Winnipeg church series seeks to build LGBTTQ+ inclusion

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This article was published 21/10/2022 (1053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 2017, after Winnipeg’s First Mennonite Church decided to become affirming and welcoming of LGBTTQ+ people, its next question was: “What now?”

“There was a temptation to think we’d arrived after doing that,” lead minister David Driedger said this week of the church’s decision. However, he soon learned it was just the start of the conversation.

“If you think of a church like a house, and you invite people into your house, the next question is to reassess the house rules and accessibility,” he said. “What are the implicit and explicit things that make people truly feel welcome or not?”

Finding answers to those questions is the goal of “Queer Theology and the Church: After the Affirmation,” a series of four Sunday evening, in-person (922 Notre Dame Ave.) and livestreamed conversations about ways churches can make sure LGBTTQ+ people feel fully included.

The free series, which starts Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., will cover topics such as queer theology and inclusion; trauma-informed and justice-making approaches to Christian theology; worshipping the “(w)holy” other: queer theology in hymns and confessions; and sex and holiness.

“The series will explore how queer theology can lead the church beyond a framework of inclusion and into larger questions of justice and transformation,” said Driedger, defining queer theology as the practice of viewing God and Christian thinking through an LGBTTQ+ lens.

“This means not seeing queer people as oddities, but including their real-life experiences in the church, experiences that have often been denied by traditional Christianity,” he said.

The series will go beyond the question of simply saying yes or no to becoming affirming and welcoming, to what’s next after LGBTTQ+ people are welcomed into congregations, Driedger said.

This will include looking at the hymns and songs churches sing, the language used in worship services, and how the Bible is read and interpreted.

“It’s about examining the things that can make it difficult for LGBTTQ+ people to feel truly included in a church,” he said, adding this includes the unspoken privileges enjoyed by non-LGBTTQ+ people.

“Some things we do make being part of a church easier for some, but harder for others,” he said, adding this kind of examination “is exactly what the Gospel calls us to do.”

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