What do people think of  "the United Church ethos" ????  One of my questions is whether it has more to do with values of White Middle Class Canadian society (WMCCS) than with values directly, intentionally derived from the Christian tradition.  At this point in my UCC experience, I suspect that it is mostly about WMCCS, and that this is high on the list of pressing UCC problems in need of solutions.

Rishi

Your own experience is what it is...you can trust your perception.

We come to church (a religious social gathering) with our values...and we hope church (groups of human beings, watch out) will enlighten us, make us grow to what God wants...yet we also make the church what we want, so the church is also influenced by us...cross pollination of sorts...an imperfect process, but this is most probably as good as it gets!

I think that most , if not all church and religious traditions will reflect the values of its members and societies that the members come from...the UCC experience was the most open experience I've had so far in my life...i have experienced another protestant, non fundamentalist tradition for most of my  life and the UC for only four years ...culture includes church, interwoven, not possible to isolate one aspect of culture...

The search for the deeper ethos is an ongoing one...those of us that have lamps have to enlighten the rest of us all the way...ongoing work...ongoing teaching...ongoing writing...

Rishi, what is on your mind? What do you want to see? What must happen? I know you are on the right track...your question tells me the direction of your mind...

It is an important matter that you brought up for discussion, it not only speaks to the UC, it speaks to all groups struggling to find little bits of heaven in hell.