Saint Ethelburga's

The weather was awful indeed last Wednesday but still some people made it to the Saint Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.

There were about 20 people, mostly Jewish and Anglicans. The speakers each represented their faith and shared texts and images.

I thought it was very interesting the way they approached the subject of "The Agony and the Ecstasy". Sam, the facilitator told about a spiritual experience he had when seeing this painting by Caravaggio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flagellation_of_Christ_(Caravaggio)

The discussion then centred in the wholeness of living our lives in which faith has a place. And if we are made in the image of God, is not our sexual orientation also coming from the divine?

We had the Christian (Protestant) and the Jewish perspectives on this and people were able to contribute their own experiences to the discussion.

Then we moved on to discuss scripture interpretation... some individuals asked very interesting questions and I must say I was impressed with the answers.

In the end, it was clear that God would not have created us with sexual drives towards our own gender unless it was his plan... otherwise, it would have been cruel. Same-sex partnerships can be as sucessful as straight marriages and the Church/es should be the first ones to honour them and celebrate the union and love of two people.

I hope more people can make it to the next gathering.

I will post details here soon.

Thanks for the organisers and the attenders who contributed to the discussion.