then?)


• Why Are There No Dinosaurs?
  (This is a serious question)
  Except for birds, why are there no dinosaurs? They didn't go extinct because they didn't try really hard. Had no vision. Didn't try new things. Had the wrong beliefs.
  They went extinct because the world changed, and their way of being in the world no longer worked.
  What is the church's way of being in the world?
  Congregating.
  Same place. Same time. Same routine. In person. Every week. Till you die.
  So to thrive, the church's way of being in the world needs a lot of people who:
  - have spare time;
  - have spare cash;
  - can make a commitment to be somewhere at a specific time time next week, or the week after that, or the week after that, or ... till they die.
  Here's the catch. The church exists to be for people with no spare cash or time. But. The church - in its present form - can't exist without people who have spare cash and time.
  As the global climate crisis and the global empoverishment crisis is eliminating people with spare cash and time, what new form must the church assume in order to flourish?


• The World Does Not Exist to Give the Church a Reason for Being


• The Church Is Not for Christians


• Kenosis / Self-Emptying Is Hierarchic / Colonizing Language


• “Welcome” is Hierarchic / Colonizing Language


• Salvation and Atonement Are Hierarchical / Colonizing Language


• Exactly What “Message” Are We Selling?


• What a Friend We Have in Jesus


• The Good News of Jesus Christ Is Not the Church


• Data About the Church is Not Data about The Gospel


• Evolution Promotes Diversity. Not Equity or Inclusion or Justice


• All Change Is Loss


• Show Me the Money (Demographics Don’t Reveal Real-World Power)


• Does Anyone Here Know How To Go Viral?


• Can We Have A Church Without Colleges And Libraries? Pension Plans?

David Ewart (aka Dr. Doom)
June 2025

Letters from a Canadian

Dear American Friends,

I hope it will not surprise or shock you to know that many Canadians are not surprised or shocked by Donald Trump. He is *SO* American. We couldn’t imagine he would be a citizen of any other country (except, possibly, Russia).

Nor are we surprised or shocked that your so-called greatest or first or original democracy on planet earth is collapsing like a sandcastle in high tide. We are well-aware of the delusion of your American Exceptionalism. And the faults in your so-called democracy are plain to know for all those with any sense to see.

But I must admit, I’m a little bit surprised and shocked that Canada – and every other nation in the world – is no longer negotiating with the United States of America. The government, the nation state, we used to call the USA no longer exists.

As far as I am aware, Canada and Mexico still have a trade agreement with the USA.

But thanks to one of the many faults in your so-called constitutional democracy, the USA has been taken over by Donald Trump. And it is now Dictator Trump alone who decides what “the deal” is.

I could only watch the first hour of Dictator Trump’s address to what you still nostalgically but mistakenly refer to as your Congress. And I must admit I was a bit surprised and shocked to see how fully the Republican representatives and senators were cheering on a dictator while fully relinquishing their own so-called constitutional democratic authority, duties, and responsibilities. Have they no shame?

But what especially appalling was to witness the ineptness and passivity of the Democrats. Why did they not all stand up and walk out with Al Green? Have they no shame? (Or why did they not, one by one, constantly shout down Dictator Trump and require the Speaker to have each and everyone of them removed?)

So. Just so you are not surprised and shocked when your media finally let you know about the rest of the planet: Canada and all your other former allies no longer trust the USA.

David Ewart

March 6, 2025.

Notes towards Progressive Tactics that Meet the New Fascist Challenge

I am easily led astray by titles of books and articles that I never get around to reading. Some years ago, "The Long Emergency," 2005, by James Howard Kunstler got me writing about the looming extinction of The United Church of Canada and mainstream Protestant churches in general. And today, Monday, November 25, 2024, I saw "If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolutions," 2023, by Vincent Bevins in the window of my neighbourhood bookstore, and got wondering: Yes. Why have the progressive strategies and tactics (e.g. mass protests) I have supported failed so abjectly, so miserably. Indeed, seem to have resulted in the complete opposite of the hoped for objectives.

I don't believe that the success of Donald Trump can be explained as being solely due to the failures of progressives. But I do think that we progressives must take a hard look at the presumptions that have shaped the strategies and tactics we have used - and make new choices.

I myself am too old (79) and White, male, straight, well-off, etc. to articulate what speaks to the lived experience of those under 40, non-White, non-male, non-well-off, etc. But I am old enough to have the lived experience of 1960's protests resulting in today's impoverishing unaffordability, worsening fossil fuel damage, and failure of liberal democracies to reign in global capitalism. How did I get here from there?

Two days ago, Catherine Ross urged me to read, "A Manifesto for Speculative Relations," by Joseph M. Pierce in the book, "The Alchemy Lecture 2: Five Manifestos for the Beautiful World," 2024. Pierce references an article by Daniel Heath Justice, "Notes Toward a Theory of Anomaly," GLQ:A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16, 2010.

And here I am with my own "Notes Toward ...." As Justice says (but I'm not quoting) in his Notes, these are beginnings, incomplete, insufficient, incorrect. And as I will say: strategies and tactics do not change the stories we tell ourselves to give meaning, purpose, orientation to our daily lived experience. But that is precisely the change that is needed for human culture to be aligned with ecological flourishing.

I'm going to keep editing this post. But here goes for now.

1. "Science" and "Facts" Are So Last Century. Stop Whining.

Fascists understand that if you just keep repeating a story long enough, loudly enough, and require loyalty, and add rewards and punishments - it does not matter if what you are saying is "true." Millions of people will believe and repeat your story. And "fact checking" is a waste of time. The only thing that might have some moderating effective is to call people liars in real time. (And do not politely ask for evidence. The issue here is credibility not truth. So don't both with the facts. Just call them liars.)

We need to use all available means to flood all zones with progressive propaganda.

We need to flood all zones with progressive loyalty and all-in commitment memes.

We need to flood all zones with the pay-offs for believing progressive stories.

2. Pragmatism Trumps Ethics (Pun intended)

Okay, I get that we have to constantly clarify what progressive ethics and values are and look like. But when it comes to strategies and tactics we also have to be pragmatic. We have to face the hard reality that in some contexts - like fascism for example - "love," openness," and "kindness" need tactics that are effective. Progressives too often don't realize that "openness" is actually a position that is not open to all behaviours; not open to dialogue with with all political options.

We need to make being fascist shameful, unthinkable, and punishable.

2. Analysis Divides. Strategies and Tactics Must Unite.

For those too young to remember, back in the 1950's analysis, strategies, and tactics were a harmonious trinity. That's because back in the 1950's analysis presumed patriarchy, racism, sexism, classism. Powerful white, neuro-normal, straight males ran the (Western) world. And that was unquestioned, taken-for-granted. And so not too surprisingly, their analysis smoothly revealed the strategies and tactics that would advance their interests. And since "their" meant "mankind" which meant "everyone," it was not necessary to ask who was actually benefitting. (And the previous 3 "And ..." sentences are an example of the ubiquitous propaganda of that time that White-washed the actual reality.)

But the rise of 1960's hippies, feminism, black civil rights, anti-Viet-Nam-war broke the presumptions of how to "analyze." Analysis now required identity. Required identifying specific personal characteristics: age, race, gender, class, sexual orientation / identity, indigeneity, ability, neuro-spectrum, etc. This rise of identity analysis / identity politics is core to progressive movement. 

But I believe we have made a mistake. Identity analysis separates and divides. But the world we live in is always complete, whole, fully interconnected. And so strategies and tactics always have to ask, How can we change the story, the context, the capitalistic structure for the flourishing of all? (Well, maybe not you fascists, you racists, you billionaires.)

3. What Does a "Global Climate Catastrophe" Have to Do With Price of Eggs?

If we live in territories that still have some patina of "democracy," we need to primarily, loudly, constantly talk about 3 things: the price of gas; the price of eggs; the price of rent. Because these are the issues by which elections are won or lost.

If the fascists are talking about getting rid of illegal immigrants, we need to say, "That will increase the price of eggs."

If fascists say they are going to find and burn every last drop of fossil fuels, we need to say, "That will increase the price of gas."

And we need to make sure we are talking about these things all the time; not just at elections.

A Boy from Basswood

 

The older I get, the more labels I am acquiring.

When I was young, my father was killed in an accident, and my mother, sister, brother, and I moved to Winnipeg where my mother’s mother and all of her siblings lived. Seventy-five years later, if asked where I am from, I will still answer, “I grew up in Winnipeg, but I am from Basswood.”

This is a post musing about “labels,” “inner self,” “local,” and “context.”

When I was young, I had a naïve feeling of what it meant to be “fatherless.” Mostly, it had no daily importance. Except when it came to registering for things like school, or cubs. And not going to those “father-son” events that seemed so important.

Later I would also learn that though I was “fatherless,” I was not – and this was a very good thing – “illegitimate.”

When I was young, I had a naïve feeling that it was important to know where you were from. I experienced this because in my neighbourhood, almost no one was “from Winnipeg.” And where you were from meant something. It was not clear to me how it “meant something,” or why it “meant something.” But the labels for where you were from all “meant something.” And I was “from Basswood.”

Later I would also learn that though I was “from Basswood,” I was not – and this was a very good thing – “Polish,” “Jewish,” “Italian,” “Ukrainian,” or “from Toronto.” (Note: Actual labels have not been used.)

When I was young, I had a naïve feeling that it meant something to be a “boy.” It was not clear to me how it “meant something,” or why it “meant something.” But I learned – through acts of shaming and/or violence – not to play with girls, not to play like a girl, not to like what girls like, not to be “girly” in any way – like crying, or being emotional, or being soft.

Later I would also learn that though I was a “boy,” I was not – and this was a very good thing – “homosexual.”

When I was young, I had a naïve feeling of what it meant to be “poor.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was my first experience of “privilege,” or the lack thereof. In my neighbourhood, we were all relatively poor, and were all clear that more money was better.

Later I would also learn that though I was “poor,” I was not – and this was a very good thing – “lazy.”

For all of my young life, I was naïve about labels. Until, as a young adult, as an anti-war, university activist, we/I begin to hear about a new movement, “women’s liberation.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was the beginning of a lifetime of collecting personal identity labels. “Male.” So that today, in 2024, at the age of 78, my labels are:

·       Male (He / Him)

·       Cis-gendered

·       Heterosexual

·       White

·       Neuro-normal

·       Able

·       Settler

·       Middle Class

·       University Educated

·       English Speaking

·       Western, First World

As I have aged, I have learned that it is a privilege to not be aware of privilege. And that whatever thoughts or feelings or responses I may have to becoming aware of my privilege is also a privilege.

I keep thinking there is something called “just being a person.” This is privilege-thinking.

In my old age, I keep wondering how do I be happy in the context of all my privileges.

In my old age, I’m very aware of how labels are used to exert social control: naming used as shaming. The social power of labeling as status degradation or status empowerment.

In my old age, I’m very aware of how labels replace individual identity with group identity, which complicates supposed individual agency / responsibility / integrity / authenticity. What does it mean to be authentically White, for example. Is integrity as a "male" different from "non-binary" integrity, for another example. Or are these questions, also privileged thinking?

In my old age, I’m very aware of the complications of scale. What exactly is an individual/personal morally responsible life in the context of historic and global systems/structures of racism, sexism, homophobia, patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, etc.? I didn’t ask or choose to be born a boy from Basswood. And I didn’t ask or choose all the privileges / advantages that came with the various discriminations / prejudices / hierarchies / barriers embedded in the culture I grew up in. But as much as I seek to be a trustworthy ally in my personal choices and life, I am very aware that my personal choices have no impact on the systems and structures of privilege.

In my old age, I’m beginning to feel it is naïve to believe that individual actions – even lots of individuals acting collectively – will have any lasting effect on historic and global systems/structures. Only historic and global system/structural changes will have any lasting effect. As an individual, I have no idea how to get at that scale.

In my old age, I’m beginning to think that – even though the analysis that produces them is a necessary, good, and helpful thing – simply creating new labels actually continues and does not correct the harm that labeling does. Self-understanding and self-affirmation are a good thing. But these are not the corrective to climate disaster. The challenge of creating historic and global structures and systems that embody right relationships among all beings is not achieved through identity politics. What does?

Spirit Given Gifts

 

Spirit given gifts are special abilities that God gives to every Christian
to be used cooperatively for the strengthening of the Body of Christ
so that it might better fulfill God's purposes.

Learning what our Gifts are - and are not - can bring clarity of purpose and meaning for our lives.

Knowing what our gifts are not can ease feelings of failure and frustration. Acknowledging our limitations and seeking support from others who have gifts we do not have frees us to focus on our strengths, on the gifts we do have.

Going where our gifts are takes us to the place where the giver of those gifts, God, is closest to us in our lives.

Our skills may not be our gifts. When we are using our gifts, we may end the day feeling tired, but we will also feel deeply satisfied. But if our skills are not also our gifts, then we will simply end the day feeling tired and drained.

This Descriptions Booklet - PDF and Questionnaire Booklet - PDF will help you begin to identify your Spirit Given Gifts.

The United Church of Canada Needs a Big Vision

 

What the United Church of Canada (UCCan) needs now is a Greta Thunberg approved vision of a plausible future for the planet.

Here’s what I think the UCCan can offer:

1. 100% commitment to zero carbon by 2030.
   This would apply not only to buildings, but also to all programs and activities including worship, meetings, travel, etc. It would also include active participation in existing climate crisis networks, political activism at all levels, boycotts and other economic pressures.
   
   
2. Multi-generational community.
   We have decades of experience creating and maintaining personal connections of caring and friendship that are open and inclusive across all categories of gender, race, age, ability, orientation, culture, etc. We also have firsthand experience of learning to apologize and what it takes to make amends and seek reconciliation. We have gained understandings of the shapes of personal well-being and life-giving relationships.
   
   
3. A big story.
   Being rooted in a multi-thousand-year story helps give perspective to present experiences. We are not the first generation to fear there is no plausible future. Our big story helps us to avoid fear-mongering and false-hopes.
   
   
4. Spiritual practices.
   Dealing with the pressures of everyday life, work, and family as well as global issues of extreme weather events caused by burning fossil fuels, war, and the economy can be a recipe for toxic stress and anxiety. We have experience with practices that help one stay centred and connected.
   
   
5. A church that isn’t religious.
   The UCCan locates itself within the globally diverse and conflicted collective of those who look to Jesus of Nazareth. Yet in our looking to Jesus, we do not see a religion. We see a way of being; a way of living fully and truly. We see a call to live justly and in right relations with all beings. We are not interested in proving anything to anyone. But we do want the way the world works to be fair for all.

David Ewart

Permission is granted for non-profit use of these materials. Please acknowledge the source as, "David Ewart, www.davidewart.ca"

You will always have the poor with you ... but you will not always have me

 

Catherine talked with me this morning about what she was reading in Timothy Morton's, Being Ecological. The issue being discussed was how "we", the human species, need to act collectively even though we are so divided along so many fault lines, because it is "we" who are the cause of the climate crisis, not sea horses. This led me to wondering:

Do those of us who insist on the requirements for justice impede the work for effective climate action?

I re-listened to words from Mark 14:7 as spoken to me - not from Jesus but from a sea horse: "You will always have the poor with you ... but you will not always have me."

Jesus was right. The need for correcting injustice will never go away. And there will always be occasions when insisting on justice prevents doing what this moment is calling for.

It is increasingly clear to me that the past 50 years of climate justice action that I have been involved in have not accomplished the scale of responses that are needed. And were based on assumptions of timing and stability that no longer are true. We need to stop asking, "Is this just?" And start asking only one question: 

"Will this eliminate the burning of coal, oil, and gas?" 

This is the question the sea horse needs an answer to. Because if we don't quickly get this right we will no longer have the sea horse with us.

David Ewart