Hi Stephen and Lynn
I thought that I would send you an email as I was made aware that you are welcoming response from Baptist Ministers in regard to the recent statement by Council over Same-Sex Marriage.
I am disappointed by the statement for a number of reasons.
Throughout Church history we have, as Christ followers, sought to grapple with the great unanswerable mystery of 'Who is God?' Without doubt Church history is resplendent with majestic analogies, wondrous metaphors and breathtaking descriptions of who this God is that we have encountered in Jesus of Nazareth. And time again we have fallen to our knees in wonder as all these words, in all their power seeking to describe the Indescribable, have been wanting as the simplicity of the name Jesus is uttered, meaning, ultimately, all words fall away in light of the Word made flesh.
In other words, we are about Jesus.
It is Jesus whom we encounter in the Garden on resurrection morning, not Adam. Humanity then, is not marching towards some Edenic past, rather it is released into a Christological future, beckoned towards its goal in who Jesus is, the True Human. Or as some of the Church Fathers put it, 'He become what we are so that we might become what he is.' Therefore, any discussion surrounding humanness and sexuality should be grounded in the Person of Jesus and who it He is making us to be.
Perfection then was never found in the “male and female” and the distinctions we have, it is found in Christ. Whereas before Christ our relationships were determined by the Law, differentiations determined by social and ethnic distinctions, now, in Christ, our relationships are a sign of redemption, a glimpse of the redemptive power of God, a ‘new creation’ where the old order of things have passed away.
Therefore the LGBTIQ community can equally model relationships of redemption determined through who they are 'in Christ'.
My ministry is one where I 'sit on the margins' with people from all different walks of life who have never even considered 'going to church'. Some of those people I encounter and spend time with are from the LGBTIQ community. Until I began building relationships with this community I had no idea of the scale and level of pain, persecution and loneliness they had encountered through the years. One man described the beatings he had endured by the POLICE because he was a gay man. He spoke of how the gay community had seen lynchings and humiliation, all because of their sexuality. This same man described the pain of being told by a vicar after a funeral of one of his gay friends, that he would burn in hell forever for being a 'gay pervert'.
In all our discussions I think we must not neglect to highlight the reality on the ground of what real people have gone through within the LGBTIQ community. Depression and suicide rates amongst the LGBTIQ community remains shockingly high. As Baptists we must be in the midst of the LGBTIQ community seeking to walk in relationship and solidarity.
We worship the Triune God. We are people created in God's own image, and so relationship is the primary mode of reality. Loneliness threatens the quality of our life at the deepest level for loneliness militates against the very One we were created in the image of. Loneliness has no place within God's own Self, and so where we encounter loneliness we are encountering that which militates against the very nature of God and humanity, a humanity created to be in relationship.
As Baptists our views surrounding dignity and equality in regard to humanity has changed in our history because of our continual encounter with the Risen Christ. We have, therefore, changed our hermeneutics when reading certain passages of Scripture. It seems that there are many of us who are continuing to do this in regard to Same-Sex Marriage. I would have hoped that churches and ministers would have the freedom to follow their conscious on this issue. Yet the language of 'mutual respect' used in the statement by Council seems to suggest otherwise.
I will seek to continue to minister wherever I believe Christ leads me, seeking to join in the work I believe he is already doing within my community. That work is among all different kinds of people, from all different walks of life, seeking to encounter relationship. I will continue to try and be faithful to Jesus who I believe sits on the margins, and I will celebrate depth of love wherever I encounter it.
Thank you for all that you do. I recognise the immensely difficult time you are facing and the pressure you must feel. Please be assured of my ongoing prayers.
Grace and peace,
Joseph Haward.
I thought that I would send you an email as I was made aware that you are welcoming response from Baptist Ministers in regard to the recent statement by Council over Same-Sex Marriage.
I am disappointed by the statement for a number of reasons.
Throughout Church history we have, as Christ followers, sought to grapple with the great unanswerable mystery of 'Who is God?' Without doubt Church history is resplendent with majestic analogies, wondrous metaphors and breathtaking descriptions of who this God is that we have encountered in Jesus of Nazareth. And time again we have fallen to our knees in wonder as all these words, in all their power seeking to describe the Indescribable, have been wanting as the simplicity of the name Jesus is uttered, meaning, ultimately, all words fall away in light of the Word made flesh.
In other words, we are about Jesus.
It is Jesus whom we encounter in the Garden on resurrection morning, not Adam. Humanity then, is not marching towards some Edenic past, rather it is released into a Christological future, beckoned towards its goal in who Jesus is, the True Human. Or as some of the Church Fathers put it, 'He become what we are so that we might become what he is.' Therefore, any discussion surrounding humanness and sexuality should be grounded in the Person of Jesus and who it He is making us to be.
Perfection then was never found in the “male and female” and the distinctions we have, it is found in Christ. Whereas before Christ our relationships were determined by the Law, differentiations determined by social and ethnic distinctions, now, in Christ, our relationships are a sign of redemption, a glimpse of the redemptive power of God, a ‘new creation’ where the old order of things have passed away.
Therefore the LGBTIQ community can equally model relationships of redemption determined through who they are 'in Christ'.
My ministry is one where I 'sit on the margins' with people from all different walks of life who have never even considered 'going to church'. Some of those people I encounter and spend time with are from the LGBTIQ community. Until I began building relationships with this community I had no idea of the scale and level of pain, persecution and loneliness they had encountered through the years. One man described the beatings he had endured by the POLICE because he was a gay man. He spoke of how the gay community had seen lynchings and humiliation, all because of their sexuality. This same man described the pain of being told by a vicar after a funeral of one of his gay friends, that he would burn in hell forever for being a 'gay pervert'.
In all our discussions I think we must not neglect to highlight the reality on the ground of what real people have gone through within the LGBTIQ community. Depression and suicide rates amongst the LGBTIQ community remains shockingly high. As Baptists we must be in the midst of the LGBTIQ community seeking to walk in relationship and solidarity.
We worship the Triune God. We are people created in God's own image, and so relationship is the primary mode of reality. Loneliness threatens the quality of our life at the deepest level for loneliness militates against the very One we were created in the image of. Loneliness has no place within God's own Self, and so where we encounter loneliness we are encountering that which militates against the very nature of God and humanity, a humanity created to be in relationship.
As Baptists our views surrounding dignity and equality in regard to humanity has changed in our history because of our continual encounter with the Risen Christ. We have, therefore, changed our hermeneutics when reading certain passages of Scripture. It seems that there are many of us who are continuing to do this in regard to Same-Sex Marriage. I would have hoped that churches and ministers would have the freedom to follow their conscious on this issue. Yet the language of 'mutual respect' used in the statement by Council seems to suggest otherwise.
I will seek to continue to minister wherever I believe Christ leads me, seeking to join in the work I believe he is already doing within my community. That work is among all different kinds of people, from all different walks of life, seeking to encounter relationship. I will continue to try and be faithful to Jesus who I believe sits on the margins, and I will celebrate depth of love wherever I encounter it.
Thank you for all that you do. I recognise the immensely difficult time you are facing and the pressure you must feel. Please be assured of my ongoing prayers.
Grace and peace,
Joseph Haward.