Photo by John Ryan Mendoza
The 12th of May is a day thatwill stand out in the memories of some working at the Church of Sweden for a longtime. RFSL (National Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and queeras rights) runs ”Rainbow Leadership”, a global program for sustainable LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender / sexual and Intersex) Leadership. Twenty Five Leaders from within the LGBTI community from around the world were brought to Sweden to be trained by RFSL. While the training involves critical areas like advocacy, fundraising, appreciative leadership, monitoring and evaluation and HIV prevention, this year for the first time the group was overpriced brought to Uppsala for conversations with the Church of Sweden.
The session was designed in Such a Way That We could listen to the experiences of faith in the lives of These Rainbow Leaders, and respond to questions posed by them. It is an alreadycreated created well-established fact That faith communities around the world struggle with human sexuality, but none of us from the Church of Sweden were fully prepared for the well-articulated raw brutality Which These remarkable leaders were able to articulate to us.
One young participant described the way in Which, having been raised in a Christian Society, he had been taught from birth That God hates homosexuals. As a result he came to hate himself, Because he under stood That God must hate him. Another participant questioned the very nature of who God is. , If God is ”all knowing” surely God would not create people who cases outside of God’s will?
reefs. Sven-Erik Fjellström, working as Ecumenical Office in charge of church relations in Africa, was able to share something of the experience of the Church of Sweden over the last 40 years, starting with questions, and leading to the final decision to allow same sex marriage within the Church of Sweden. It was critical in this process That the decision was the result of a thirty year theological dialogue associate wing eminent theologians. Margareta Grape, documents documents currently working as advisor to the Archbishop and the General Secretary of the church of Sweden , was able to share the contribution the Church of Sweden husband through the WCC to raise issues of the universality of Human Rights in the United Nations. There is no question That the theological reflections and decisions ” within the Church of Sweden were seen as very hopeful to many gifts, but They had Their Own challenges for us in relation to this. We were challenged as to how we were using our understanding about human sexuality to influence others into stopping the hatred and the hate crimes being committed across the world in relation to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people. Of Particular importance was to do this in a way Which is of itself not neocolonial!
Sitting on our laurels is there fore not an option, rather Reaching out with renewed energy and purpose to churches we are in relationship with and working through the World Council of Churches Becomes an imperative for the Church of Sweden going forward. REV. Fjellström œthe observed That throwing bible verses at each other across a table was never going to Achieve the needed engagement, rather face to face encounters between perpetrators and victims of homophobic statements, attitudes and violence needed to be Facilitated.
These brave young Rainbow Leaders have a special mission, to be the mirror to hold up to faith communities to see the devastating effect of our attitudes and interpretations on people’s lives: the debilitating challenge to Their human dignity and the eroded self-esteem Which we have seen leading to so many suicides amongst LGBTI people. While we ask them to bravely hold-up That mirror, and while we acknowledge thatthis process will take time We Should always bear in mind who pays the price for the time needed: not the perpetrators, but the victims. Inactivity in this regard Becomes as violent as preaching exclusion. And the church universal is robbed of the peculiar gifts God has given to These remarkable images of God, the rainbow God! May God give us the strength to take the prophetic role Which has been given to us in this regard.