Morris went on to postgraduate study as did
his former roommates but he himself gravitated toward theology and ordination
into the ministry of the Christian Reformed Church in North America in
1964. His relationship to ICS grew very
close indeed when he took a call to found a campus ministry at the University
of Toronto in 1968. His “Hart House
Ministry” was a very exciting enterprise that attracted ICS Junior and Senior
Members as well as University of Toronto students. Indeed, well attended Sunday services in one
of the large meeting rooms of Hart House on the St. George Campus of the
University of Toronto meant that Morris had become in effect the pastor of his
former roommates and chaplain of the ICS as well as the U of T. It was a pastorate of great spiritual energy
and effect that lasted from 1968 to 1974.
In the way of ecclesiastical careers Morris
took other calls to serve other communities of Christians and to serve his
denomination in its highest synodical offices and yet his connection to ICS endured. He served on its board; he was a perennial MC
of its Ontario Family Conference over many years, one half of a formidable tag
team with spouse Alice who was an important leader in the all-important music
ministry of the conference. Morris the
ICS MC displayed Morris’ characteristic gifts. Above all, his wry humour, summoned with lightening swiftness and
exquisite comic timing, rescued captive audiences from crushing ennui during
the seemingly endless announcements that could not but accompany a conference
with so many people, subprograms and volunteers. He managed to make announcement time a
sparkling comedy routine filled with gentle humour and heartfelt laughter, not
once or twice but time and again over the course of an entire long weekend,
year in and year out.
That humour marked
the man in so very important ways. It
allowed him to maintain connections with people on all sides of the issues that
came to divide the several communities within the Reformed world that he made
his own. It was not that he didn’t have
a place within communal debates; it is that he saw no reason why differences of
opinion couldn’t coexist with a warm recognition of one’s interlocutor too as a
child of God. This allowed him to be an
effective voice in the controversies that seemed to cling around the ICS from
its earliest days, patiently explaining what ICS was trying to do to those who
did not understand and/or found they could not approve. This was a role he never laid down even in
periods when he was less close to the heart of things at ICS. Of course, his theological collaboration with
brother-in-law and long-time ICS Senior Member in Theology George Vandervelde—culminating
in the appearance of “Our World Belongs to God,” the CRCNA’s contemporary testimony—did
not hurt when it came to maintaining warm connections. “Our World Belongs to
God” remains to this day a jewel of theology in service of the witness of the
people of God.
I wonder if it wasn’t the
retirement of Jim Olthuis and George Vandervelde that reintroduced Morris to the
living heart of ICS, for he MC-ed both their retirement dinners to great
success. At any rate, Morris became a
mover and shaker in ICS’s Friends of ICS board in the U.S. and then acting
president when Harry Fernhout moved to The King’s University in Edmonton and
ICS had to wait an extra year for the advent of Harry’s successor John
Suk. Throughout the academic year
2005-2006, he would be on campus spreading his personal serenity to the Senior
Members, staff, and Junior Members of ICS in what was an anxious time. I like to think that some of that virtue has
remained even in the more anxious times that followed.
Certainly, Morris remained an enthusiastic
member and later chair of the FICS board. Just days before his passing, when new President Ron Kuipers was in Grand
Rapids to attend the CRCNA’s annual synod, he called Morris hoping to meet with
him. By then Morris was in hospital with
pneumonia. Alice took the call, gave Ron
the low down, and then invited him to come to Morris’ hospital bed to carry on
his intended conversation, provided he did not have a cold. That is dedication. Yes, Morris’s adult life and ICS’ has been a
mutual dance where both partners have taken turns with the lead to mutual
benefit. We know that Morris Greidanus
is irreplaceable. His passing is a loss
to be sure. But his perseverance and
talent and winsome love have ever been and so will remain a great blessing now
baked into all that is best of what ICS has been able to do and be.
Requiescat
in pacem. Thanks be to God.
