About Me
My name is Rev. Dr. Pirie Mitchell. I was born into a quasi-Christian family 82 years ago. As a child I attended Sunday School with my dad who was a teacher and superintendent. Then dad and I went to church. In the evening I attended church again with my father’s twin sister. Church for me was a place of peace and assurance, away from my mother whose past experience as a child drove her into alcoholism.
At the beginning, I believed and accepted all that was taught to me. There was, however, no true understanding. There were lovely pictures of Jesus in my Sunday School book where he was helping his dad in the carpentry shop. His “Leave it to the Beaver Family” made a huge impression on me. God was presented as this powerful/loving/fearful big male who defied gravity living in the sky and who looked down upon us and occasionally gave us a nudge. I was encouraged not to ask too many questions about God, but one thought haunted me. I couldn’t understand why God didn’t stop the war which was raging in Europe and the Pacific at the time.
Then I hit the raging hormones time of life where the opposite sex and questions about what to believe came into play. That began a life’s journey for me. This blog is a reflection of that journey and the concepts which finally rooted my faith in the Man from Nazareth. In university I questioned everything. It was no longer useful to accept all I had accepted in childhood. In the 1960s, church attendance began to leak from the congregations. I was part of that leakage. It was my beginning of the great question: What was Christianity all about? Throughout my life, I have endeavoured to explore this question academically. I have a B.A. in Historical Geography, a M.Div. from Victoria University (University of Toronto), and a D.Min. from the Chicago Theological Seminary, as part of the Association of Chicago Theological Seminaries. I am an ordained minister with the United Church of Canada.
I’m now 82 and I’m still on that search. Don Quixote has nothing on me. However, I now have a faith which has four contributing factors. Out of that journey I have developed a “mission statement” based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth: to love and serve God in a community of equals. Over the years I have added that acceptance. The Bible is more important than just quoting it. Common sense also plays a role in my theology. Academic application of critical thought also bears on my conclusions. Historical connections have also played a role. And finally, I have discerned personally, and not through sermons or the Bible, that there is something else, a higher power I call God. I tend to sense God as a deist and not a theist God.
Here are statements I do not accept: God wrote the Bible. Every word in the Bible is true. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The Holy Spirit impregnated Mary. If the King James version of the Bible was good enough for Jesus it is good enough for me. Christianity is rigidity. The Jews hated Jesus. The Jews and the Muslims are enemies of Christians. There are more.
Today I begin my Blog after searching for 82 years. I do not mean to offend anyone with my writings. It’s my journey. As Pope Francis asserted, we meet Christ along the way, on the journey. I think I have bumped into the man from Nazareth a few times and in the most unexpected ways.
At the beginning, I believed and accepted all that was taught to me. There was, however, no true understanding. There were lovely pictures of Jesus in my Sunday School book where he was helping his dad in the carpentry shop. His “Leave it to the Beaver Family” made a huge impression on me. God was presented as this powerful/loving/fearful big male who defied gravity living in the sky and who looked down upon us and occasionally gave us a nudge. I was encouraged not to ask too many questions about God, but one thought haunted me. I couldn’t understand why God didn’t stop the war which was raging in Europe and the Pacific at the time.
Then I hit the raging hormones time of life where the opposite sex and questions about what to believe came into play. That began a life’s journey for me. This blog is a reflection of that journey and the concepts which finally rooted my faith in the Man from Nazareth. In university I questioned everything. It was no longer useful to accept all I had accepted in childhood. In the 1960s, church attendance began to leak from the congregations. I was part of that leakage. It was my beginning of the great question: What was Christianity all about? Throughout my life, I have endeavoured to explore this question academically. I have a B.A. in Historical Geography, a M.Div. from Victoria University (University of Toronto), and a D.Min. from the Chicago Theological Seminary, as part of the Association of Chicago Theological Seminaries. I am an ordained minister with the United Church of Canada.
I’m now 82 and I’m still on that search. Don Quixote has nothing on me. However, I now have a faith which has four contributing factors. Out of that journey I have developed a “mission statement” based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth: to love and serve God in a community of equals. Over the years I have added that acceptance. The Bible is more important than just quoting it. Common sense also plays a role in my theology. Academic application of critical thought also bears on my conclusions. Historical connections have also played a role. And finally, I have discerned personally, and not through sermons or the Bible, that there is something else, a higher power I call God. I tend to sense God as a deist and not a theist God.
Here are statements I do not accept: God wrote the Bible. Every word in the Bible is true. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The Holy Spirit impregnated Mary. If the King James version of the Bible was good enough for Jesus it is good enough for me. Christianity is rigidity. The Jews hated Jesus. The Jews and the Muslims are enemies of Christians. There are more.
Today I begin my Blog after searching for 82 years. I do not mean to offend anyone with my writings. It’s my journey. As Pope Francis asserted, we meet Christ along the way, on the journey. I think I have bumped into the man from Nazareth a few times and in the most unexpected ways.