General Council 45 is set to elect a new moderator of The United Church of Canada this summer, and Rev. John Pentland is one of the first nominees to be named.

Nominated by Chinook Winds Regional Council Executive, the lead minister of Hillhurst United in Calgary says he would bring his career-defining values of curiosity, connection and communication to the role. If elected, he wants to work with faith communities and their leaders to be true to themselves. Pentland, who has served at Hillhurst for 20 years, believes that the denomination needs to be curious about its identity and role in culture.

“I think that curiosity and connection is really important,” Pentland says, noting that the United Church is rooted in local faith communities. “We should encourage [those communities] and make sure there is a good connection between the umbrella of the United Church and local congregations.”

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Pentland has a long-standing belief in what he calls “good public theology.” He graduated from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2004 with a doctor of ministry. His dissertation, titled “Speaking Faith in Public Space,” tackled the question of how to talk about faith outside of church.

Today, that means he is a columnist with the Calgary Herald and regularly contributes letters and opinion essays to The Globe and Mail. In his 2015 book, Fishing Tips, he wrote about how he helped Hillhurst United transform their congregation. When he joined in 2004, the church had a core of fewer than 100 worshippers and was struggling financially. By 2015, more than 400 people attended its two services and the budget had jumped from $120,000 in 2004 to $857,000. Today, Hillhurst is an Affirming congregation that sees 250 congregants gather in person on Sunday, with an additional 350 joining online.

“There’s a lot of bad religion in the world right now, and people use that as an excuse to not go to church,” Pentland says, explaining that the United Church should make use of the media to promote “good religion.”

Pentland says he loves the moderator’s job description: to quicken the heart of the church. He interprets that to mean to comfort, challenge and cheerlead.

“I think that’s what the moderator should do,” he says.

If successful, Pentland will either resign from or negotiate a leave of absence from Hillhurst United.

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Leslie Sinclair is a freelance journalist in Toronto.

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