Gay and Christian?

Throughout 2,000 years of church history an active homosexual lifestyle and Christian faith have been seen as irreconcilable but now - with the advent of gay "marriage" - a new way of reconciling the two has been embraced by many within the church.

What stops us from welcoming such permanent, faithful, stable gay relationships between Christians? Is it plausible to ask believers seemingly born same-sex attracted to remain celibate for the whole of their lives? Society around us has changed so quickly on this issue that we have often been left reeling and without convincing answers to even our own questions.

In our brave new world many of us would struggle to communicate what Christians have always believed in a clear and compassionate way. And what makes it harder is that, for some of us, this is a deeply personal issue: a family member or close friend has recently “come out” – or we ourselves struggle with same-sex attraction on a daily basis. What should our pastoral response be? How will this issue effect our evangelism?

These questions – and others – will form part of a conversation we'll be having at Highfields (Cathays) in our evening service on Sunday 8th June with Ed Shaw.

Ed is the associate pastor of Emmanuel Church Bristol – he's a Christian. But he also experiences same-sex attraction and is going to help us think through this issue from both a biblical and personal perspective.

A trailer for his story is below or can viewed at: www.livingout.org/stories/ed