Rev. Stuart Coles, pioneer-activist, poet and pastor, passed away March 23.
The guiding force behind the church’s Confession of Faith Concerning Church and Nation (1955) and one of the founders of FoodShare Toronto, Coles had celebrated his 96th birthday the week before, during Holy Week.
Stuart Boyer Coles was born March 19, 1917 on a farm near Woodbridge, Ont. After completing a degree from Victoria University in Toronto he enrolled at Knox College and studied under Rev. Dr. Walter Bryden. Ordained in 1942, Coles spent the next 15 years in congregational ministry.
While a minister in Oshawa, Ont., he witnessed the 1955 General Motors strike firsthand. It sparked a concern for what he later called, “the integrity, the dynamic interplay of evangelism and justice.” A faith-based pursuit of social justice became
“the heartbeat” of his life.
The same year, the church adopted the seminal confession which took the committee Coles chaired five years to develop.
Both church and nation are “bound to aid the other according to its appointed power and functions, but neither is given any right thereby to attempt domination over the other,” states the confession. “We reject any doctrine which misconceives the Church as the religious agent of the State. We reject any doctrine which misconceives the State as the political instrument of the Church.”
In the 1960s, Coles began working in national offices.
“[While there, Stuart] pushed the church to move out of its buildings and to follow in the way of Jesus in the great movements for justice of the day. He was one of three Canadian Presbyterian ministers who walked with Martin Luther King Jr. in the march from Selma to Montgomery in the civil rights movement,” said Rev. Dr. Bob Faris, in a sermon at St. Andrew’s King Street, Toronto.
In 1968, Coles helped organize an alternative to General Assembly, called the Congress of Concern. It produced “a hatful of reformational proposals intended to move a regressive denomination out of the past, nerving it to wake up and
confront the perplexing realities of the present world.”
The move created a schism between Coles and the PCC. In 1969, the two parted ways.
He joined the United Church and became the minister of outreach for Bathurst Street United, Toronto. He spent the next 19 years there, developing innovative forms of urban ministry, including the Good Friday Walk, an ecumenical stations of the cross in downtown Toronto. The event, which is in its 34th year, challenges participants to consider how Jesus’ death on the cross might signal an urgent need for just and loving action in communities.
When long-time friend and collaborator, Rev. Jim Houston was asked by the UCC to put together a report on urban ministry, he turned to Coles. Houston—an Anglican minister, former Jesuit priest, and then-UCC employee—contributed cartoons while Coles crafted the text. A Dream Not For the Drowsy was published in 1980 and affirmed by UCC’s General Council. The primer on grasping the nature of church in
an urban context has since been touted by ministers from a variety of denominations.
“Stuart was a remarkable pioneer in many areas, especially urban ministry. He was a giant—there’s no question,” said Houston.
A few years later, an anti-hunger manifesto Coles wrote became the inspiration for FoodShare Toronto. Created in 1985 by Mayor Art Eggleton, the non-profit community organization has sought to address hunger and malnutrition by taking into account the entire system —”from field to table.” Since its inception, FoodShare has grown into a multi-million dollar initiative.
After he retired in 1988, Coles continued to be involved in community-building enterprises.
“I don’t think [“retired”] was a word in his vocabulary. He certainly didn’t want to retire comfortably behind closed doors after working for so long to move out from them,” said Faris.
“Even in his 90s he was active, going to meetings, writing—banging away on his old computer,” said Houston.
“He’d carry around an old beat up brief case and a bunch of shopping bags stuffed full of papers. He was constantly photocopying things and handing them out to people; things he wrote, lyrics to hymns he had rewritten, or articles he found in magazines.”
In his later years he returned to the Presbyterian Church, and enjoyed attending services and Bible studies at St. Andrew’s, King St., Toronto.
“Stuart was a truly iconic character —passionate about the church, passionate about the world, and passionately dedicated to provoking the church to take seriously the implications of the basic Christian proclamation that God loves the world. Even into his most elderly years, his presence in the worshipping life of the church, and his dedication to the issues that were confronting the church were inspirational,” Rev. Will Ingram, senior minster at St. Andrew’s, told the Record in an email.
Prior to his death, Coles requested a Farewell Festival as an alternative to a funeral. It will be held at FoodShare on June 22.
You can read the obituary here
