On Sunday, Jeanie Whitehead, our chair of the Worship Committee, surprised me (Rev. Richard Bowley) with her thanks for my leadership in the planning for the Joint Centennial Celebration held at FHS on June 8th. She also offered her appreciation for the message I delivered that day, which had to be written last minute due to our guest speaker being ill.
I felt so blessed by that appreciation, and for the appreciation that many in the congregation showed me that day, and in the months and – almost – years of ministry at Nashwaaksis United Church (August 1 is the 2 year anniversary).
Unfortunately, we were not able to record the Centennial Service due to technical difficulties, but I thought that it would be good to share the text of the message that I offered on that day for anyone who didn’t get a chance to hear it. The title, though it was not in any of the material, was 100 Years – A Great Start
***Small Disclaimer*** Sometimes the words on the page aren’t always the words that come out. Sometimes in the moment I feel called by the Spirit to add words, skip others, or go in a different direction entirely. However, for this message I did stick pretty close, as far as I can remember. Also the way I structure my sermons may seem strange, but it works for me
You can read the message below, or download a pdf here.
Thank you again, for this call and ministry that we share!
100 Years – A Great Start
Holy and loving God, We gather today with full hearts, grateful for the faith that brought us here, grateful for the hands that built and shaped this United Church of Ours, grateful for the stories, the songs, and the saints. As we mark a hundred years of witness and wonder, we pause. Root us again in your love, and ready us for the journey ahead. By your Spirit, breathe fresh vision, and lead us into the wide horizon of your grace. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
It’s a strange thing, standing at the 100-year mark.
-There’s something deeply human about looking back, remembering where we’ve been, the people who came before us, the moments that mattered.
-And for many of us, when we think about the church, our minds go back to what some might call the “glory days.”
You know the ones.
-The pews were full. The choir had a waiting list. Sunday School classrooms overflowed. The building rang with laughter and life and the sound of dishes clinking in the kitchen.
-And when we remember those days, something in us aches, not just with gratitude for those who brought us this far, but with a longing.
-Longing for what we’ve lost. Longing for the days when church felt central, to our lives, to our communities, to the world.
-And that longing is real. It deserves to be honoured. Because the truth is those days were beautiful.
-The love poured into our churches – the commitment, the service, the sacrifice – it mattered. It still matters. It’s part of the foundation we stand on today.
-but that same longing is also a sign that the Spirit is still stirring in us, nudging us on to what might be.
Because the Holy Spirit is not a museum curator.
-The Spirit is not content to linger behind us, holding tight to the memories of what once was. The Spirit does not live in the comfort of yesterday’s victories.
-The Spirit is not frozen in time with the best hymns and the best attendance record.
No, the Spirit is out ahead of us.
-Moving. Stirring. Dreaming things we haven’t yet dared to imagine. And as much as we honour the past, as much as we celebrate the century behind us – , and that is part of what we are doing here today – we are not called to live backward.
-We are called to live forward. And the good news is the same Spirit who stirred in the hearts of those early visionaries in 1925, they’re still stirring now.
So if we’re not called to live backward — then what are we called to carry forward?
-What endures, even as buildings change, even as programs shift, even as the world seems to move faster and faster around us?
-Paul puts it simply in his letter to the Ephesians: “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all the saints… and I do not cease to give thanks for you.”
Faith and love.
-That’s what lasts. And if there’s one thing the United Church of Canada has tried – however imperfectly – to live out over these past 100 years, it’s that.
-Not just faith as belief, but faith as trust, trust in a God who is still speaking, still welcoming, still reforming the church.
-and not just love as sentiment, but love as action, love that shows up, stands up, and speaks up for those pushed to the margins.
Think of what that faith and love have made possible for us over the last century.
-It took faith to dream of a union in 1925, a bold, Spirit-led act of ecumenical hope.
-It took love to speak hard truths, to apologize to Indigenous communities and begin the long journey of reconciliation.
-It took faith to ordain women when it wasn’t popular.
-It took love to affirm our LGBTQ+ siblings when the world said “no” but the gospel said “yes.”
-If faith and love could do that in 1925, in 1936, in 1988 – what might they do in this generation? What doors is the Spirit opening now that we’ve barely dared to knock on?
Because faith and love is the heart of this church.
-Not perfection. Not certainty. But a deep, stubborn trust in God’s grace, and a love wide enough to hold difference, doubt, and hope all at once.
That’s something worth carrying into the next century.
-And Paul doesn’t just name those as characteristics. He goes deeper. He prays that we might be rooted and grounded in love.
-And being rooted is about where we draw our strength. It’s about what holds us fast when the winds change and they’ve changed a lot over the years.
Over a hundred years, we’ve seen cultural shifts, declining attendance, rising anxieties about the future of organized religion.
-We’ve seen hard decisions, shrinking budgets, amalgamations, and closures. But through it all, the roots have held. Because those roots go deeper than any single generation.
-They go deeper than any single building or program or trend. They reach all the way down and back to the love of Christ, a love that does not fail, even when everything else feels fragile.
But roots aren’t there just to keep us in place. Roots feed growth.
-To be rooted in love doesn’t mean staying the same, it means having the nourishment we need to stretch, to reach, to risk.
-It means being secure enough in who we are to evolve. Brave enough to be transformed. Bold enough to dream of what might yet be in the shadow of uncertainty.
-That’s what has kept the United Church moving forward, not a desire to keep up with the times, but a desire to keep growing in love.
-And that’s still our calling. Not just to protect what was, but to live more fully into what could be. To open wider. To go deeper. To reach beyond.
And if love is what roots us, then our faith and the Spirit are what helps us to grow.
-in his letter Paul prays that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,” that we might know the hope to which we are called, and trust in the power already at work within us, “the power that can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine” with the support and guidance of the Spirit
That’s not just a poetic flourish. That’s a vision.
-And it’s one we need, especially now, as we stand at the edge of a new century in the life of this church.
-Because, let’s be honest, it’s easy to feel uncertain about the road ahead.
-We’re not the cultural center we once were. We don’t have the same numbers, the same programs, the same predictability.
-We worry about sustainability. About relevance. About whether there’s a place for the church in tomorrow’s world.
-yes, the road ahead is uncertain. But uncertainty is just space for God to surprise us.
And Paul’s words continue to call us back to hope.
-They remind us that the Spirit is not finished with us yet, that God is not done with us yet. That the story of the United Church of Canada isn’t just a chapter in the past, it’s a living, breathing witness that is still unfolding.
Because the Holy Spirit doesn’t cling to what was.
-They move toward what will be. The Holy Spirit is always out ahead of us, calling us into new forms of community, new partnerships, new expressions of worship and witness.
And our job? Our job is to catch the wind.
-To raise our sails. To let go of what holds us back. To trust that when Paul says “immeasurably more” it’s not just a hope, it’s a promise.
One hundred years. It’s no small thing.
-It’s a century of prayers whispered and shouted. A century of babies baptized, of bread broken, of hands held in hospital rooms. A century of music, mission, justice, coffee, casseroles, hard questions, holy moments.
-It’s worth celebrating. It’s worth giving thanks. It’s worth pausing, just for a moment, to marvel at the ways that the Holy Spirit has worked through us over the years.
But the best way we honour the past is by living into the future.
-By being a people still rooted in love, still shaped by faith, still willing to risk everything on the wide and wild grace of God.
So let’s not shrink from what’s ahead.
-Let’s not bury the gospel in caution and committee. Let’s ask. Let’s imagine. Let’s believe that God is still at work in us, through us, among us, doing more than we can yet see.
And let’s carry this words of Paul into the next century as we continue to be guided and inspire by that Spirit:
-“That Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith…That we, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power…To grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…And to know this love that surpasses knowledge…That we may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
One hundred years. It is no small thing. But it’s a great start. Let’s pray:
God of all generations, you have been our help in ages past, and you are our hope for years to come. We thank you for all that has brought us to this moment: for faith passed down, for love lived out, for courage shown, even in uncertain times. Now, O God, send us forward with hearts wide open. Plant us deeper in your love. Grow in us a holy imagination for what your church can be. Keep us faithful. Keep us brave. Keep us rooted and keep us reaching. We offer this and all our prayers in the strong name of Jesus Christ, our brother and our guide. AMEN
