New moderator of United Church of Canada wants denomination to think small

 

“We May Not Be Big, But We’re Small.” 

That was the motto of The Vinyl Cafe, a fictional record store owned by Dave, a character featured in the stories of the late Canadian author and CBC radio host Stuart McLean. 

It could also be the new motto for the United Church of Canada, according to its newly-elected moderator Kimberly Heath. 

“Our identity as United Church people is to think of ourselves as big,” said Heath, who was elected on Aug. 9 at the denomination’s 45th General Council. 

For a long time, Heath says, United Church members took pride in being the largest Protestant denomination in Canada; in being a “church that matters.” 

But that was the past, she said. “That idea of ourselves as big is not helping us today.”

Read my interview with Heath in Canadian Affairs.