All Are Welcome Here

On the noticeboard opposite the bottom of Den Lane our church proudly proclaims: 'All Are Welcome Here'; and we are proud of that. We hope people find they are accepted openly and non-judgmentally at St John's.

As an organisation we describe ourselves as an Inclusive Church so we were interested to read Vicky Beeching's story this week. Vicky is something of a celebrity in the Christian Music world and her music is popular with many Christians across the evangelical world. This makes her decision to come out as gay all the braver.

There is no point in denying that this will cause considerable angst among many evangelical Christians, but we wish her well and hope her story and bravery give confidence to other gay Christians that they are welcome as they are, not as others might wish them to be.

This blog post on Calm Zone is a particularly thoughtful contribution to the great deal that has been written on this story.

You can also find out more about what being an Inclusive Church means for us here.  

Vicky Beeching regularly contributes to Church Times and BBC Radio 4s Thought for the Day, read more of what she has to say here.