A gathering which begins in Wellington tonight will look at creating safer spaces for people who want to explore the connection of sexual or gender identity and spirituality in their lives. Wellington Central Baptist is hosting A Different Conversation tonight and tomorrow. It’s facilitated by focus group Incedo, a spin-off of the former long-running group Youth For Christ, which has been looking at creating a safe space for young, spiritual lgbti people in particular. A Different Conversation was started in Sydney in 2008 by a Baptist group called Imagine, and some Incedo members popped across the Tasman for the gatherings. They launched A Different Conversation in New Zealand in Auckland last October and now it’s Wellington’s turn to host the gathering. Glen and Mal from Incedo tell GayNZ.com Daily News the event is about opening up the conversation and encouraging dialogue, allowing different stories and approaches to be heard – respectfully. “It’s a discussion where you may not agree with everybody in the room but your very presence can show a different way forward for the lgbti community and faith communities together,” the pair says. The gathering will be multicultural, and people from across the lgbti community will take part, with mainstream and progressive viewpoints from Christian (Baptist, Anglican, Uniting, Salvation Army), Muslim, and humanist perspectives in the fields of personal experience, theology, academic research, social work, and politics. Glen and Mal tell us more: What will be discussed at the Wellington gathering? We base our conversations over the weekend around a series of themes relating to Spirituality and Sexual/Gender Identity (SI/GI). This conversation will look at: Church and SI/GI; Theology and SI/GI; Youth and SI/GI; Faith, Society and Culture and SI/GI. We will listen to people’s stories under these themes and hear from a few people who have done some research and thinking on issues under these themes. Why are these issues so important? In the past, the church has ignored, excluded, oppressed, condemned, harassed, attacked lgbti people who wanted to pursue their spirituality within the Christian tradition. We believe it is time to create safe spaces for listening to stories and understandings on these issues as a way of creating a more accepting, loving, caring community of faith within the range of Christian denominations. What would be the dream outcomes of the gathering? That people would go away thinking more deeply about their attitudes to those of different viewpoints in the SI/GI and Spirituality discourse. That people’s understanding of different perspectives would be enhanced and that acceptance of diverse understandings would be encouraged. That more safe spaces would be created by Christians in which lgbti and straight people feel safe to explore together what it means to follow Jesus from different sexual and gender identities and orientations. What has interest been like so far? Interest has been high. We have 56 people coming so far and we will be limiting attendance to a maximum of 75 people so as to maintain an atmosphere of conversation rather than it becoming a conference.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 9th May 2014 - 10:18am