Chorlton Central Church

This theological reflection is adapted from one of the addresses given
at a joint service at Chorlton Methodist Church on Sunday 31st August

Recently I went to watch the Manchester Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade. It was flamboyant, even outrageous, with a real carnival atmosphere – I think heaven’s going to a bit like that!

It was great fun and I enjoyed myself – even more so because for many of the people there, it is not all that long ago that they would not have dared to raise their heads and admit their sexuality. Yet, here they were – walking with heads held high, with pride.

Christians weren’t very conspicuous on the Parade.
But one float (not a Christian one) had the placard “God loves Gays”: a statement, maybe of defiance, and one of real challenge to the churches.

“Do not fear, there is no darkness, only light and love.”

This was the last sentence of a poem that was used at the Vigil held a few days later, for victims of HIV/AIDS.

Hundreds of mainly young people gathered that evening in the city centre. It was dark and we couldn’t see each other properly, but then we lit our candles in remembrance of the people who had died, and we could see the faces of the people nearby. I could see the young man in front of me, and the candlelight lit up the tears on his cheek. He was being comforted by his boyfriend, and I thought: who can say that this love and tenderness is wrong, and I also thought that heaven is going to a bit like that, too.

So what would Jesus do in this situation?

Well, on the face of it, Jesus was silent about same-sex relationships. From what we can read in the gospels, he neither condemned them nor condoned them. But that might have been because the Romans, who were the rulers of Judaea at the time, regarded same-sex relationships as a natural option, though they had strict laws to punish rape and child abuse. So for Jesus same-sex relationships were part of the norm.

And after all, he had plenty of opportunity to speak out against them if he’d chosen to – and he did speak freely about other aspects of moral and social behaviour. His silence of the subject may well have meant that for him, it simply wasn’t an issue.

But that was then. Nowadays, it’s different.

Nowadays it is an issue.
Nowadays, people are sometimes osctracised, insulted, abused, physically hurt, even killed, because of their sexuality.

So I cannot believe that nowadays Jesus would remain silent.

What would Jesus do? Well, I believe that Jesus would have been at that Parade, enjoying it, being alongside the gay and lesbian people, walking with pride with them. I believe that Jesus would have been at that Vigil, drying the tears, and being alongside the suffering.

Jesus would not have remained silent.

Neither can we, the followers of Jesus, remain silent. Maybe next year we can be part of that Parade – Christians walking with pride.

And this year we, the ministers of the four non-conformist churches in Chorlton, would like to hold our own vigil for people who have died of HIV/AIDS, probably around World Aids Day in December. We hope that will mark the beginning of our “coming out” as a community of Christians who are committed to being inclusive.

copyright © Revd Sarah Brewerton 2008

rev 30 Nov 2008