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.