This article also appears in the National Post:

I am a member of St. Hilda’s Anglican Church, the parish that was recently featured in the National Post article, “Oakville Anglican parish home of profound revolution.”

St. Hilda’s separation from the Anglican Church of Canada was as much about the fact that the Church is drifting away from a coherent belief in Christian basics – such as the Resurrection, Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and the Virgin Birth – as it was about blessing same-sex unions. In spite of this, what always gets the attention is the same-sex blessing issue, with the attendant suspicion that parishes that oppose same-sex blessings are packed with not just the routine run-of-the-mill church hypocrites, but homophobic hypocrites. At the very least, surely no gay person would be welcome in such a place.

Is being a pristinely antiseptic church where only wholesome families and saintly, celibate, straight singles could fit in – a kind of Stepford Church – an accurate picture of a parish like St. Hilda’s?

I hope not, or I will have to leave. I believe that, as William Temple former Archbishop of Canterbury said, “The church exists mainly for those who are not its members.” All parishes should concentrate on attracting people who are not Christians or churchgoers. Whether or not they are shacked up with someone – of the opposite or same sex – is immaterial. The hope, though, would be that their perspective and lives gradually change as they become followers of Christ in his Church.

That is very different from courting gays who are already in the church – or non-gays, come to that. I would much rather attend a church with a high percentage of un-churched gays who are honestly seeking to live according to the Gospel than one with a high percentage of straight cradle-Anglicans who are not. And I don’t think that this would necessarily be unappealing to a gay or straight non-Christian. To say, “we believe in trying to live according to Biblical principles, even though we all may fail to varying degrees” has, I suspect, a more honest ring than the note of desperation in, “come to our church and do what you want”.

St. Hilda’s has always attracted more than its fair share of single mothers, misfits, waifs, strays and assorted eccentrics – especially artists; the more the merrier. Many have passed through gaining sustenance along the way and some have made it their home. Sometimes it is chaotic: the pious have likened it to a circus. But unwelcoming? Never.

The people who gathered around Jesus were not all respectable: he was a friend to prostitutes, beggars and outcasts – sinners of every kind – and his friendship changed them.

Even though the most conspicuous reason cited for parishes leaving the Anglican Church of Canada is opposition to the blessing of same sex-unions, there is no desire on the part of these parishes to become aloof from the lost and broken – gay or straight. The one place that should always welcome all, including society’s misfits, is the Christian Church.