Hot off the presses is Mike Milne’s wide-ranging and insightful article about the United Church of Canada in the wake of the Gretta Vosper decision.

Mike interviewed me about my book and asked for my thoughts on the Vosper decision.

Here is an excerpt from “Gretta Vosper’s settlement could redefine the United Church“:

In his recent book, Who’s Minding the Story? The United Church of Canada Meets a Secular Age, Rev. Jeff Seaton, a former United Church minister turned Anglican in Vernon, B.C., looks closely at the denomination’s response to secular forces — using Vosper and her work at West Hill United as one example. He calls for “progressive orthodoxy,” a refusal to throw away the Gospels while also committing to social justice. He agrees with Vosper’s critique of liberal churches that keep up Christian appearances in liturgy while playing down or disavowing their meaning. “Vosper is calling time on the zombie liberal church and challenging it to be reborn in a new form,” he writes.

The church’s settlement with Vosper, says Seaton in an interview, is probably the right one, because “theological nebulousness has been a defining characteristic of the United Church; to begin drawing hard theological lines would be somewhat out of character.”