Group Leader. WebWeaver - Jock McTavish

A little bit of bio. Where I have travelled on my spiritual journey. What I have seen and done on my journey. Where I am theologically.

I was grown in a Baptist garden. It was sheltered and very different than the wild outdoors I would encounter later, but it was a very good place to grow. And I came to understand I was a liberal Baptist. Now I know that sounds a contradiction, but at the time it was very true. The Baptist Federation of Canada was a member of the World Council of Churchs for one thing and that set them aside from the many other Christian folk who call themselves Baptist also. Another distinguishing thing was our ministers were educated at McGill University, whereas the other Baptist ministers took their education at various prairie Bible Colleges.

And First Baptist Church in Calgary has had a good history of Christian commitment to community. For example both The Mustard Seed and Operation Eyesight were birthed there. And the quality of the preaching was special. I learned to take notes as a teenager listening to those good preachers.

When I failed physics in university I was very confused and lost and spent a year at BLTS - the Baptist Leadership Training School here in Calgary. It was a special place with special teachers and a very good place to be then. It was where I met Bonnae. Their theology was like this: the Old Testament was largely mythological, the New Testament was history.

I then took volunteer responsibilities in the Baptist Youth Fellowship as Program Secretary for a couple of years. This was when I discovered the Christian Church outside of my Baptist world. And how I discovered the SCM (Student Christian Movement) Bookstore in Toronto. They had discounted specials on topical theological books. It was the 60's. I discovered the ancients and the moderns, the Germans, the Catholics and the mystics. Then Anglican Bishop John Robinson wrote "Honest to God", Harvey Cox wrote "Secular City" and I discovered Teilhard de Chardin.

Having ventured outside my Baptist garden there was a lot of disillusion and misfitting. Then I moved to Yukon with a young family and joined the United Church. There I found people more concerned with justice and charity than with the Bible. There I found a home. Here I am still.

I'm a bookworm. I've read maybe an hour a day for 40 years. It's a joy to pick your teachers and mentors. And what impresses the people you learned to respect, causes you to track back the influences, and they also become your teachers. As Newton commented, "We stand on the shoulders of the giants before us."

Another influence was New Age Thought. There is a huge activity here calling itself spiritual but not religious. Calling it pagan is not false, but understates the meanings. It also means we do not easily see the "pagan" portions of our own faith. It is a terrible thing that the Church ignores this energy and these voices. Consider for example, that perhaps 4 million people alive today have had Near Death Experiences, but we are not versed in the issues, and worse, they are rebuffed by the Church. Tom Harpur notwithstanding.

Now, thirty years later we have the same themes of reaction and renewal - the same call to reconcile ancient and modern truth. A re-energizing of conservative and liberal perspectives is upon us.

So where I am now? I am the most leftest person I know. But my heart and mind still have a concern for fundamental values. I can sing what I cannot say. I can see both sides of nearly every issue. Often that means I cannot decide which way to go. I live very much in the middle of the world and I see from this middle the beauty of relationship in every direction. As the years go by I find belief becoming knowing. I find every turn of the road and every person I encounter and every thing that happens to fit. They all fit in the most exquisite way in my life. I no longer believe in coincidence.

I don't have a credo. I am content with the credo of the United Church, and even more with the works in progress. I'm a fan of the Jesus Seminar Fellows. But Tillich still stirs me, Bonhoeffer challenges me, and Robinson said nearly all that was important to say.

I often reflect on Albert Schweitzer who said he spent the first half of his life getting ready for the last half, and who at the end of that preparation figured you could not ever know anything about the historical Christ. Nevertheless he went off to Africa in Christian Service for that last half.

I think on Mother Theresa whose theology and denomination I pretty much entirely disagree with but whose life and insight and example put her at the top of the list of worthy people.

I am computer literate. I've been there pretty much from the beginning, but only with the Web have the technical pieces come together to facilitate a new world view. And this Swords-to-Plowshares story is changing the world indeed. I see the Web as the most important invention of travel and communication in our age. The Church belongs here. There is mission and purpose, need and opportunity. So also, I am the WebWeaver for St. David's.

September 25, 2000