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This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world. If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts. This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.
Romans 15:7
Following on from what I wrote yesterday, something else needs to be spelled out. As far as other Christians go, we have no choice in the matter. We must welcome one another. This is what baptism means.
And this welcome means Christians must be welcomed as full members of the church, even if not of my particular tradition.
The tragedy is, there are some who are not accepted. I read somewhere the other day, why if a church is unable to ordain homosexuals, does it baptise them? The logic is that we do not baptise those we would not ordain. I hope most Christians would baulk at such a denial of baptism. For those who practice infant baptism, it would mean they would have to wait until the adult announced their sexuality. Baptism would no longer be a mark of unconditional acceptance into the faith.
It is shameful there is any group of baptised people not fully acceptable to some Christians. It seems for some it is essential to have other Christians we do not welcome.
At one time Catholics and Protestants excluded one another; exclusion has been, and perhaps in some places still is, on the basis of race. By and large, most prejudices have been outed and so those who need someone to hate have decided to hold fast to sexuality.
I wonder whether we will ever be free of such prejudice? Over 2000 years, our shameful divisions have also been the way the church has been learning its high calling, to be a place wherein the whole of humanity might be reconciled.
It is precisely those who live in the margins who need to be welcomed. Jesus died for the marginalised and we do well not to forget it. To understand ecumenism as reconciliation between mainstream Christian traditions, is to ignore the real pain of those who are rejected by these same churches. I suspect many homosexuals would argue the mainstream churches are united in who they choose to reject. Ecumenism cannot happen independently of justice.
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