All welcome

Since leaving the Rochdale/Oldham area in 2004 I have continued to put together the weekly notices for my former church at Shaw, Oldham. Instead of reading out the notices in each service, the congregation are given an A4 sheet headed, "Weekly News". In it are the various notices regarding what is happening in the church. Each week I am emailed with the changes for the week. Some of the events taking place are for anyone at all to attend and not restricted to any sort of membership. So a typical notice might read: Games Evening, date, time, all welcome.

Now this is where Christians have a problem. They put up notices saying that all are welcome but this is often not the case. In their church they would not like to see unmarried couples, single parents, homosexuals and lesbians, the mentally ill, the mentally handicapped, some of the disabled, wife beaters, smelly & dirty people, criminals etc. In fact, it depends on who you are and what you do as to whether you are accepted in a particular church. It is because of this that people, looking for a new church to worship in, try a few before settling on a final choice. Believe it or not, some churches are not very comfortable places to be or Christian in their ways! I have to say it though, they do not really mean to be exclusive but it eventually works out that way.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus was born. As a grown man, he came to be recognised as God Incarnate. In this role he came to say something that needed saying because people had got it all wrong. He entered a society in which many were marginalised because of infirmity, sins, religious beliefs etc. The Pharisees were astounded to see him taking tea with tax collectors, refusing to condemn adulterers and so on. They missed the message that told them all were welcome. Their petty rules and regulations got in the way. This still happens today.

Yet the truth is that all are welcome as far as Jesus is concerned. So now we see that the problem with welcoming every sort of person into our churches is that Jesus welcomes them but his representatives don't! If Jesus is to be about his work of salvation he needs human beings to share it with him. This is going to be difficult in churches that do not welcome certain individuals to their fellowship. In the USA there is the problem in the Anglican community that one of their bishops is gay. At home, the Church of England had to tell a Bishop-elect that he had better stand down because he was not welcome by many who professed Christianity and were members of the same church. But part of the ministry of Jesus is to stand by the marginalised, so where do you think Jesus stands on this issue?

It is blindingly apparent that Jesus stands with all who are marginalised and all who are in any sort of need. This is the picture we see as we read the gospels which are but snapshots of Jesus. Yet some do not grasp the message. On the matter of homosexualiity it was my trade union that pointed out to me the error of my ways. At one point I was actually lobbying for a member being prevented from election as Branch Secretary because of his declared sexuality. It was only three years later that I found myself in the position of Branch Secretary and my strongest supporter was the man I had tried to block previously. In fact, I learned more about defending the rights of my members from him than any other member.

I remember on the occasion of my first visit to the annual conference of the union that the issue of homosexuality was being discussed. A young man came to the microphone and told us: "I am now going to make you feel uncomfortable for ten minutes. I have to say that you make me feel uncomfortable all the time." I never forgot those wards. I also realised that there were many homosexuals who had not declared themselves and so I must have been dealing with a number without knowing. I thought about the members I had represented and wondered which ones were gay. It showed me that there was no distinction to be made. Jesus shows us this too.

Through the ministry of Jesus, God shows us the endless possibilities there are for justice and peace. Not only did Jesus live with the outcasts of society but he also died between two of them. On the cross we took our Lord's life and we do it over and over today by our attitudes to those we think beyond the pale. May God forgive us for we know not what we do!