Our parish right now is attempting to live out it’s Mission Statement which includes “living out the Christian faith in the Anglican Tradition, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit …. and fostering the values of the Christian faith in our parish and reaching out to the wider community.” We are attempting to be good stewards of our resources and to plan for a sustainable and exciting future in the community. My vision for the wider church, most especially the church at the national level, is that we will become much more democratic and less hierarchical, less preoccupied with internal issues and more visionary with regard to world and society , a leader in the struggle for full human and civil rights for all, including full inclusion of gay and lesbian people, and others currently marginalized in the church.
I am in the process of earning my Doctor of Ministry degree. As part of this process, I am writing about my journey which includes the hurts and pain that I have suffered from the Church during my Ministry. I wish I could say that it was a warm and fuzzy experience. But it has not been. In fact, many people have asked me why I am still with the Church. This is a question that I have found no answer to. As we look at the church and the hope for it in the future, we must not leave out that the Church has caused many people a great deal of pain. A lot of people have been hurt by the Church and then ignored. I prayer is that the Church will be what Christ would want it to be: loving, compassionate, caring, supportive. The Church needs to reunite itself with the mission and vision of the Christ our Lord.
The church must indeed welcome ALL sinners as each of us has a tendency to sin in one area or another. This depends on our personality and our upbringing. In stating this, however, the church cannot “bless” any sin regardless of any so-called political correctness. We welcome sinners with the hope that they will be convicted by the Holy Spirit and brought to repentance. The church cannot be the church of God if it deceives sinners into believing sin can be blest.