Each Wednesday Tim Carson shares the wonderings of heart and mind and the inspirations and quandaries of the spirit. You are invited to wonder along with him through the telling of stories, reflections on faith and observations on the events that shape our lives.  

Tim Carson

 

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Wednesday Wonder
January 14, 2015

 

 

The Quaker spiritual guide and writer, Parker Palmer, has adapted a long-standing practice among the Friends, the Quakers, called the "Clearness" process for the sake of many other groups. The focus is upon speaking and really listening to the other. The end result is moving forward by being still, listening for truth, and discerning a path together.

 

Though we didn't name it as such, elements of the Clearness process were present in the Fellowship Hall of Broadway Christian Church last Sunday morning. We spoke, listened and discerned in a respectful and loving way as well over one hundred people considered the matter of welcoming and including all persons, especially those with different sexual orientations. At one point as I looked around the room and witnessed how we are with one another as a community, my heart beamed with gratitude and pride. The way a congregation travels is as important as its particular destination. In fact, the way one travels creates the kind of end that is attained. And sometimes having the conversation is the point.

 

At issue is how Broadway might make explicit, public, the commitments we already have toward accepting all persons in the life and work of the church. This particular concern emerged from our recent 2020 visioning process. The church board then appointed a task force to oversee the process of discernment. At the past General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) a resolution was adopted that sought the same kind of thing. Read the text of that resolution here.

 

Out of the many possible ways to express this, one is to clearly communicate who we are - through our web site and other materials. One option would be becoming an "Open and Affirming" congregation that is listed on the GLAD registry of congregations who are so (for those in the LGBT community searching for congregations in which they might feel safe and accepted).

 

Last Sunday morning at the first public forum for discernment, I was one of those discerning listeners. And here are some of the things I heard:

 

  • We have always been welcoming and accepting from the beginning. It's who we are. We never turn anyone away.

  • Since we are welcoming to all, I don't see why we need to focus on one particular group.

  • Different moments in history call for different accents - like the civil rights movement of the last century. This is the decade of full inclusion of those with different sexual orientations.

  • Do we have to assume someone else's agenda, affiliate with another group, or rewrite our mission statement?

  • A congregation I was affiliated with in another city embraced the diversity around them and it energized the congregation in new ways.

  • When we were looking for a congregation this openness is exactly what we sought and we found it at Broadway.

  • My experience with perhaps the most diverse church in our denomination - radically diverse - is that they describe themselves as "Open and Inclusive." That active inclusion goes out to all people and they mean it.

  • There is a difference between passive inclusion and active inclusion.

  • I grew up at Broadway so as a gay man I always felt comfortable here and bringing boyfriends. When I moved to another city I didn't seek out a Christian fellowship because I just didn't know what kind of reception I would find there.

  • Gays have often been mistreated and excluded in churches and so they don't feel safe entering congregations that are not explicitly open to them.

  • It falls on the person or group with more power to extend safe welcome to those who have less power and feel vulnerable.

  • Won't it be nice when we won't have to be preoccupied with who is accepted and who is not because it will be the norm?

  • Who would Jesus reject?

  • My gay son grew up in Broadway and feels great about our church, but now in graduate school elsewhere he doesn't feel comfortable attending other churches he is less certain about.

  • As a woman with a different sexual orientation I was very tentative when I first came to Broadway - I just didn't know if it was safe or I would be accepted. I was, of course, but I didn't know it.

  • When I first came to Broadway I attended a 101 class and was told Broadway welcomes all people. That's all I needed to know.

  • This issue has the potential to become divisive and I don't want that to happen at Broadway.

 

So the conversation continues. Though this is not as difficult for Broadway as for some other congregations (theologically and because it is consistent with our congregational ethos), it is nevertheless important to stay together, respectful, and loving in an unhurried sort of way. Though making a decision like this will not change ordinary life at church in many ways - what we do as church - it will remind us who we are for one another and, perhaps more importantly, communicate to any who may be seeking a church home and are uncertain if they will be accepted that they certainly will be. 

 

@Timothy Carson 2014

 

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Broadway Christian Church
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