I realise the website tends to have lots of information about what happening at our church, events, services etc. This post is a little different
At our recent APCM our vicar (Lu Gale) asked us to think about joining the inclusive church so I’ve been doing a little reading in preparation for an upcoming PCC meeting.
There is a lot of information on there and I hate to take a snippet out of context but I saw this and thought I should share it. It was a briefing paper on the House of Bishops’ Pastoral Guidance on using the Affirmation of Baptismal Faith with transgender people. In that paper there are some questions and answers, the last one struck a chord, here it is
Q. What might transgender people be looking for from their church?
A. For the Church to
- signal that trans people are welcome
- be a safe space for them, and for family and friends journeying with them
- listen and learn from their experience
- be a place where they are not required to hide who they are
- recognise the honesty and integrity of their particular journey within the love of Christ
- understand that their experience is about being true to their own sense of self
- have their loved ones supported and their relationships affirmed
- be open to their requests for prayer & offer resources to mark significant life events
- treat them equally with everyone else in the ministry and mission of the church
- not presume that they have automatically fallen from grace just for being who they are
I read the above thinking that sounds pretty much the same list that anyone would have.
The whole article can be found here.
Please continue to pray and think about what your response will be when asked about this topic.