There are some Churches that allow gays in their worship service. I cannot say if they allow gays to have baptism or last supper rites but one Church did cause a big attention getter by not allowing last supper rites to an avowed lesbian whose mother funeral service was being held.
Recently the Episcopal Church has announced July a Liturgy for Same Sex unions. It is called a blessing and some in the Episcopal Church have announced that they will not do the blessing.
"The United Church of Christ, which voted in 2005 to support marriage for same-sex couples, already has rites for blessing such unions. But it does not have one official version for the entire church, because the denomination is more decentralized than the Episcopal Church."
It will be interesting to see other Churches handle the gay issue. I do know that in Glendale the Episcopal Church is doing outreach to gay, people with HIV and also has an outreach for homeless. The number of Episcopalians has decreased from 2.3 million members to 1.9 million members (due to falling attendance and the gay issue).
Even the gays in Los Angeles County Jail have Christian services for gays. Basically everything is a bit chaotic and we need updates like this.
Comments (14)
christ administered to leppers (did i spell that right?) as i recall. how frightening that christians either think they are better than christ or the gays are worse than lepers. (oh, there it is)
My denomination (Lutheran) and its sub-group the ELCA (the liberal group) had a "decision" a few years ago about letting gay people become pastors. That alone was enough to decrease ELCA members and send many to the next-conservative Missouri Synod group.
@promisesunshine - I don't think Christians let in Lepers to their congregation back in the days. Only healed ones were let in most likely.
Some Churches has the last supper and do not remind visitors that only avowed Christians are allowed to take part. I suppose some Churches take for granted most folks know that.
I suppose if they told gays not to take last supper rites, adulterous adults should not take it too.
what i'm trying to say is that christians should be following christ's example.
@Cestovatelka - I should know more about gay Chinese but basically Gay Chinese stay hidden and more people know about bisexual Margaret Cho and not much about gays except about philipinos and the military gay japanese who outed himself.
@promisesunshine - Some Christians feed homeless but it is nothing like how Christ feed the multitudes. Some Christians want crowds of listeners and do healing services and I suppose Christian Churches want to baptize new believers immediately.
The alcoholics would love to see the wedding wine miracle and fishermen would love to have their fishing nets briming. I would probably love to hear Jesus give some answers to today's questions.
i think everyone should marry if they want to regardless of their sexual orientation..isn't love genderless...
Thank God I'm Catholic where all people are welcome to the Lord's Supper.
it's something that the church needs to deal with and in a compassionate way.
I just cannot believe how people can judge and not allow worship rite etc. Jesus did things so differently.
Interesting thought to share here: Jesus taught, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." There are many sins and all of us are ostensibly sinners. Churches minister to people who have committed all manner of sins: lying, stealing, cheating, coveting, etc. But some churches (not all) will refuse to minister to a person who is gay, as if that is somehow a sin more exeptional than all the others.
This seems to me to be a very un-Christian (i.e., not Christ-like) practice.
I don't see the big issue when it comes to allowing gay people into services. You're suppose to embrace the sinner. We all sin and it doesn't matter what sin.
Good topic ,
@christao408 - Exactly!!
Lucky I am straight. Very straight.