What’s Going On? Decision on the Human Sexuality Report
Synod is about to begin its deliberation of the proposed Human Sexuality Report. We had Challenging Conversation groups about the same document. Many found the conversations meaningful; many are anxiously waiting to see what happens at Synod on this.
Having done the Challenging Conversation with three different groups in the last year and, having discussed how it went for all the different groups at Mountainview, I am beginning to form something of my own conclusion on this Report.
But before I tell you my conclusion, first let me say this: At the Classis Niagara meeting last week we learned something I might call “Challenging Conversations 2.0”. It is actually called “Wayfinder” and it is a way of entering any controversy or conflict in a way that expects that this too is something God can use to help us grow. I am growing in my conviction that what we need is a growing ability to walk through tough differences among us and both speak honestly as well as keep loving each other. I believe we can do this.
When the facilitators of the Challenging Conversation groups got together, we noted a great variety in the group experiences. However, what we also noted was that there was a rather consistent desire to be a welcoming community even if we differed on our conclusions about how to handle questions of sexuality as dealt with in the HSR.
My decision on the HSR, then, is that we should not think that a vote in favour or against is suddenly going to settle the matter in everyone’s minds. We are learning ways of speaking that allow us to move forward together. Why would we then resort to a method that mostly guarantees “winners” and “losers” and therefore fosters separation among us? I am not against democracy as a political process because it allows for decisions to be made and action to take place. However, when a community is seeking to walk together in unity, there are times when we need something other than a vote to move us forward. I would suggest that whatever happens at Synod (which is a deliberative and then democratic body), we should commit to continue to walk forward in ways that are honest and humble. We need to speak the truth in love. We need to learn to be a community where it feels safe to share openly and where we seek to love and understand those who see things differently than we do.
I understand the impulse “to know where we stand.” To make a decision feels clearer, cleaner, and complete. However, a decision that divides is only cleaner and simpler at the expense of relationships and unity. The church is a body that believes in Jesus and seeks to understand how we are supposed to live that out. Sometimes that is simple and agreed upon. At other times, it is challenging and confusing. Wisdom is knowing which time we are in. On that too, people disagree. I pray that we can find a way to hold on to each other and move forward together. I pray for that unity first for Mountainview, secondarily for our area churches and our denomination. We live in a tough time of polarization and forming camps based on a point of view. May we be a community that walks in the midst of all that with a higher commitment to love than to being right. This is not to say we don’t hold a commitment to truth, but that we do so in a way that honours the foundational truth that God is love and is about love. We can and must hold onto truth and love equally at the same time.
May God give his people wisdom in strength on this stage of the journey.
Pastor Erick