2007 > Evangelist

Edwin Searcy

Edwin Searcy has been the pastor at University Hill Congregation of the United Church in Vancouver for the past twelve years. "The congregation has declared Searcy himself part of their mission. A formidable, ground-breaking preacher, he is freed to teach that skill to others across the country..." (the Observer, Sept'04.) Together with the congregation he has discovered ministry revived through the practice of hosting scripture as a holy and surprising guest. Out of his experience, Ed has recently written a study guide on practices of Christian hospitality for the Congregational Formation Initiative of the Ekklesia Project. A regular contributor to the United Church Journal "Touchstone" and "Gathering." Ed is the author of the introduction and notes to "Ezekiel" in the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible and editor of "Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann."

Ed has been the theme speaker at the annual meetings of Alberta & Northwest Conference, Maritime Conference, and BC Conference of the United Church. A graduate of the Vancouver School of Theology (M.Dive '80_ and of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia (D.Min'02), Ed's recent education has been learning to run the marathon. His running partner is a standard poodle named Micah. For more than twenty-five years, Ed has lived in Crescent Beach, BC, where he and his wife, Wendy, have raised their four children.

Ed's preaching at Berwick 136 will take the form of a 'gospel primer', inviting the encampment to listen for the new word that inhabits the old story as it hosts nine texts over the ten days together.

"I love to tell the story, for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. And when in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song 'twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long."

2010 Dates: July 23 - August 1