Sailing into the Future on a Ship Called Generosity
It is the custom of GA moderators to choose a theme they wish to highlight for The Presbyterian Church in Canada during their moderatorial year. I introduced my chosen theme to the Assembly during the Tuesday morning sederunt. The following are exerpts from my address to the Assembly…
Some people argue that The Presbyterian Church in Canada is dying. They point to the statistics of declining membership and an aging demographic. There are various diagnoses of what’s ailing us and various suggestions for a cure. Now, I don’t pretend to have any magical elixirs or cures, but I do have a hunch that we will find a way forward only when we start worrying less about holding on to the life we have and start doing more to share the life we have been given. To quote from the article I wrote for the May 2010 issue of the Presbyterian Record, “The gospel is not ours to keep – it is ours to share. Our wealth is not ours to keep – it is ours to share. Our life is not ours to keep – it is ours to share.” 
We aren’t Presbyterians keeping, we are Presbyterians Sharing. After all, as someone has said, “stewardship is organizing our life so that we can give it away.” This is why, during my moderatorial year, I am going to focus on growing the generosity of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Because I believe that it is through our generosity that we will move forward as congregations and as a denomination. The theme of the136th General Assembly was “Sailing into the Future,” a fitting theme for The Presbyterian Church in Canada’s first General Assembly held on the island of Cape Breton. Well, I am convinced that generosity is the way we can “sail into the future” as God’s people.
Many of us are familiar with the Dayspring, the first Presbyterian missionary ship which was launched in 1862 from the shipyards of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. The Dayspring was built during dark days for the Presbyterian missionary enterprise. Rev. George Gordon and his wife, both from PEI, had recently been killed by natives on Erratonga Island in the New Hebrides (now called the Republic of Vanuatu after the nation of islands gained its independence in 1980) where John and Charlotte Geddie had been doing their missionary work for fifteen years. It looked like all the Geddie’s hard work and the entire missionary enterprise was in jeopardy. But when the news of the Gordons’ death reached Canada, the church responded in a remarkable way. Listen now the account of the building of the Dayspring as told by David Stewart in an article he wrote for the Winter 2001 issue of Channels:
We witness a truly astonishing response back in Canada to the murder of these Presbyterian messengers of the gospel. The appeal went out to their home churches for a larger ship to be built and for three missionaries to join the cause! We might almost imagine a misprint or at least a non sequitur here; the missionary bridgehead on the island of Erratonga is more or less wiped out and the people back home, in the tiny Secession Synod of Nova Scotia, barely 5000 souls in all, not only embrace this request for a ship of some 50-60 tons but, demolishing all Presbyterian stereotypes, they subscribe so generously that the ship can be built at 115 tons, and well appointed throughout! The contemporary data gleaned from newspaper and other accounts suggest a smart brigantine rigged, i.e. a two-masted ship with a square-rigged topsail on the main mast.
Later in the article, Stewart notes that one of the volunteers for the crew was none other than George Gordon’s brother, James, who was then in his second year of theological studies.
photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Record
Now listen, and listen well. It was generosity that built the Dayspring. Generosity of spirit, that responded to the killing of two missionaries with a spirit of forgiveness rather than retaliation. Generosity of faith and hope, that refused to shrink back in fear and dared to believe that God had a future for the continuing Presbyterian mission in the New Hebrides. And generosity of financial resources and ship making skills, that turned a 50-60 ton boat into a 115 ton, two-masted ship – double the size they had originally envisioned!
I invite you today to join me in building a new Dayspring for The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Let’s christen our ship “Generosity!” I invite you to sail with me into the future God is preparing for God’s people on the ship called Generosity. And what a magnificent ship she is! For she is built out of the abundant grace of Almighty God whose giving knows no ending! And there is a part we can all play in building this ship, for we all have gifts to share. I don’t care if you’re five or 95!
Lawrence Scanlon, an award winning journalist and author, recently took an interesting sabbatical from his usual work. For a year he volunteered his time with twelve charities in Canada and around the world – a different charity each month. He has written a marvelous book about his experiences which he entitled, A Year of Living Generously: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Philanthropy. During my moderatorial year, I invite you to help The Presbyterian Church in Canada to write its own book and tell its own stories. Send me your “dispatches from the front lines of philanthropy” so that they can be posted on this website. Our stories need to be told and celebrated, for woven throughout all our stories of generosity is the gospel story of God’s overflowing grace. Over the next twelve months, let’s dedicate ourselves as individuals and congregations and as a denomination as a whole to “a year of living generously.” Let’s join together in building a ship called Generosity to sail into the future God is even now preparing for us!
