We've been doing theology in community, and sometimes in contention, for 75 years. Very Rev. Clarke MacDonald was an ardent crusader for social justice as well as a firm believer in evangelization. He brought the Gospel to the streets in soap-box rallies held in a downtown Toronto park during the 1960s and '70s. Some themes have remained constant since 1925. This should not dismay us.
Theology is always provisional.
So we keep on talking, for example, about the nature of Jesus Christ. We're in good company. The church throughout the world continues to wrestle with that one. In the 1960s, former moderator Very Rev. Ernest Howse challenged the popular conception of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Our 1998 study on the nature of Jesus will not be the last word.