Which has had the greater influence in the theological formation of The United Church of Canada: the Calvinist tradition or the Wesleyan? . . . . Neither.
Schleiermacher, the German romantic liberal, has been the determining influence….. 

“The central thrusts of the report include . . . A view of the Bible which uses the word ‘authority’ but which deprives the Bible of any authority . . . .The elevation of an ideology which denatures the gospel . . . . An insistence that the quality of a relationship is sufficient to legitimize sexual intimacy . . . . A devaluation of the Fall so thoroughgoing as virtually to deny the Fall.”

“….I cannot append my signature to the document that is now before the church, for the document appears to
(i) reinforce the anti-gospel theology and practice of the denomination, (ii) aim at suppressing dissent born of gospel-conviction.”

“The document is flawed throughout by its orientation: anthropology replaces Christology . . . . .”

“One issue facing the church, then, is this:  is the doctrine of the Trinity baggage which is not only unnecessary but is actually a threat to the seaworthiness of the ship (church) as it appears to founder in the storms of modernity?  or is it ballast in the ship’s keel apart from which the ship will capsize in even moderate winds?”

“In the document before The United Church of Canada (ecumenical) has come to mean something akin to ‘lowest common religious denominator’.

“Voices United denies the transcendence of God . . .   the Trinity has all but disappeared . . . . . Voices United combines fine hymns and terrible hymns on the assumption . . that . . no one should feel left out; there should be something here for everybody . . . . the ‘Lord’s prayer’ has been re-written, ‘Our Father and Mother’ . . .

“Phipps persists in denying the foundation of the church. . . . in denouncing what the apostle Jude calls ‘the faith once for all delivered to the saints.'”

Expert testimony given by Dr. Shepherd demonstrated that the United Church of Canada has intentionally and repeatedly contravened its own Basis of Union in its formal theology as well as its day-to-day operative theology.