Pasted below is the full content of an email from Dr Gordon T. Smith that explains his uncredentialling from Alliance Canada last year. It was always an open letter, but I asked his permission to post it here because I occasionally hear from people who would benefit from consistent access to it.
I'll refrain from much commentary in this preamble, except to say that Dr Smith and his family have been a special part of my
Christian life and are a key part of my belonging in this church denomination,
so this incident has been personally grievous as well as ecclesiastically alienating.
Although I am posting this publicly I do hope and ask that onlookers will respect the context wherein things like this are processed, and that insiders will carry on a good faith conversation. Apart from two minor edits requested by the author, I have only adapted this for on-screen reading.
May 24, 2024
Dear friends and colleagues
An open letter – you are free to forward to anyone whom you think might like to know about this. For those of you not in the Alliance denomination, please forgive the in-house references and acronyms.
As many of you know, I have been in a position of uncertainty with regard to my status with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (Canada) – the Alliance Canada in what follows. I am a licensed minister with my credentials renewed each year. However, this year the notice of credentials included this statement:
The act of receiving your license this year serves as your acknowledgment that you are committing to endorse, teach, and advise, both in word and deed, in accordance with the policies, official statements and guidelines of the C&MA [all available on myAlliance].
In reading this I recognized the progression that has been happening in the Alliance Canada. In the past, we spoke of ourselves as “big tent” or what some spoke of as a centred set denomination. But more and more denominational leaders were insisting on greater levels of compliance. In my estimation this was not in keeping with the historic posture of the Alliance with its on-going commitment to the centrality of Christ in both our understanding of sanctification and mission [captured by the hymn, “Jesus only is our Message” – yes, I know, an unsingable hymn that we would never foist on anyone outside of the Alliance]. And yet, it captured something: the heart and soul of the Alliance. In my estimation, if we lose this we lose our very reason for being – the very reason for which A.B.Simpson left the Presbyterian Church and founded this remarkable movement.
I also knew that I could not in good conscience accept licensing on that basis. I could not sign on when there is no provision for diversity of perspective – something that I have valued so highly over the years. I believe in the ordination of women, even though for years I was in a minority position. In the mid-90s I was making the case that we should accept into membership those who had been baptized as infants, long before it was accepted by the majority (in 2018). But all along, even when we differed and even when I differed with the national president on a matter, we together all held to the central identity of this missionally-minded church community with a profound commitment to the deeper life in Christ. I valued highly being part of a denomination with a radical commitment to the centrality of Christ and the ability to differ on other matters that were secondary to what defined us.
As one retired DS put it to me recently: we are caught between the "neo-cons" on the one side and those they speak of as the “woke-left” on the other, and we have lost the capacity for vibrant conversation on key theological, moral and missional questions. Or, as a current Assistant DS put it – holding his hands in front of him - “the boundaries are not only more defined, they are coming in” . . .though he acknowledged that those left out would not likely be the more conservative constituents but those who are perceived to be more progressive.
As some of you reading this know, in March of this year I was advised that I would be subject to a disciplinary process in connection with something I had said at a Baptist church in 2022 (with a hearing/inquiry scheduled for June 14). In response, I indicated to the national president that I was willing to go through the process – though I insisted on certain caveats, notably:
a) specify what this is about – something he has as yet failed to do; and
b) that the person who accompanies me is not subject to a gag order.
When I made it abundantly clear that there was nothing in the policy on discipline that I had violated, the president responded and referenced that list of items that I had insisted I had not violated and noted the heading at the top: “matters that may give rise to disciplinary proceedings include, but are not limited to . . . ”. So I have pressed for clarification: why am I being called in for a disciplinary inquiry? He has not provided me an adequate answer . . . all rather vague.
In my estimation this is a form of authoritarianism. The assumption is that those licensed by the Alliance agree with the president on all disputable matters. It is a call for compliance, deference, agreement, on the assumption that this is what it means to submit to constituted authority. Is this any different from “you are Republican only if and as you agree with and defer to the current leader of the party?” And my thought: this could happen again and again and again with myself or any of our pastors: they say something in some context and then someone reports on them and the denominational president comes knocking. And it might not be something they said or did while the current policy is in place; it could be something from years ago. Part of why this grieves me is that there are denominational leaders who in the past have been engaging conversation partners with me but who now are in denominational leadership and enabling this very development – presumably out of “loyalty” to the national leader.
And so, I have come to the conclusion: I will not accept credentials on this basis [see above]; to do so would violate my conscience and also my understanding of the genius of the Alliance Canada.
I do not come to this decision lightly or easily; and it comes with much sadness. I have carried Alliance credentials for 46 years. During that time I have:
- Served as pastor or on the pastoral staff of two Alliance congregations;
- Served as interim preaching pastor for eight Alliance congregations – the shortest being BayviewGlen, Toronto for six months and the longest being FraserLands, Vancouver for 15 months;
- Served internationally with the Alliance through the 1980s in the Philippines;
- Taught theology, and specifically the Alliance theology of the Christian life, in Alliance schools in the Philippines, the US [ATS], Lebanon [CAIT] and of course Canada – CBC, CTS, Ambrose [both School of Ministry and Seminary];
- Co-led [with Gordon Fowler and Ken Draper] the new workers retreats in the 1990s for five of the six Alliance districts in Canada;
- Preached in Alliance churches . . . globally . . . Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon, Philippines, Canada, US and more [in Canada alone I have preached and/or led spiritual life seminars – week-end ministry – in more than 50 of our churches];
- Served in a senior administrative role for three Alliance academic institutions – in the Philippines and in Canada; and played a key role when with ReSource Leadership International in the re-establishing of the Alliance theological college in Hanoi, Vietnam.
In all of this I am not asking for thanks or recognition. I am simply noting that my contribution with the Alliance has not been incidental or secondary. I have not been marginal to this denomination but an active player with about as good a read as anyone on what it means to be Alliance. As a kid and teen, I grew up living on the campus of the Alliance Seminary in Guayaquil, Ecuador where my father served as ‘Rector’ and my mother as instructor in Bible; I was baptized at the large central Alliance church in Guayaquil, the Templo Evangelico, by pastor Miguel Lecaro. I have been deeply formed in faith and ministry by leadership within this denomination back here in Canada – including but not limited to Ross Ingram, Bob Willoughby, Don Bubna and Gordon Fowler . . . not to mention my predecessors at Ambrose University, notably Bob Rose, Rex Boda and David Rambo.
I should also add how grateful I am that in the late 1980s and early 1990s Arnold Cook provided me with Alliance credentials when I was pastor of the international congregation in Manila and David Hearn (then a DS) did the same when was on the faculty and administration of Regent College in the late 1990s and when I served with ReSource Leadership. And the initial overture to consider coming to Ambrose University came from the president of the denomination at the time, Franklin Pyles.
Furthermore, all of my published work as a theologian has been inspired by this theological and spiritual tradition – although writing for a broader audience. For example, my book on the Holy Spirit? ... that is an Alliance pneumatology.
But it has come to this. Earlier this week I advised the Alliance Canada national president that I would decline the offer of credentials. In all of this, I have kept my pastor informed and I remain a member in good standing of an Alliance congregation. I will continue to teach and write as someone who has been, and hopes to continue to be, active within the denomination. It is just that I am no longer a “licensed worker” [to use Alliance speak].
For those of you wondering if this is coming to you from somewhere in Siberia . . . while that would be a bit dramatic, I am actually writing from a lovely tree lined street in Victoria, BC . . . not far from a superb coffee shop with exquisite croissants and flat-whites.
Gordon
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