Preaching the Big Questions

Catherine MacLean and John Young were so well received last Fall that we've invited them back to look at another couple theological issues that sometimes times feel hard to preach. 

"Doctrine" gets a bad rap these days. People hear the word and think we mean something that's rigid, authoritarian and prescriptive. Sometimes doctrine becomes the foundation for argument, criticism, and division. We fear that using doctrinal language in our preaching might turn people off, or send them out the door mad.

What does the church say about "divides"?

Gaping canyons: In days we thought were gentler we might have overlooked the gaps between communities. Now they are gaping canyons. Pandemic, politics, and personal self-determination are lines in the sand, and gulfs over which platitudes cannot stretch. What is the line between nice and mean? Where does compromise end? Where does postmodernism conflict with moral rectitude? What about social justice? The common good has always been part of our sermons and now preachers are flummoxed.

Leaders

The Rev. Dr. Catherine Faith MacLean is Senior Minister at St. Paul’s United Church in Edmonton. She works with a congregation made up of professors, students, scientists, business people, artists, foresters, social activists, LGBTQ+ persons, politicians, children, old people, very old people, refugees, writers, grumpy people and sunny people. She also works collegially with other churches in the area. She has served churches in the Maritimes, Toronto, Yellowknife, and Canmore.

The Rev. Dr. John H. Young grew up in Douglastown, New Brunswick.  He attended Mount Allison University (Sackville, NB) and the Atlantic School of Theology (Halifax, NS) before completing a Ph.D. in the History of Christianity at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.

John was ordained by Maritime Conference in 1978.  He served the Rawdon Pastoral Charge in Nova Scotia and the Harrowsmith-Verona Pastoral Charge before joining the faculty of Queen’s Theological College (now the Queen’s School of Religion), where he taught from 1991-2016.  Since the spring of 2016, he has been serving as the Executive Minister, Theological Leadership, in the United Church’s General Council Office.  Since his ordination he has offered leadership in many ways at all levels of the United Church; he also served a term as President of the Rural Church Network of the United States and Canada.  He is the author, along with the Rev. Dr. Catherine MacLean, of Preaching the Big Questions: Doctrine Isn’t Dusty, published by the United Church Publishing House in 2015.  He is also the author of chapters in several different books and a number of journal articles.

He lives in Moira, Ontario, where he and Caroline share their home with two dogs and two cats.

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