One of the driving elements of the evolution of Seekers
has been expanding our understanding of what it means
to be an inclusive community.
It started out early on when we worked with
feminist theological and social issues.
That led us to opening ourselves to other inclusion issues
from expanded understandings of spirituality
(non-Christian spiritual practices) to
issues of sexual identity
and to having lesbians, transgender
and now bisexual families.
This has resulted in a questioning -
are we really a Christian community
or simply a community that says anything goes
as long as the individual is willing to be part of community
and is on a journey exploring Christian faith.
This opens us to different challenges.
How open ended or boundaried are we in theology, spirituality, sexuality?
We are made up of such a broad group of religious traditions and
theological understandings
many of which have enriched one another.
When these are challenged,
the tension between staying together as a community
and being honest, accountable, loving and appropriately accepting
is sometimes pretty hard.
Because we've put a high value on being known
and committed to integrity about who we are,
we want these issues to be spoken about instead of withheld
and this calls the whole community
to deal with things we may not have chosen to address.
Most of these issues were not directly addressed by Jesus,
so we get back to his mirroring of situations to those concerned,
and lifting up the justice dimension in each instance.
The approach we take is to live in the tension of each
situation,
engaging it on its own terms and
also being open to wider ramifications.
Certain questions help us explore the way for us.
Is love present?
Is anyone deceived?
Does everyone understand the terms?
Is it enhancing or limiting of life?
In what ways are we present to the Christian story in this situation?
For me personally,
as long as I want to present myself to Christian worship,
to be open to Scriptural wisdom,
to be nourished by truths from the Christian story and history,
I belong with this Christian community.
The ways I nourish my inner life vary.
This does not seem a bit conflictual.
The Christian story is still my story.
The ways I engage the transcendant or my own inner life
or embrace the Christ spirit
flow different ways at different times.