Hope Mennonite Church has been in a process of dialogue, education and discernment for several years on the subject of including LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) persons in the life of our church. This process began out of the recognition that LGBT Christians had already been active in our church but that we had not explicitly welcomed such participation. Our inconsistency was due, in part, to the fact that the wider denomination to which we belong does not welcome non-celibate LGBT Christians as fully participating members.

Our congregation remains in a process and we recognize that we have much internal work to do. But we have also reached a consensus to move forward in becoming a welcoming congregation for LGBT persons. Our work now centres on how to be more inclusive and how to engage the wider church in dialogue on this subject.

We have reached this point because we cannot reconcile an exclusionary reading of our Scriptures with the very real and compelling desire of LGBT Christians (some of them the “children of” our sister Mennonite churches) to participate fully in the life of our congregation. The overwhelming message of welcome for all contained in the Bible and in the life and teachings of Jesus has challenged and invited us to be more hospitable to all marginalized people.

Our hope is that our wider faith community—which continues to model for us and for the world an exemplary willingness to stand with the poor and otherwise marginalized--will choose to live in a creative and grace-filled tension with us as we all continue on this journey together.