RESURRECTING THE REZ: A PROFILE OF REV. DUKE VIPPERMAN

By Peter Mitham

"To see the changes that happened in me and some of my friends happen to others" – it's a phrase the Rev. Duke Vipperman says with all the seriousness of a mission statement. But a warm voice indicates that it's a genuine expression of what motivates Vipperman, who at 21 left behind the mysticism of the hippie movement for a new freedom in Christ.

Thirty-three years later, he continues to see changes, not just in people but entire congregations. The rector of Toronto's Church of the Resurrection, Vipperman has assisted in reviving a parish that had just 57 regular worshippers a week four years ago into one with 215 on any given Sunday.

"I can't put my finger on precisely what the attraction is," he said. "Our intent was not really to grow, it was to be healthy. And in God's world, healthy things grow." Vipperman's career in ministry had far more humble origins.

Following his conversion, he embarked on a series of jobs with telephone and construction firms as a way of earning enough to pursue youth ministries in and around Fairfax, Virginia. But juggling multiple jobs while engaged in ministry didn't make long-term sense.

Following his marriage in 1981, he and his wife Debbie took courses at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry with the aim of launching into full-time ordained ministry. But on graduating in 1983, Vipperman found there were only two positions available in Virginia for 14 candidates so he moved to London, Ontario.

"I guess I fit better up here than down there," he says, with a warm laugh.

Vipperman initially served as an assistant at St. George's Anglican Church in London, afterwards becoming rector of Exeter and Grand Bend, a two-point parish also in southwestern Ontario. Shortly after his arrival in Canada, he also became involved in the work of Barnabas Anglican Ministries, a network formed in 1984 to draw together Anglican evangelicals across Canada.

Soon enough, in 1991, Vipperman became associate rector of Little Trinity in Toronto. The church was growing, and by 2000 had 600 regular worshippers.

Meanwhile, attendance at Church of the Resurrection was dwindling. Five other churches in the neighbourhood had closed in the previous decade, and the Resurrection knew it had to attract members or face hard decisions about its future. Vipperman accepted the challenge of fostering a revival and, taking about 60 members of Little Trinity, he left for the Resurrection.

He also took with him a respect for what he calls the Anglican church's "high theology of place" and the structure of parishes that shows people where they should focus their efforts.

Looking at the kinds of people who were in the neighbourhood surrounding the Resurrection, Vipperman found that as seniors in the area moved on — either to nursing homes or beyond — young professionals just starting families were moving in.

Cornerstones of the revival became an active children's ministry and multimedia presentations that used the traditional language of the Book of Common Prayer but complemented it with contemporary graphics and music. This drew in both Anglicans and people unfamiliar with Anglican practices.

But the congregation wasn't content to simply minister within its building. It distributed flyers, letting people know they were welcome to drop by the church, and undertook coffee houses in local pubs. Members talked with people on the streets and engaged with the community. A summer day camp using materials from Montreal-based Crosstalk Ministries also drew in a family or two as word got around that the Rez (as it's known) was a good place for kids.

Today, kids — mostly preschoolers and primary school students — dominate the Sunday school, which has grown to about 60 kids. That's well over a quarter of the congregation size.

Vipperman acknowledges that the growth hasn't been easy.

"We had to learn, as a parish, how to readjust our life," he said, but notes that the readjustment in practice wouldn't have worked if Jesus hadn't been at the heart of the change and what the Resurrection was about.

"Jesus' name is being honoured, and people need to take it seriously," he said.

Looking to the future, Vipperman hopes to ultimately send a tenth of the Resurrection's members to revive another church just as members of Little Trinity helped revive the Resurrection.

"Only God can do a resurrection," he says, repeating a line he told the congregation on his arrival in 2000. "God has brought us back from the brink. If God can do it for us, he can do it for other people."

Doug LeBlanc is a contributing editor of Christianity Today and is working for ESSENTIALS Canada and orthodox group at Canadian Synod.