Personal Comparison

I find it very interesting that the two churches where I am involved are so different. The first church where I sing and get paid is an Anglican church. They play politics, gripe, many are homophobic, and unless you have been there for a long while you are not ‘one of the club’. It is a sad place, because there can be and is a lot of good there. They, unfortunately, undermine and bitch about everything, which makes it a very difficult place. The other place is one of the most caring and accepting places and communities. They welcome everyone and not only tolerate but encourage differences. They thrive off one another. It was singing in the patronal feast at the first church that made me realise what disturbed me most about the Anglican Church in general, not specifically this one but in general. It is a dictatorship, and while dictatorships are very efficient they are only as tolerant and good as the dictator. When Ted Scott was Primate the Anglican Church of Canada was definitely a much better place than it had been in the past and is now. Individual churches are the same if the priest is mediocre then the parish is either led unofficially by a parishioner or it becomes mediocre. The other church is Unitarian and the autonomy each church has means every church has its own personality. I have yet to be in a mediocre Unitarian church. The point I am making is that when a bishop of the church is a bible thumper and thinks it is not myth then you get institutional intolerance. None of the Unitarian ministers I have met are bible thumpers. Openness to other paths and the encouragement to follow them instead of some dogmatic faith in something that is usually not explained properly, if at all is a Unitarian tradition. Now I have not yet been to many Unitarian congregations nor have I talked with many of the Unitarian ministers. The few I have met and interacted with are unusually open, caring and intelligent people. I think the effectiveness they have is due to the lack of restriction dogma places on them. The nature of the Unitarian Church seems to force them to consider other ideas and approaches to the ‘Great Unknown’. History will preclude the Anglican and other denominational churches from being so open and avoid the dogmatic trap. The challenge they must face is the need to rise above the dogma and, like Ted Scott, tread a more tolerant road.