Jack Shaver

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Jack Shaver
Born 1918
Fort William, Ontario
Died 2001 (age 83)
Vancouver
Nationality Canadian
Education BA, 2 Honorary Doctorates
Occupation Minister of the United Church of Canada
Title Reverend
Spouse Dorothy Hamlet
Children 5
Parents Rev. and Mrs James M. Shaver
Website
http://reimer.concordia.ca/Shaver

Michael John Victor Shaver (1918-2001) was a theologian and clergyman of the United Church of Canada.

[1]Jack was born in Fort William, Ontario (Thunder Bay) in 1918 – the second son of the Rev. and Mrs. James M. Shaver.[2] When he was two years old, his father succeeded J.S. Woodsworth as Superintendent at All Peoples' Mission – first a Methodist, and then a United Church institution in the north end of Winnipeg. The family lived in the manse next door to the Mission, serving the immigrant population of the region in the spirit of the social gospel movement. Jack graduated from United College (now the University of Winnipeg) and was ordained by Manitoba Conference on July 23, 1942. He married Dorothy Hamlet of Fort William in 1944. They have five children.

For the first 10 years, Jack served two rural charges in Manitoba Conference (Murillo and Sidney-Austin), then seven years at Fort Garry United Church in suburban Winnipeg. It was during this period that his theological interest and skills flourished – nurtured by a small group of clergy regularly meeting to debate the writing of Tillich, Aulén, Bultmann, and Bonhoeffer.

His next placement took the Shavers to Vancouver in 1959 where Jack served 10 years as the first United Church chaplain at the University of British Columbia. His unique blend of ‘God talk', affirmation of ambiguity, and commitment to even the most radical Other, made him the ideal person for the hippies, draft-resistors, anti-war advocates, and disenchanted of the 1960s. It was during this period that he integrated and developed insights from the existentialists and the social psychology of Martin Buber, Erik Erikson, and Norman O. Brown into his writing and presentations. It was during this period that he became a regular panelist on a radio program initiated by Roy Bonisteel.

He left the campus ministry in 1969 and spent three years on the Metropolitan Council – an inter-presbytery urban council in BC Conference (of the United Church of Canada). This took him back to the inner city roots of his childhood as he acted as advocate, counselor, and janitor to the young people drifting through the Vancouver hostel and crash pad scene. Jack spent his final 10 years in the ministry on the staff of First United Church, a mission institution in downtown Eastside Vancouver. He was elected President of the BC Conference in May 1979.

Throughout this period Jack found himself encountering the soul-destroying nature of institutional structures. As usual, instead of rejecting these structures as evil, he embraced them as part of our fallen world:

"The institution of the church and its structures need our care if it is to serve the gospel and not itself, if it is to be a blessing and not a monster. The trouble with the boards and courts and procedures of the church is not that they exist, but that without our care, they will not be about their true business." [3]

Jack received two honorary doctorates in recognition of his contributions to the worlds of thought and of action. Both the University of Winnipeg (1980) and the Vancouver School of Theology (1982) conveyed this award.

“Jack Shaver was one of the most insightful and iconoclastic theological thinkers of his generation in Canada. His life spanned most of the twentieth century Canadian landscape; his thought reflected fundamental shifts in Canadian social consciousness; his work undoubtedly contributed to the spiritual ethos of this country. His astute analyses, penetrating interventions, iconoclastic style, and enigmatic personality left an indelible imprint on all who encountered him.” [4]


[edit] References

  1. ^ This biography is based on material from the author's material at http://reimer.concordia.ca/Shaver/Biography/LongBio.htm
  2. ^ Details regarding James M. Shaver and his work at All Peoples' Mission can be found in "The Big Project: James M. Shaver at All Peoples' Mission, Winnipeg, 1921-1941", an MA Thesis submitted by Shirley F. Payment to the Dept. of History at the University of Winnipeg in December 1999. The author has granted permission to access the thesis via http://reimer.concordia.ca/shaver/Documents/PaymentJamesMShaverThesis2000MQ51783.pdf
  3. ^ (Shaver, Perspectives on Ministry, 1983)
  4. ^ (Lythgoe, Touchstone Journal, 21:1, 2003: 33)

[edit] External Links