The New Emmanuael Times Summer 2023 the magazine for friends and members
Minister’s letter rev James Hamilton
One issue that has faced God’s people since the beginning of time has been this; should God’s people separate themselves from the world, or should we immerse ourselves in it.
At times God’s people have been called to separate themselves out from the world to maintain their purity, at others to go into the world for the world’ sake. Like so much else in the spiritual life, we must hold two different truths in dynamic tension, it is not either or, but both and, sometimes, depending.
For Christians to separate themselves out from the world is to risk becoming blindly judgemental. I suspect that we can all think of people who have behaved like this, and it may be that, if you come from a tradition like mine, you might recognise something of your younger self in this.
Looking back on the views of that younger, James, I see views characterised more by fear than by love; fear of getting it wrong, fear of displeasing God, fear of becoming compromised. Not bad things in themselves; sometimes healthy fear keeps us safe, but in excess it makes us risk averse.
On the 3rd of june the town centre held its first Pride march. One of the things I reflected on was that there is no point having made the decision we made as a church last year, which was to register Emmanuel to hold same sex weddings, if we don’t really promote that , or stand up and proclaim God’s love for everyone, regardless of their sexuality. I also reflected as I joined the march outside the town hall that the last time, I’d joined a march there was on International Holocaust Day in January.
One of the things that I remember about that event was learning about how the Nazis had treated gay men and lesbian women, whose treatment in concentration camps was as diabolical as that enacted on the Jews, and the thought that Christianity had been complicit in both, because over a thousand years and more, the church had demonised, among others, Jewish and LGBT people.
I had been a Christian for decades before I was really able to question what I had always been taught about the sinfulness of same sex relations, and I lament the hurt and the pain that was caused to the LBGT community as I worked through the issue. I suspect many of us might feel the same.
One of the causes of this was that I didn’t move in the circles where gay and lesbian existed.My ‘tribe’ didn’t believe that gay and lesbian Christians really could exist. I was poorer for not knowing such people, and I don’t think it was coincidence that it wasn’t until I became a student minister, and two things happened that I really began to wrestle meaningfully with the issue.
Firstly, when I became a student, 25% of my fellow student ministers were gay or Lesbian, and they were among the most spiritual people not the least. Secondly , I started worshipping at the New inclusive church in Bimingham, which met at Carr’s Lane. The inclusive church was everything that I think a church should be, passionate about a welcome that defaulted to being inclusive, passionate about diversity being an important part of unity; passionate about questioning old assumptions, passionate about living radically.
Most of all it was characterised by love rather than fear, because perfect love cast out fear. We have no need to be fearful wherever God sends us, because we have nothering to fear when God is with us, provided we keep our eyes uplifted to the cross Reflecting back on last week’s Redditch Pride, I’m struck by the fact that it was a wonderful experience, but also tjat ot was a ,opportunity. The march paraded past the Ecumenical Centre, we had a poster in the window sayingwe supported Gay Pride, but it would have been wonderful to have some of us outside, or to have had a stall on the Market Place, or been in the march showing solidarity and support of God and the power of repentance and forgiveness, I hope next year we will . based on a sermon I preached on the 11 June 2023
God bless
James
