Author Archives: Clyde Ervine

Reflections on COVID-19

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April 2020 – Dr. Clyde Ervine engages the COVID-19 pandemic theologically to discern possible lessons for God’s people as they pursue faithfulness.

A month ago, I was enjoying spring weather in Northern Ireland, the place of my birth, meeting family and old friends, talking about this and that, but not about the topic we’ve talked about ever since – COVID-19. After arriving back in Canada on March 13, and during the following two weeks of self-isolation, I was relieved to be home and able to sleep in my own bed; home means comfort, familiarity and security. But now COVID-19 is all we hear about, as daily bulletins announce decreasing freedom of movement and increasing numbers of those infected by the virus, and those who have died from it.

I confess that my emotions have been all over the map: from initial disbelief to anxious worry; from deep sadness at the scale of suffering to cheers for the courage of frontline medical personnel; from wanting to do ‘my bit’ for the greater good to wanting to get out and pretend that life hasn’t changed, and that it’s all only a dream.

But life has changed. You and I know people living in nursing homes who are now deprived of visits from family and friends; you and I know families where a loved one has died, but where no worship service has been permitted, depriving those who grieve of the comfort and companionship of the family of faith; you and I know others with health issues other than COVID-19, who are deprived of the medical attention they need; and you and I know that millions in our country, temporarily unable to work, have been deprived of income. We live in a world of great loss. Everything has changed.

I don’t know about you, but when my life changes in a negative way, I instinctively look for something good that may lie hidden within unwelcome circumstances. What comes to mind in relation to COVID-19 is that we’re all in this crisis together; no amount of health and wealth makes us immune from an indiscriminate virus. In my lifetime, widespread health threats usually impacted far away, impoverished parts of the globe, not those living in a stable, comfortable Canada. But no longer. COVID-19 is no respecter of persons, region, religion or class. In other words, each of us faces the same danger, and the same challenge to act selflessly for the sake of others. There’s a bonding comfort in that thought.

Another ‘good thing’, I think, is the rare sense of community palpable across our nation. Gone, at least for now, is the hyper-political partisanship that often distorts federal and provincial decision-making; in its place, we see erstwhile political enemies work together in search of medical and economic solutions. But community is also very local, for as I walk my dog Fergus along the river twice each day, I find myself more ready than usual to say “Hello” [six feet apart, of course] to those I meet, and they to me. Our common enemy, COVID-19, is releasing the sort of neighbourliness that restrained Canadians often resist. Speaking of community, many are taking time to stay in touch with and support one another, by telephone, email, Skype – and in my case, Tupperware containers of tasty muffins left at my front door! And though a techno-peasant, I visit the websites of various congregations to read or hear thoughtful messages of reassurance. I’ve appreciated the warm, pastoral preaching of Gregory Davidson, my successor at Central, Hamilton, and a timely word on how COVID-19 offers us the opportunity to rethink what ‘Sabbath’ means, from Rob Congram, minister at Shakespeare Presbyterian, and encouraging emails and YouTube sermons from Virginia Head, my minister at St. Andrew’s, Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Nevertheless, tough questions keep troubling our heads: what will be the final toll of this pandemic? How many will die? How many will face financial ruin? Most important of all: where is God? When big problems arise, I tend to react by trying to defend God from those who want to pin the blame on the God who, I’ve always and gladly believed, ‘so loved the world that He gave his only Son’ [John 3:16 NRSV]. This tendency is often followed by a quick assertion of God’s sovereignty; that is, I say to myself, “whatever happens, and no matter how bad things get, God is God, and God’s kingdom will prevail”. But true as this is, it feels wrong if it’s all we say about God.

I’m conscious of the fact that this is Holy Week, and that prior to the glory of Easter morning, we annually recall the ugliness of how God’s Son was ultimately betrayed and the agony of his ignominious death that swiftly followed. In other words, there was no shortcut to Christ’s victorious kingship; the road to that, took him through doubt, darkness and, dare I say it, hell.

I’m no longer a settled pastor of a congregation, but for the over thirty years that I was, it amazed me how high a percentage of my congregations skipped Holy Week church services; people would show up on Palm Sunday but weren’t seen again until Easter morning. Part of the reason for that, I expect, is wanting to believe in a God who is a victorious, sovereign King, not a God who gets caught up in and is brought low by the world’s messy suffering and sin, the very things we try so hard to avoid.

But what if, as I believe Scripture teaches, God was victoriously present, not just when Easter morning revealed an empty tomb, but as Jesus prayed in the Garden, with God’s power holding him steady when tempted to avoid the suffering and sin about to engulf him? What if God was lovingly present, not just as the risen Jesus showed himself to his disciples, but as Jesus, God’s Son, hung on a cross to atone once for all for the sin of the world?

Faced with the devastation that comes with COVID-19, let’s not too quickly try to protect God, or insulate God behind a wall of divine sovereignty; instead let’s dare to believe that the God revealed by the Lord Jesus meets us in our doubt and worry, comes to us when we’re alone or lost, and comforts and strengthens us when we’re caught up in heartbreak for our own lives or the lives of others. At a time like this, I, like many of you, reach for the Bible to lighten my way. Few verses are more apropos than the following from Hebrews 4. Recalling Jesus’ suffering and death, the author writes: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” [Hebrews 4:15-16 NRSV]

It’s vital to know in our present moment of need that the God we trust isn’t some distant deity, but the God whom Jesus revealed, the God who is with us, not just in times of victory, but in times of trouble. That’s why I recently valued hearing Gregory Davidson preach at Central, Hamilton on the text: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble’ [Psalm 46:1 NRSV]. Where is God? Not outside of our trouble, but in the midst of it, helping us to bear and ultimately bring us through the trouble now being caused by COVID-19.

There are undoubtedly many other ways to think about COVID-19 that I haven’t yet reflected on; but these words I commend to your heart and mind to help steady your faith in Christ, and then use it to serve others in need.

Clyde Ervine

General Assembly Additional Motion

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The following is an extract from the minutes of the 138th General Assembly.

Rev. Dr. Clyde ErvinePreamble

Over the years, I have attended a number of General Assemblies and been repeatedly impressed and moved by the breadth and depth of the ways we are missionally engaged as a national church. It is a privilege to be a minister in this denomination. I am proud of its people and I'm a passionate promoter of Presbyterians Sharing — the budget that supports such a wide range of ministries and mission.

That said, I want right now, in the context of the Life and Mission Agency Report, to propose a radical reorientation of focus for our denomination. I'm here to plead that our central focus as a denomination be placed on congregations. For a very long time, within a Christendom paradigm, the presence of congregations has been assumed as a given, perhaps even taken for granted. As I read through the General Assembly reports prior to coming to this General Assembly, I found much of interest, yet I confess that I didn't find a sustained focus on congregations as congregations. They are assumed.

Congregations

  1. In the New Testament, and in light of Jesus' ministry, the earliest disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, began their mission. In Jerusalem and going out from there, they go out preaching Jesus. But to what end? The forming of local congregations.-
  2. Further, the documents we know as the New Testament were written largely to help those early congregations. Congregational formation, congregational edification, congregational health, and congregational mission are the reasons why the New Testament was written.
  3. Within our own Reformed Tradition, the burning question among the early Reformers was this: Where is the church to be found? The classic answer given was that the church is present wherever the gospel is preached and the gospel sacraments are rightly celebrated. In other words the church is found in local, concrete, embodied communities called congregations.
  4. I also suggest that as a matter of history, it has been congregations for the last 2000 years that have been the primary bearers of the gospel from one generation to another.

My conclusion: congregations constitute the basic, fundamental fabric of our denomination. But we too often assume that they will always be there.

We know, or perhaps need to be reminded, that fifty years ago The Presbyterian Church in Canada had 200,000 members in its congregations; today the number is 100,000. Fifty years ago, The Presbyterian Church in Canada had 100,000 in its congregations' Sunday schools; today it is 17,000. This reality casts a shadow over the work of the denomination and of this Assembly. But it seems to me this has not yet moved us seriously to give a nationally sustained focus to congregations as congregations. Congregations themselves and presbyteries, and to some extent synods, pay attention to congregations. But it is at the national, General Assembly level that I plead for a radical reorientation of our priorities.

What might a primary focus on congregational vitality look like? I suggest that it means a vast emphasis on making disciples. The formation of congregations in New Testament times arose out of the fact of Jesus, crucified and risen. Claiming all authority in heaven and earth, Jesus told his earliest disciples, "Go make disciples". Those well known words of commission need to be burnt into the national consciousness and practice of our denomination.

"Go make disciples". The commission is based christologically on the crucified and risen Jesus. But the commission needs to be expressed ecclesiologically, as it is in the New Testament, in the creation of congregations, which in turn, according to the New Testament, are meant to embody and express the values of the kingdom of God.

To make disciples begins with evangelism, an evangelism that challenges post-Christian, secular Canada with the claims of Christ. It's going to be hard; congregations feel intimidated by this challenge. Congregations need help in doing this from a national church that has decided, and that has it in its DNA, that congregations are primary. Congregations need help to exegete an unfriendly, even hostile context. Congregations need help to face the social and intellectual barriers in our society that challenge the gospel. Congregations need help through theological and practical resources that will enable them to understand, celebrate and share the gospel.

But if evangelism is an invitation to discipleship, discipleship does not end there. To make disciples is to create and sustain congregations as counter-cultural communities that in concrete, local settings, follow a distinctive Lord, think in distinctive Christian ways, and live out distinctive kingdoms values. It's going to be hard.

For the greater part of our history as a denomination in Canada we have been part and parcel of the fabric of a Christian Canada. But our place in the nation has changed. We are no longer as welcome within the reigning cultural assumptions of our society — which is why congregational life and growth are so difficult, and why so many clergy and congregations are so discouraged.

As I look at the reports in front of us, and as I look at the Life and Mission Agency Report, I wish that there was a greater focus on congregations as congregations. The particular section of the Life and Mission Agency Report that might be expected to focus on the congregation as congregation would be Canadian Ministries. But on reading that report I note that under the one umbrella of Canadian Ministries we have, as a denomination, placed our commitment to congregational worship, congregational evangelism, congregational Christian Education, congregational Youth Ministry, and congregational development and leadership, all under the mandate of one associate secretary. I have to conclude from this, that at a national level, sadly, we are not at this time serious about the fundamental fabric of the denomination, congregations, and about the fundamental calling of the church — to make disciples.

We need a radical reorientation of our priorities. It's going to be hard. If we were as a General Assembly to commit ourselves nationally to placing a primary and central focus on congregational vitality, it will involve tough, courageous choices in the use of limited resources.

Yet not just because I want The Presbyterian Church in Canada to survive (and I do) but because of a desire to be faithful to biblical patterns and principles, I move that the 138th General Assembly go on record as giving priority to the reimagining and renewal of our congregations and ask the Life and Mission Agency to consider how new energy and resources may be focused on congregational vitality, and that the Life and Mission Agency share the mind of this Assembly with the Assembly Council as the latter develops a new national mission and vision statement.

Clyde Ervine, Presbytery of Hamilton

Additional Motion

W.J.C. Ervine moved, duly seconded, that the 138th General Assembly go on record as giving priority to the reimagining and renewal of congregations and that it ask the Life and Mission Agency to consider how new energy and resources may be focussed on congregational vitality, and that the Life and Mission Agency share the mind of this Assembly on this matter with the Assembly Council as it further develops a national mission and vision statement. Adopted.