Statement from Rusty

Ordination Examining Council for Luke Dowding and Andrea King
September 7, 2024
Opening & Closing Statements by Rusty Edwards

How did we arrive at today…

Opening Statement

Five years ago this past week—September 3, 2019, I met Luke Dowding and Dawn Savidge at a coffee shop around the corner from Bloomsbury Central Baptist in London. I had arrived in the UK a few days before a preaching conference at Oxford with the hope of meeting other progressive and affirming Baptists—I know it must have sounded slightly crazy for a Canadian who speaks with a southern US accent to randomly meet with no agenda other than it felt right that some of us should be getting to know one another… I’m grateful Luke was willing to meet and it didn’t take long for dreams to begin emerging about global connections among Baptists like all of those gathered on Zoom today.

While I did not meet Andrea on that trip, I did spend a day in Windsor where I met Kat Bracewell, Minister at Windsor Baptist—it was a delight this summer to reconnect with Kat when she sent a letter from the Windsor Baptist Church endorsing Andrea in this ordination process.

Of course, a few months later COVID put breaks on a lot of conversations… but, we found creative ways to keep connecting. The good folk of FBC Halifax met Luke in the fall of 2020 when he did a three-part Zoom workshop on nurturing inclusive faith communities. And then in 2023, Luke introduced many of us to Andrea King and the work she was doing with Creating Sanctuary. Luke and Andrea met with a CABF cross-canada monthly clergy gathering on Zoom and then last October it was a real delight to have Andrea and Luke join with the CABF family in person for our first cross-Canada gathering that met at FBC Edmonton. Connections were made with them and at least a couple of our [CABF] churches have been exploring the Creating Sanctuary curriculum.

Indeed, it was in a zoom meeting earlier this year about Creating Sanctuary with Ryan Sato of FBC Edmonton and Andrea and Luke that Ryan asked a question—would accreditation through CABF in Canada be meaningful support as they lived out their calling as Baptist ministers?

Well… that initial conversation has brought us to this day. Ryan brought this to the Credentials Committee. Of course, as Baptists, CABF can accredit but it does not ordain—ordination is an act of a local church… And so the conversation began about FBC Halifax engaging with Andrea and Luke. 

We [FBCH] began this conversation by remembering that in 1830, just a few years after our church was formed, we needed to ordain two ministers (at the time we were served by clergy called from the Boston area). There were other Baptists already in NS, but we had formed out of a different strand of Baptist life—and so we sent two of our own to the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island, the church Roger Williams founded at the time the Providence colony was formed, the first British colony to promote absolute religious freedom. All that to say, we saw precedent in our own history for receiving two ministers from another country, blessing their work, and sending them forth to continue in their ministry.

In April of this past year, Andrea and Luke met with the Deacons of FBC Halifax. Upon hearing their stories and their expression of call, the Deacons unanimously and enthusiastically brought a motion to the Congregation that the Congregation request the CABF Credentials Committee complete its credentialing process and, if all standards of accreditation were met, to call an Ordination Examining Council… and oh yeah, if at all possible, to move toward an ordination service this October, the day before the CABF Cross-Canada gathering here in Halifax. That motion was unanimously passed by the Congregation.

Luke and Andrea completed their application materials for CABF, including the statements that this Council has read. After reviewing their materials the Credentials Committee met with each of them and once gain, a unanimous and enthusiastic vote was taken to proceed with an Ordination Examining Council.

In the meantime, it was important that the Congregation of FBC Halifax have opportunity to get to know Andrea and Luke. This summer, each of them preached twice for us and spent time after worship on zoom getting to chat with some of our members. 

That has brought us to this day. We are here to discern with Andrea and Luke their calling to be ordained Baptist ministers. We are hear to listen, to ask questions, and to discern, trusting that Holy Spirit is with us in this time together.

Closing Statement

As I mentioned in my opening statement… in 1830, the Congregation of FBC Halifax sent two of its own to be ordained by the First Baptist Church in America. They arrived by ship, on a Wednesday night they joined that church and on the following Sunday they were ordained, then sent back to Halifax where they rejoined this congregation.

While both would serve terms as Senior Ministers here at FBCH, their ministries expanded. They led efforts within this congregation to help convince other Baptists in NS that education was not a bad thing and that we really needed a university in NS where all qualified people could teach and enrol as students regardless of their religious identity—at the time one either had to be part of the Church of England or Catholic.

Both men ended up serving as Presidents of what is now Acadia University—the first university in what is now Canada that had no religious test of its faculty or students. Their leadership through the Congregation of FBC Halifax and through the university helped bring together like-minded folk working for a more liberal democracy, one where Church and State were separate and where personal freedoms and rights were set on a path of expansion.

I can’t imagine that the good folk of The First Baptist Church in America had any idea that their act of receiving and blessing through ordination would help shape a church, a province, and a budding nation. 

Andrea and Luke, Janet Margeson will bring to the Deacons of FBC Halifax the recommendation of this Council. Our congregation at large will receive this recommendation a week from tomorrow. And while I’m always hesitant to get ahead of a Congregation, I feel great confidence that October 27 is going to be a day of celebration within the global Baptist family and more importantly within the Kingdom of God. 

My prayer is that as you and we move toward ordination that our imaginations will continue to burn with the fire of Pentecost… because history tells us that important works of the Spirit happen when people have the audacity to cross divides to join hands in the name of Jesus Christ.

We don’t know what the future holds for you, for the churches represented around this table, for the CABF, for Baptists in the UK and Albania… but in the words of the Baptist pioneer, William Carey: “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” Alleluia. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Rusty Edwards
Senior Minster, First Baptist Church Halifax
Chair, Credentials Committee, Canadian Association for Baptist Freedoms