A late reflection on the subject: define "liberal".
On one hand, the United Church is probably one of the most liberal Christian denominations. There are other churches that are more liberal like the Metropolitan Community Church but they don't have many worship centres (as far as I know, MCC only has one in Toronto). Likewise, the Universalists seem fairly forward thinking, but they have few Worship centres (at least in Eastern Canada). But other aspects need to be considered as well:
- Theology: Is it fair to compare Universalists to the United Church (or the Anglican Church)? Their perspective on Trinity, for instance, is quite different (I don't want to qualify one group as "better" or "worst" than any other, just recognize the difference).
- Politics: When I had decided to "shop" for a church and denomination a little over 30 years ago, I found the United Church too politicized for my liking. I even thought it was a distraction to my faith. On the other hand I know that some people would say this proves that the Church does what it preaches and vice versa.
- Local differences: There are a few Roman-Catholic churches that are, literally, heavens for LGBTQ people. Yes there are a few of these places where local authorities have found a way to go around the official policies. Likewise, some United Church communities are less welcoming to liberal ideology and I had been able to witness some instances of "Not in my backyard" behaviours. I suspect there are places that could go a bit further and be hostile to liberal ideology.
But the word "liberal" is often used as meaning the opposite of "conservative", and all the United churches I have visited have a very conservative attitude towards liturgy. Where ever I went to visit, the service was always the following:
– a few opening prayers, poems, etc.
– a few readings (2-3 generally)
– a sermon (usually longer than in most Anglicans or Roman-Catholic churches – decent length of 20-30 minutes)
– some closing prayers
– rarely (I have seen it only once), a Communion
– traditional church music, with hymns sung by the people (typically Voices United), sometimes with the help of a choir, and with support from an organ.
In its overall structure, this type of service looks very similar to the traditional Roman Catholic, Anglican or Lutheran service. I haven't seen any United Church offering gospel music, music with a band (drummers, electric guitar, etc.). To be fair, the Anglican Church has a few – very few – churches that veered away from the traditional model, but it seems that most traditional Churches have forgotten to cater to the "hip" crowd.
When I wonder about the future of the Church, I see there definitely is room for modern worship centres that use Praise music (with guitars and drums), Taizé music, even popular music that has a Christian message, alternative service forms with a bit more audiovisual content (have sermons with slides, discussion groups, etc.), small home groups during the week, etc.
Right now, there are quite a few of these in major cities and even in mid-size towns, but almost all of them have a very conservative theology. Can't we get that
and liberal theology at the same time?
With Internet being ever more present, churches need to justify their presence even more. I can read the Bible online, read comments, find sermons and maybe even Christian groups on Facebook and Reddit (though I have never looked for that on Facebook). So the church needs to provide that little extra that can't be found on internet.
I'm sure it can be done. I jokingly told my daughter that she doesn't need to visit her boyfriend because she could contact him through Facebook and Skype. And she replied that "It's not the same". I wish the same answer could be said for our churches.
