ASA/CSCA Conference
Respectful disagreements and common worship paved the way for this meeting of Christian scientists.
At the end of July, I was able to attend the joint American Scientific Affiliation and Canadian Scientific Christian Affiliation annual conference. The meeting was held at the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto, as it was the 50th anniversary of the CSCA. Hearing talks and sharing our faith with other Christian scientists was a blessing and an enriching experience. Two things stood out to me (aside from all I learned from the speakers and all the books I now need to get my hands on). One was the Sunday morning worship, and the second was the freedom of the organization.
Our Common Worship
Gathering with more than 300 others to worship our Lord on Sunday morning was incredible. The singing was robust and joyful, and the pastor led us into God’s Word in a way that was a gift to us all. However, it led me to appreciate the richness of our Reformed worship. There was little in the way of liturgy and prayer in the service, no recognition of our need for forgiveness, and I missed God’s opening salutation and closing benediction. Part of this was due to the broad denominational basis of the people at the conference; the service had to speak to all. But I appreciated the next Sundays in my home church as aspects of our worship were cast in a fresh light.
Freedom of Views
The other aspect of the conference that stood out to me was the theological generosity of the organization. All members agree to the historic Christian faith as expressed in the Apostles’ Creed (even though each member may interpret it slightly differently). For all other matters, we are to respect each other even though we may hold different views. The organization has members who are young earth creationists, theistic evolutionists, climate deniers, those who feel the climate is the issue of this age, people who accept same-sex marriage, and people who don’t believe women should hold church office. We are charged to talk to the issues, not the people, and to be generous in our discussions. Mostly, everyone respected this, and while there were pointed questions at the talks, they were always respectful. While I am not sure that people’s opinions were changed, for those on the sidelines of these issues it was refreshing to hear so many points of view on what are often controversial topics in the Christian community.
Respectful disagreements often continued into mealtimes. Still, it was clear that the individuals viewed each other as fellow children of our Father and disciples of Jesus. The meeting started on Friday, yet we all remained united in our worship come Sunday.
I wonder if more churches and denominations could take this generous view of our understanding of God’s Word and leave the matter of our eternal salvation in the hands of our just and loving God.
I have long felt the CRC would do well to ask its young adults to make profession of their faith by subscribing to the Apostle’s Creed, rather than the 3 Forms of Unity. And if that Creed constitutes membership in the church we would avoid the far-reaching impacts of our current disagreement over SSM. We have taken historical documents, raised them to salvation status and engendered hopeless conflict.