THANK GOD FOR BISHOP JOHN MCINTYRE!!! Please read this extract from the 2012 synod presidential address of the Diocese of Gippsland…

“…In the life of our diocese, we rather belatedly committed to a listening process to hear the stories of gay and lesbian people, and to reflect on how seriously we take the commendation of the 1998 Lambeth Conference motion 1.10, which asks us to offer hospitality to these Christian brothers and sisters, who the motion reminds us are “full members of the Body of Christ”. Recent circumstances have now made this a far more urgent priority than perhaps we had previously failed to recognise.

In my president’s address last year I indicated my commitment to be inclusive and welcoming of same-sex attracted people in our diocese, “confident that God is at work in and through all those who are open to the call of God in their lives and wanting to offer ministry in the life of our churches”.

I reiterate that commitment to you now. It comes from a long personal journey of life experience; reflection on Scripture in the context of that experience, and reflection on that experience in the light of Scripture.

It is a simple Biblical truth that has caused me to move to a new place in my understanding of the place of same-sex attracted people in the life of the church. That truth is revealed in the words of Jesus, who says in the Sermon on the Mount, “a bad tree cannot bear good fruit” and “by their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7.18,20). I have come to know and acknowledge that the fruit of their works makes clear that God has been and is at work in and through gay and lesbian people, who for years have been a part of our church, in both lay and ordained ministries. You might well ask why it took me so long to acknowledge this simple truth. I think it was the correctness of religious law that blinded me to this truth, a truth that is known only in the experience of grace.

In the first place, I needed to be entirely honest with myself and realise God works in and through me only by grace, and not because I act correctly according to some established religious code. And this insight only became apparent when I was ready to recognise my own brokenness, and that it is not only despite that brokenness, but sometimes because of it, that God works in and through me.

This brought me to acknowledge that the fruit of my works is the only true measure of my worthiness for ministry in the name of Jesus. The key question then becomes, “Do my works reveal a heart transformed by the love of God into a loving heart, and a mind renewed in Christ into his mind of humble, self-emptying service?” That is the Biblical measure of who is worthy to be called by God to minister in the name of Jesus.

As I wrote recently to the clergy, it is a salutary experience to be reminded that at one and the same time no-one is worthy and all are worthy for ministry. Of ourselves we can claim nothing that would cause God to engage us in ministry, yet at the same time, in Christ we are all made worthy. Furthermore, as it was in brokenness that the Christ on the cross wrought the salvation of the whole world, so it is in our brokenness that we become the means of healing to others. This is worth contemplating before we too quickly suggest another be deemed not worthy to minister in Jesus’ name.

Only in light of reflection on God’s Word did I finally come to understand. Despite what I or others may believe is their worthiness, the fruit of the works of many gay and lesbian people has brought God’s blessing to me and to many other people, both in and beyond the church.That is the measure of their worthiness to minister in the name of Jesus Christ in the life of the church, and in the community in the name of the church. That indicates their place in the life of God’s people.

Put simply, I think God has been saying to me for many years now “If it is good enough for me, John, why is it not good enough for you?”

This experience took me back to the Bible and its ethical teaching. Here again, a very simple solution was revealed to me, once I was prepared to walk this journey of discovery with God. I recently read, though I cannot now remember where, an illustration from church history that makes clear the point I have come to understand when seeking guidance from scripture on the place of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church. It is this.

We all acknowledge that the church can never read the Bible in the same way once it acknowledged that Galileo was right. The world is round, not flat, despite what those who first penned the words of the Bible thought and assumed. It took the church a long time to acknowledge this, and in the name of orthodoxy, it treated Galileo rather shabbily along the way.

Here lies an exegetical parallel for our present purpose. Because of recent new understanding, we now all know that same-sex attracted people are not heterosexual people who have made a perverse choice about how they express their sexuality. They simply are what they are. We might like to argue about whether this is how life should or should not be,but that will not change the way it is. And we have to respond to what is.

The Biblical writers had no concept of the possibility of a faithful, committed relationship of love between people who found themselves to be attracted to others of the same gender. They assumed that anyone who engaged in sexual activity with a person of the same gender was a heterosexual person acting outside their God-given nature. By definition, this was for them perverse activity.

Now we know that it is simply a reality of some people’s lives to be same-sex attracted, and not a perverse choice made by them, how can the church ever read the Bible in the same way? It has taken the church, and me, a long time to acknowledge this. And in the name of orthodoxy, we have treated gay and lesbian people rather shabbily along the way.

Further to this, I have become convinced we will never come to a place of understanding on this matter unless we walk the path to understanding together. For too long we have asked same-sex attracted people to wait outside the church, or at most in its wings, while we decide the basis on which they can be a part of the church’s life. The thought seems to have been that when we have decided (and we certainly don’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to do this) we will invite gay and lesbian people into the church on our terms; that is, if they still want to be a part of us. I do not believe this is a particularly godly way in which to go.
In saying what I have said here, I want to assure you that I am not demanding that you agree with me. One of the beauties of Anglicanism is our capacity to stay together in Christ with strongly held differences. Another is that our idea of authority includes the fact that you do not have to agree with me just because I am a bishop. We can stay together in the unity of Christ with our differences, and in grace we can continue to learn from each other.

I make this commitment to all of you, whether or not you agree with me on this one issue. All I do, and all I will seek to continue to do, in everything I do, is to seek the will of God. Accordingly, I will appoint to office in our diocese those whom I believe God is calling to minister among us, and I will continue to do so with a grateful heart to God for the gifts and skills they bring to us. Furthermore, I will do this within the context of the greater call of God on the whole church, which is to live by grace; to seek justice and to show compassion, in all we do and say. That is my commitment to God and to you, and I am willing to live with any consequences that may arise from remaining true to that commitment…”