From Canada comes this shocking news: A Christian church is being led by an openly atheist minister who has mostly done away with the Bible and has replaced the Lord's Prayer with a nonsectarian affirmation.
In a report, The Christian Post said the Rev. Gretta Vosper, leader of West Hill United Church of Toronto, Ontario, is now facing the possibility of being defrocked for being an atheist.
Andrea DiPede, spokesperson for West Hill, told The Christian Post that Vosper has ministered West Hill for several years. She said since the year 2000 the church has seen radical changes, pointing out that worship services at the church "have moved away from language that references God in order to create an environment without barriers to participation."
"The services are themed around love, justice, compassion care and responsibility, and living in right relationship with ourselves, with others and with the world," DiPede said.
She said their church doesn't "recognise the Bible as more authoritative than other sources" and that "some of our members publicly identify as atheists."
"We rarely read the Bible in our services, and when we do, we read it alongside other sources of inspiration. We draw from many sources, including novels, journal articles, blogs, poems, nonfiction books, memoirs, videos and music in our services," DiPede said.
She described the services in their church as "inclusive" for people with various beliefs of "God" and those without belief in God "but who continue to choose values-based living."
She said they have replaced The Lord's Prayer by an invocation called "As I Live," which does not mention God or Heaven.
"As we came to recognise that the words of that traditional prayer no longer reflected our values and represented a barrier to participation to people who don't believe in a personified God, we stopped using it," DiPede said.
Despite the changes, West Hill United Church has failed to draw more congregants. In fact, church membership has declined. A source said in 2000 West Hill had 324 members. Now, the number is down to 147.
Last year the United Church of Canada began investigating the effectiveness of the ministry of Vosper considering that she no longer believes in God.
If the Church concludes that Vosper is no longer effective as a minister, she will be defrocked.
Vosper has declared disbelief in the God of the Bible. "In 2001, I made it clear that I did not believe in a supernatural, interventionist, divine being," she noted on her website. "So, in 2001 I shared my beliefs which were consistent with atheism but I did not actually identify as an atheist until 2013."
