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By Lloyd Mackey
 OCCASIONALLY, a day dawns in which, before the setting of the sun, a triumvirate of Christian events and/or experiences provides some interesting comparisons and contrasts in the nation's capital.
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Such was last Wednesday, September 27. The day began with a breakfast at the National House of Prayer, a few blocks east of The Hill. Sponsored by Mission O, it drew about 70 people, mostly pastors or ministry leaders from the Ottawa area and its Quebec-side-of-the-river counterpart, often identified as Ouatouais.
After lunch, I took in one session of a conference in a hotel near The Hill, put together by the Institute for Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC), the research arm of Focus on the Family Canada.
In between, I chanced to read the lead story in the Ottawa Citizen, authored by its religion/ethics writer, Jennifer Green. Its headline read: 'Anglicans look to 'emerging church' to heal wounds.' And it was reporting a meeting, scheduled for later in the week, between Brian McLaren, often cited as the "guru" of the "emerging church" movement, and leaders of the Ottawa diocese of the Anglican Church in Canada.
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The Mission O event is a pretty regular theme. Its leader is Barry Boucher, who recently retired from the pastorate of Life Centre, a large Pentecostal/charismatic church in Ottawa's east end. His intention, in retiring, is to try to be a pastor to pastors, who often experience discouragement and frustration in their ministries. (Did you ever hear about the pastor who loved to go down to the local railway yards, to relax and watch something move without having to push it.)
Boucher and Mission O have developed a good rapport with the National House of Prayer leadership. NHOP is housed in a former convent near the Chinese Embassy, acquired a few years ago through the leadership of Rob and Fran Parker.
The Parkers, as well as the associate director, Richard Long, are charismatic Baptists. They do a pretty good job of converging their ministry in a way that helps to remove the "scary" reputation -- deserved or otherwise -- of charismatics, held by some other, more "cerebral" Christians. And Mission O leaders wanted their group to see NHOP up close, because they draw the pastors and ministry leaders who attend their meetings from various parts of the Christian spectrum, not all equally enthusiastic about the charismatic experience.
In reporting on the development of NHOP, the Parkers told about the teams of prayer-oriented people who come from across Canada to spend a few days or weeks in the national capital setting.
One of experiences offered to these teams is the opportunity to attend Question Period, the tumultuous give-and-take which takes place each afternoon when the House of Commons is in session.
Fran Parker told how many MPs who have gotten to know NHOP look up each day to the galleries, to see if they can see the "pray-ers" And she suggested that they are reminded, constantly, that their praying "ministry" is appreciated
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At the Institute for Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) session, the same careful "non-scary" approach was being exhibited: So much so that the response of a couple of journalists was most interesting.
Neil Reynolds, a former Ottawa Citizen editor who now writes a thoughtful column for the Globe and Mail Report on Business, noted in passing that the Institute was doing excellent research and presenting it well.
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And, reporting from the event, CanWest News Service's Norma Greenaway noted that IMFC executive director, David Quist, was suggesting that the research group's stout opposition to same-sex marriage might well become a thing of the past. IMFC, he suggested, will major on "strengthening marriage".
The story, as it appeared in several Canadian newspapers, may have seemed a little dramatic. And undoubtedly, it was alarming to people who want to fight the issue to the finish.
But in context, the message was not all that startling. Quist affirmed that IMFC will continue to research and monitor the social changes that emerge from the entrenching of same sex marriage. But they will not, in the foreseeable future, try to force the government to reintroduce the issue into parliament.
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And, Jennifer Green's story about the Ottawa Anglicans seeking counsel from the emerging church guru showed similar tendencies.
Green, whose writing won a number of major awards recently in The Word Guild's Christian Writing competition, obviously noticed that the Anglicans are looking for some options that might lead to healing the fractures and decline in the denomination.
She noted: Brian McLaren . . . the balding, bespectacled baby boomer is one of the leading lights in a new Christian movement: Church without speeches, rules, robes -- sometimes without churches . . . Later, she suggested:Mr. McLaren travels the world preaching that there is another, more faithful way of following Christ, that doesn't split into armed camps the way the Anglican church seems poised to do. McLaren, as it happens, is on a leading edge of the Christendom's evangelical sub-set. While he commands wide respect, some of his fellow evangelicals criticize him for neglecting doctrine and church discipline in the interests of what they might describe as "easy believe-ism."
Nevertheless, a decade before the Ottawa Anglicans thought of it, McLaren offered his counsel to the leadership of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, in an Ottawa conclave called by then EFC president Gary Walsh.
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There is an interesting commonality in these three examples, coming from one day in life around The Hill.
Each situation rolled out of the experience of different parts of the church, each of which, in their own right, has some influence around The Hill.
And each showed a way to approach issues in a collaborative manner, rather than combatively.
Some Christians will say: "It is about time." Others will suggest that these three groups are on the slippery slope to compromise.
We will see.
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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa, and author of Stephen Harper: the Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press 2006) He can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.
October 4/2007
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