I trained for ministry at Queen’s Theological College where the foundations for my post-theistic work were laid. There, I learned that the Bible was a human construction. For the better part of my ministry, I applied the extrapolation of that truth to my work within and beyond the church.
In 2013, I deconstructed the concept of god in a Sunday sermon; few were surprised. For the most part, my denomination – one I consider to be the most progressive in the world – tolerated me as I continued to irritate it toward publicly stating what so many who lead within it believe: god is a metaphor for goodness and love lived out with compassion and justice, no more and no less. They became less tolerant when I began to use the term “atheist” to describe myself despite the fact that many of my colleagues identify as nontheists, a term which, of course, means exactly the same thing.
I spoke publicly on the forefront of this work after launching the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity in 2004. My first book, With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important than What We Believe, became a national bestseller within days of its publication in 2008. In 2009, I was named one of the most compelling women in Canada by More Magazine and With or Without God was placed on Amazon’s Top 25 Books to Cause a Commotion alongside To Kill a Mockingbird, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation.
My second, misleadingly named book, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief, applies the reality of a godless world to a spiritual practice that holds incredible meaning for so many. (I now, when selling a copy of Amen, cross out the name of the book and write “With or Without Prayer, We’re All the Answer We’ve Got“, a title which more accurately describes the book, in its place.) Current scientific discoveries regarding the effects of prayer on the brain bring surprising elements to the fore and we recognize that belief is not as important in our spiritual nurture as we have thought it once was. Amen has become an important book in congregational study groups.
I’ve had the privilege to share my ideas across Canada, in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, presenting keynotes and workshops at conferences and leading congregational events and Sunday services. I’ve appeared on programs on the Canadian, Australian, and British Broadcasting Corporations’ radio networks and talk and magazine shows across Canada. For six years, I enjoyed sparring with Charles McVety on the Culture Wars segment of the John Oakley Show on AM640, Toronto’s most listened to Talk Radio program. It has been my privilege to participate in online lecture series, the most notable hosted by the late Michael Dowd and including thirty-seven spiritual leaders from across North America and I’ve been interviewed by numerous online media channels.
My work was regularly addressed in the national magazine of my denomination, The Observer (now Broadview), and fueled controversial conversations on social media. Twice, I narrowly avoided heresy trials, once by a margin of three votes. However, in the spring of 2015, by maneuvering around the denomination’s polity, two administrative officials managed to figure out how to make one happen and a heresy trial ensued, carefully identified as a Review of Effectiveness. Effectiveness was determined to require suitability which was determined to require ongoing affirmation of the questions of ordination separated from the concept of essential agreement which, until that time, had been central to establishing the diversity of belief the UCC has enjoyed. You can find much in the media with respect to this review. In 2018, I was found unsuitable for ministry in The United Church of Canada but allowed to remain in leadership in my congregation. Go figure.
The work I did within my congregation allowed me to amass considerable resource material for use in humanist or religious gatherings. All of it is humanistic in language and assumption. Through that work, I self-published four poetry collections and, with my partner, Scott Kearns, a collection of rewritten and revised songs for use with traditional church music. That work continues. I continue to create resource material for use in traditional transitioning congregations or humanist gatherings and hope to make that work more widely available in the future.
I live outside of Toronto with my husband, partner, and best friend, Scott Kearns by whom I am regularly challenged to live up to the values we have chosen to guide our lives. I couldn’t ask for a better guide and companion in this, my only life. He is a composer and songwriter, working to bring those values into the world that they might provide inspiration for those who need no doctrinal language to frame the work of creating meaning in their lives. I couldn’t do what I do without him.