Evangelistic Belief and Behavior among Canadian Congregants

With the recent surge of “religious nones” in many Western nations, there is a growing interest among some church attenders to effectively “reach” this demographic. In this article, we build on theories of strictness and social embeddedness to tackle three questions regarding evangelistic belief and behavior in Canadian Catholic, mainline Protestant, and conservative Protestant congregations. First, in what ways are evangelistic beliefs and behaviors similar or dissimilar across theological traditions, notably when comparing stricter and less strict contexts? Second, how are evangelistic behaviors similar or dissimilar based on a person’s frequency of church attendance? Third, what challenges do people confront in their evangelistic efforts? Drawing on survey data with over 9100 Catholic, mainline, and conservative Protestant respondents in over 250 Canadian congregations, this study compares responses across theological sectors, reported levels of importance that church members attach to evangelism, as well as church attendance frequency. Data reveal that those in religious traditions with stricter “insider–outsider” boundaries and who were more socially embedded in their religious groups (i.e., conservative Protestant traditions) were the most likely to embrace evangelistic attitudes and behaviors, in contrast to those in religious groups with less strict boundaries or social embeddedness in their religious group (i.e., United Church of Canada). However, those with the strongest “us–them” boundaries also found those boundaries particularly prohibitive to their evangelistic efforts reflected, in part, in a widespread leaning toward passive versus assertive forms of evangelism.

Shaping Post-Christendom Spiritual Practice in the United Church of Canada One Prayer Shawl at a Time

Although shawls have been fashioned in one way or another for hundreds of years, this research is focused around the special shawl-making of the relatively new Christian prayer shawl ministry that has developed in North America over the last two decades and, specifically, in the United Church of Canada. This thesis is a qualitative research study of six such prayer shawl ministries within southern Ontario. My interviews with prayer shawl groups for this research has led me to conclude that this ministry is significant in three vital ways: (1) personally, this ministry often mediates a life transition of the crafter and the recipient, (2) theologically, prayer shawls are tacitly understood to be blessing, sacramental, and a spiritual practice, and (3) culturally, this ministry provides a flexible and non-threatening form of outreach in a post-Christian setting.

Speaking Back: Reading a Christian Denomination’s Vision for Diversity through the Eyes of its Children and Congregations

This article analyzes the United Church of Canada’s vision for becoming intercultural through data generated by qualitative research into the theological meaning-making of children within United Church congregations. The author provides an overview of the broader research project through which this data was generated and background information about Canadian multiculturalism and the United Church’s response to the challenges of multiculturalism, particularly its 2006 document, ‘A Transformative Vision for the United Church of Canada.’ The author presents three points of critique of this document that come into focus when analyzed through the lens of children within United Church congregations. These points include the important step of intentionally listening to voices on the margins, the document’s neglect of individuals and contexts that hold hybrid cultural identities, and its tendency to overlook congregations that are intercultural.

United Church of Canada's Reconciliation Documents and the Indexing of Collective Memory

Following a distinct trajectory in the field of Knowledge Organization, I explore how indexes are part of the structure of our everyday lives. Drawing on extensive archival research, I look at documents created and used by the United Church of Canada as part of its reconciliation work with Indigenous peoples. I conclude that these documents index the narrative the church tells about itself—and therefore its identity—as part of the development and maintenance of the UCC’s evolving collective memory. My findings reinforce Knowledge Organization’s new line of inquiry while also complicating its message concerning the nature of infrastructure. En suivant une trajectoire unique issue du domaine de l'organisation des connaissances, j'explore comment les index font partie de la structure de notre vie quotidienne. En m'appuyant sur des recherches archivistiques approfondies, j'examine les documents créés et utilisés par l'Église Unie du Canada dans le cadre de son travail de réconciliation avec les peuples autochtones. Je conclus que ces documents indexent le récit que l’Église raconte sur elle-même - et donc sur son identité - dans le cadre du développement et du maintien de la mémoire collective en évolution de l’ÉUC. Mes conclusions renforcent cette nouvelle avenue de recherche du domande de l'organisation des connaissances, tout en complexifiant son message par rapport la nature de l’infrastructure.

Metaphors for Meaningful Documents

The ever-increasing speed and reach of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are often lauded for the beneficial social effects we are told they have. This raises questions about the connection between knowledge and social relationships, especially concerning meaningful relationships in a world where people are increasingly represented as data. To answer this question, one approach is to consider the role of documents in communicating “meaningful” content in pursuit of understanding. Because this is difficult to articulate, this paper takes the approach of using metaphors—specifically of the document as a bridge, a window, a painting, a briefcase, and a mirror—to consider the possibilities for documents to aid or impede relationships. To provide something concrete upon which to reflect, this paper applies the metaphors to documents that are explicitly tied to meaning about individuals: those created by the United Church of Canada as part of its process of reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous people. Thinking about the church’s documents through the lens of metaphors is an initial conceptual step in thinking about the meaning in these documents. Through the metaphors, we gain important insights into the extent to which documents connect individuals as they are called to in the ICT environment.