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“Why do you need the whole title?’’ I was asked recently. My friend felt the name of our organisation was too long and unwieldy. You may agree.
When we constituted ourselves with that name at our inaugural meeting at Willowdale Church on May 8, 1982, we made a careful decision. Each word in the name suggests an aspect of our ministry that is vital. As an introduction to what we are trying to accomplish I can do no better than stress each word singly as an expression of the goals and objectives of The Renewal Fellowship Within The Presbyterian Church in Canada.
“The” is, we trust, not going to be understood as a claim to moral superiority. Rather, it is simply a statement of fact. Up until now, there has not been an organisation within our denomination that was specifically committed to renewal. In this we were virtually unique among major Protestant denominations in North America. The newly formed Presbyterian Church in the United States of America has several such organisations, such as Presbyterians United For Biblical Concerns. Our sister denomination, the United Church, has its flourishing Renewal Fellowship. We stand committed to prayer for renewal, renewal through the emphasising of that doctrinal and Biblical heritage that made us great, renewal as a priority in our planning, our praying and our priorities.
That is the vision we share. Renewal summarizes it in a single word. We are concerned that beyond all the hand-wringing, the shaking of the head, the wagging of the finger, the fact that right across our church – and beginning with those of us who have paid lip-service over the years to the ministry of the Word and of prayer – there is the need for a radical repentance and fresh response to the gracious and life-empowering Spirit of holiness and truth. Renewal never comes cheaply, George Mallone, our 1984 Annual Conference speaker, reminds us.
Ours is a Fellowship. We see that recent events within our church have endangered that sense of family which was one of the reasons our church came together after the disruption of 1925, and meant that it could bring together varieties of viewpoint and ecclesiastical tradition. Openness and toleration were our strengths. Will that sense of family be ruptured? Will there be division and separation? Or can we work together, transcending the unessential to preserve the vital?
In answering those questions, we seek to emphasize that we are within the church. We do not stand outside, hurling our anathemas of judgment and destruction upon it. We stand with it, in its brokenness and need, for we are also broken and needy. We dare not speak of “them” but of “us”, not of adversaries but of opportunities. Opportunities of growth, discovery and maturing. For it is at the point of dialogue and interaction that we will learn how much there is that we share, how great our common needs, how deep the longings we all feel for the Presbyterian Church in Canada to be the instrument – the channel – of God’s redemptive purpose in our land.
Because we are Presbyterians. There is a need for the strength and rootedness of our Reformed heritage today in our flabby and rootless society. And as Presbyterians we can provide distinctive elements to concern for renewal that is surfacing across all denominations. Renewal begins with a rediscovery of Scripture. We Presbyterians have a rich Biblical tradition, of teaching and expounding the Word, based on full confidence in its authority and relevance. Renewal also accompanies a recovery of Biblical, Christ-honouring and Spirit-empowered worship. In their tradition Presbyterians have combined reverence with openness, structure with freedom. Renewal means recommitment of each to all and all to each within the fellowship. Presbyterians know the discipline that makes such a community practicable. The eldership at its best can revitalise the family of God and enhance our discipleship. In the aftermath of renewal we need discipline, and our stress on discipline, together with Word and sacrament, as a mark of the church can bring order to our enthusiasms.
The Church is important to us. It is not a “necessary evil,” too often strangling life and stunting growth. It is not an escape from “where the action is” so much as the place the reality and realism of our fresh insights are tested and refined. The church is where the undeserved grace of a Sovereign Lord is worked through, not because of realised perfection, but in spite of our confused gropings toward the Head.
We are Canadian. Canada – with the exception of the Annapolis Valley in the Maritimes in the eighteenth century and Glengarry and Oxford Counties in Ontario in the nineteenth – lacks an indigenous revivalist tradition. This is both a strength and a weakness. A desire to repeat past patterns can hobble vision. In other instances the stories of past awakenings can light the way amid darkness of complacency and despair to new vitality and strength.
All of us long for that day when the Holy Spirit of the living Lord visits His Church with new power, authority and urgency. We want to see the Church as the Church, mighty as an army, terrible in conflict, powerful in its response to human need. We wish to hear the Word of God sounding forth in confidence and conviction, restoring the penitent and converting the sinner.
When will the church – our church – be freed from its self-absorption, its death-wishes, and become what God intends it to be? Our sovereign Lord of the Church alone knows the answer to these yearnings of ours. But he uses instruments to affect His purposes – channels. We pray that the Renewal Fellowship may be one of these. We hope that not only do you share our concern, but that you will be numbered among us.