Churches host listening sessions on LGBT ministry in the TEC Diocese of Atlanta

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Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, * Culture-Watch, Anthropology, Parish Ministry, Psychology, Sexuality, Theology

11 comments on “Churches host listening sessions on LGBT ministry in the TEC Diocese of Atlanta

  1. Pb says:

    How much listening is enough? Do they do anything else? When we had theses things in DGA, the rules were no reference to scripture and no witness from anyone who left the gay life style.

  2. Sarah1 says:

    RE: “no reference to scripture and no witness from anyone who left the gay life style.”

    Heh — but *otherwise* they were all keen to “listen” to the conservatives. ; > )

  3. driver8 says:

    Silly you. Listening to Holy Scripture isn’t even on the agenda:

    At the listening sessions, LGBT people (both churched and non-churched), as well as family members and friends of LGBT persons, are invited to share their experiences and make recommendations to the task force. Each session lasts one to two hours and is led by a team of task force members.

    The questions are:

    1. How have you, or someone you are close to, been impacted by the church on issues of sexuality and gender identity?
    2. How do you perceive the mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta to and with LGBT people? How would you like the church respond to your experience? What do you need?
    3. What gifts do you have to share with the church, and how might the church be more receptive to the sharing of your gifts?
    4. What additional comments do you wish to share?

  4. Cennydd13 says:

    Yeah……blah, blah, blah, etc. Sorry, no takers here.

  5. Ralph says:

    [blockquote] Gay Men’s Fellowship (also called St. Jack’s Club) at St. John’s Episcopal Church[/blockquote]
    If I made the obvious insensitive remarks, voracious Elves would descend.

    Let’s just say that in that very liberal diocese, the outcome of the listening sessions is predictable. I’m amazed that they are even bothering. I can’t imagine that there are enough conservatives left to have much of voice, since ACNA is very well-established in that diocese.

  6. wmresearchtrianglenc says:

    It’s clear that this program is a “designer-like” diocesan program specifically oriented and tailored to be something in the nature of an effort to reach out to the LGBT community, which is one thing–however, many would contend that such effort should consist of something more substantial from an intellectual and theological standpoint than a program that seems little more than a mere forum for listening to viewpoints that are pre-determined to a large degree by the restrictions and conditions imposed in this program and from the likely attendees of the sessions. However, regardless of any feebleness or shortcomings associated with this particular diocesan effort, this program touches on an overarching question: When will there be similar efforts within TEC to reach out to those associated with TEC who are now distinctly in a minority in TEC–and, in many cases, probably an uncomfortable minority, i.e., individuals who are sometimes described as conservative/orthodox/evangelical/catholic believers?

  7. David Keller says:

    #6–I stay away from TEC commemnts, but–I am reminded of a New Yorker cartoon of a few years in which a high powered executive is looking at his day timer and saying into his IPhone “How about Never? How does Never work for you?”

  8. Undergroundpewster says:

    Mark the dates of these listening lessons on the graphs of ASA and giving for each of the participating churches and revisit those curves 3 years from now.

    The Bishop of that diocese is taking his sheep into a bad pasture.

    Shame on him.

    Shame on the sheep who pay him.

  9. Capt. Father Warren says:

    Just out of curiosity, I clicked on the dio website to browse. Found one has to have a password from the dio in order [i]view[/i] the clergy directory. Hmmmmmmm, I wonder what they are trying to hide?

  10. wmresearchtrianglenc says:

    #7. Thank you for the New Yorker cartoon item. It reminds me of another New Yorker cartoon I saw that shows a man with a puzzled expression who’s listening to the recorded instructions on his phone (and this reminds me of many of TEC’s recent approaches to a number of matters) when the recording is saying: “For 1, press 7; for 2 press 4…”.

  11. David Keller says:

    #10–Thanks. I am really happy to discover someone other than me on this blog has a sense of humor.