The Reverend Bill Phipps, the church's moderator elected in August, said in a newspaper interview that he does not believe Jesus was God, he was bodily resurrected, or that he is the only way to God. When the 70-member general council, comprising laymen and clergy, voted on Tuesday that his comments fall "well within the spectrum of the United Church," thousands of church members began vocal protests. Hundreds of phone calls and letters have poured into the church's office and individual congregations throughout Canada since Phipps made his comments.
Some church leaders said they didn't understand what all the fuss is about. "I thought (his comments were) kind of ho-hum, well within the band of not only United Church beliefs, but the debate over Jesus and God, and Jesus being divine and his being human, that have come echoing down the years. So I was quite surprised that it triggered such enormous interest," said Roger Hutchinson, rector at Emmanuel College, the largest United Church seminary.
But some Canadians are appalled that someone who questions such basic tenets of Christianity can call himself a Christian, much less lead a national Christian church. "What right does a leader of a putatively Christian group have, within the realms of his position, to express views that are contrary to the faith?" said Doug Koop, editor of Christian Week, a national bi-weekly newspaper based in Winnipeg. "From our point of view, these are the defining characteristics of what it means to be Christian, and if you are not affirming these things, you may be a good person, you may be many things, but you have put yourself outside the parameters of what it means to be Christian," he added. However, Koop also said that Phipps' remarks were pretty mainstream for Canadian society as a whole. "It has great resonance in Canadian society, these beliefs. They are easy beliefs -- 'it can be true, maybe it isn't, doesn't really matter, let's get on with the business of feeding the poor,'" Koop said.