Dear Stephen and Lynn,
I read with some dismay, but little surprise, Lynn's letter to ministers last week pursuant to the statement issued at the conclusion of the most recent meeting of BU Council. I suppose that I am more than a little older than many of those who are now writing to share what they describe as their disappointment at the Council statement - in fact disappointment has been used in just about every letter that you have received and on one occasion preceded by the word 'bitter' - but I too share this overwhelming sense of disappointment.
I have been the minister of Madeley Baptist Church since 2002 and one of its leaders since 1997. We have not registered for SSM but we are an affirming church of more than 60 members and have one openly gay member who is very much part of our family. I do not intend to rehearse all the matters contained in the many letters you are receiving other than to say that they all appear to have been written from compassionate hearts.
In all of this current furore I sense your desire to hold firmly to the Baptist way but that this aspiration has been utterly defeated by the comments 'humbly urge' and 'mutual respect'. To agree to differ has been pivotal to our ecclesiology as a union of churches which coupled with 'walking together and watching over each other' has underpinned the interdependence which I have valued over many years. I find the language of the statement to be coercive and contrary to the Baptist way - it's presents a 'one way street' in which one theology attempts to trump another. I stand firmly with a senior colleague who wrote several days ago, "Theology which means that people kills themselves is bad theology."
Please do not underestimate the hurt and confusion that has been caused by the Council statement - even now I believe that the time will come when those responsible for this will see the need to apologise for the harm that has have caused. I hope that the apology does not take as long to materialise as that so fulsomely offered for the Slave Trade and is yet awaited for those women who are still discriminated against in some of our union churches.
Best wishes,
Keith Osmund-Smith
I read with some dismay, but little surprise, Lynn's letter to ministers last week pursuant to the statement issued at the conclusion of the most recent meeting of BU Council. I suppose that I am more than a little older than many of those who are now writing to share what they describe as their disappointment at the Council statement - in fact disappointment has been used in just about every letter that you have received and on one occasion preceded by the word 'bitter' - but I too share this overwhelming sense of disappointment.
I have been the minister of Madeley Baptist Church since 2002 and one of its leaders since 1997. We have not registered for SSM but we are an affirming church of more than 60 members and have one openly gay member who is very much part of our family. I do not intend to rehearse all the matters contained in the many letters you are receiving other than to say that they all appear to have been written from compassionate hearts.
In all of this current furore I sense your desire to hold firmly to the Baptist way but that this aspiration has been utterly defeated by the comments 'humbly urge' and 'mutual respect'. To agree to differ has been pivotal to our ecclesiology as a union of churches which coupled with 'walking together and watching over each other' has underpinned the interdependence which I have valued over many years. I find the language of the statement to be coercive and contrary to the Baptist way - it's presents a 'one way street' in which one theology attempts to trump another. I stand firmly with a senior colleague who wrote several days ago, "Theology which means that people kills themselves is bad theology."
Please do not underestimate the hurt and confusion that has been caused by the Council statement - even now I believe that the time will come when those responsible for this will see the need to apologise for the harm that has have caused. I hope that the apology does not take as long to materialise as that so fulsomely offered for the Slave Trade and is yet awaited for those women who are still discriminated against in some of our union churches.
Best wishes,
Keith Osmund-Smith
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