Saturday, 3 May 2008

100 revs now 100!

With the recent focus on religion and same sex rights, it is amazing to come across a group such as 100 Revs, which is a movement based in Sydney to sign on 100 pastors or ministers of ordained churches to apologise to gays and lesbians from being excluded from the church.

100 revs now has 100 members who have agreed to this statement (and have said they want more!):

As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognise that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Indeed the church has often been profoundly unloving toward the GLBT community. For these things we apologise, whatever the distinctive of our Christian position on human sexuality – to which we remain committed. We are deeply sorry and ask for the forgiveness of the GLBT community. We long that the church would be a place of welcome for all people and commit ourselves to pursuing this goal.
We ARE a group of Christian ministers who voluntarily and individually bring this apology.

We ARE NOT official representatives of our churches or denominations.

We ARE recognising the lack of hospitality, care and welcome that the churches have offered the gay and lesbian community.

We ARE NOT making a statement on the biblical position on gay and lesbian relationships.
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5 comments:

  1. Anthony Venn-Brown3 May 2008 at 11:48

    HI Stephen

    readers of your blog might like to know that background to the 100 Revs is detailed on my blog

    http://alifeofunlearning.blogspot.com/2008/03/100-revs-its-not-over.html

    and also videos

    http://alifeofunlearning.blogspot.com/2008/04/100-revs-sydney-gay-lesbian-mardi-gras.html

    thanks for helping to spread the word about this important movement that is helping break down walls and create a dialogue.

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  2. Stephen Page3 May 2008 at 18:50

    Wonderful, Anthony. Thank you. Will add your blog to the links!

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  3. Anthony Venn-Brown3 May 2008 at 22:50

    thanks Stephen....I also have the transcript of Justice Kirby's conversation with David Marr there if that is of interest to you or your readers.

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  4. Stephen Page4 May 2008 at 08:11

    Wonderful Anthony! It will be a loss to Australian life later this year when Justice Kirby retires from the High Court. Given his prodigious workload, no doubt he will be very busy on retirement. Justice Kirby has a very strong moral framework of belief in God, the monarchy and the law.

    Cheers!

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  5. Anthony Venn-Brown4 May 2008 at 09:16

    From conversations we've had, my sense is that he will probably be doing more in retirement, albeit in different areas and especially without the restrictions of his current position will be even more vocal.

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