Last Sunday Catherine Fink spoke on barstool. She was reflecting on our journey exploring LGBTQAI+ inclusion and affirmation as a church community. She recognised the importance of this journey but also celebrated that Ilam is so much more than this one conversation. I wrote down some of the things she spoke about and added a few more that have come to me as I’ve thought about it.
As Catherine said it is so important to recognise and celebrate our diversity in many other ways.
We celebrate Ilamites passion and journeys in Te Aō Māori; in caring for our planet and working for climate justice; in seeking to decolonise mission; in our connections with people and projects around the world; with our amazing young people; with people who are spiritual refugees looking for a safe place to call home; in affirming and celebrating people who experience disability; in working for issues of social justice; in not living a compartmentalised life and thinking around how our faith connects into our work; we affirm and celebrate the wide range of ages that we are and that we can be in community together; we try and embrace ‘thinking allowed, thinking aloud allowed’. What else would you add?
I acknowledge that some of these things we may not do well all the time, we are very human. I also recognise that people have other areas of their lives that they are passionately involved in and we love hearing about these and celebrating them. I think of Ngaire and her passion for ‘Days for Girls’ and the incredible work she did in organising so many packs to be delivered into the hands of girls on the vision trip last year.
Andrew Sangster when he spoke at Ilam a fortnight ago encouraged us to keep communicating and journeying together and I thought that Catherine’s reflection did this beautifully. We acknowledge our humanness, celebrate all that we are and entrust our life together (and individually) to Wairua Tapu to lead and guide us into the future.
God be with us all.
Take care
Helen