The theme of session 8 of Living the Questions is inclusiveness, summed up by the quote ‘Jesus loves everybody – get over it!’. With the upcoming General Assembly discussion about the right of homosexuals to be leaders in the church, it was inevitable that we got talking about acceptance of homosexuals. Our church expresses this inclusiveness with a plaque saying it is a church for all people regardless of creed race, class or sexual orientation. This sort of inclusiveness seems easy to accept, but if we’re really going to include everyone, then we also have to include those who have hurt us. If you’re being raped, what comfort is there in knowing that Jesus loves you, if he also loves the person who is raping you? Maybe this love for everyone is a good thing, but there are situations like that where putting up walls to exclude people feels better.

We talked about our church, and whether it feels open and welcoming. Our church is open for people to come in all day, and we welcome anyone coming to our services. But do people know that? Before I became involved with Christianity, it never occurred to me that I was welcome at places like St Andrew’s. I only risked coming because my friend did, and I figured that they would probably accept me if they accepted her. I’m not sure if our church is welcoming to everyone, or if it can be. It’s almost inevitable that a church will be unwelcoming to anyone who has been brought up to hate or fear Christianity, and the sign proclaiming that we don’t discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation may make it seem unwelcoming to people who through no fault of their own have been taught to fear homosexuals. We could always reply ‘don’t blame us. That’s a barrier someone else created, so its clearly not our fault’. Of course it’s not our fault, but it would be good if we could reach out to those people.

Someone commented that it’s about recognising that there is more than one perfect way to be. Of course there is – even cosmetic surgery recognises two perfect human forms – a perfect male form and a perfect female form. Clearly there is a much greater range of perfect forms than that – in personality and abilities, as well as in physique. But I also think that this idea of recognising that there are lots of different kinds of perfect is limiting. I certainly couldn’t accept the idea of my body, with all the medical problems I have, fitting any idea of perfection. Inclusiveness means not only accepting different perfect forms, but also accepting imperfection.

Caroline Glass