Inclusive Church
On the 4th March 2009, the PCC agreed ‘that it wishes details of the church and its services to be listed on the Changing Attitude web site as a congregation which is open and welcoming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people’.
This is in line with our broader goal of ensuring that everyone who attends All Saints is assured a warm welcome, but recognises the particular difficulty members of the LGBT community often experience in being fully accepted in Christian churches.
To affirm our belief, we signed up to the InclusiveChurch.net declaration on the 20th of January 2005.
The InclusiveChurch.net Staplehurst page
The InclusiveChurch.net Statement of belief is as follows :
We affirm that the Church’s mission, in obedience to Holy Scripture, is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in every generation.
We acknowledge that this is Good News for people regardless of their sex, race or sexual orientation.
We believe that, in order to strengthen the Gospel’s proclamation of justice to the world, and for the greater glory of God, the Church’s own common life must be justly ordered.
To that end, we call on our Church to live out the promise of the Gospel; to celebrate the diverse gifts of all members of the body of Christ; and in the ordering of our common life to open the ministries of deacon, priest and bishop to those so-called to serve by God, regardless of their sex, race or sexual orientation.