How inclusive are we

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How inclusive are we?

• What do we understand byan inclusive church?
• Churches Together in Suffolk, 5 March 2008
• Post-event version

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This Presentation isbased on a seminar heldat a
local church in 2007
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Scriptural Inclusiveness

• Christ, when he was lifted up, did not say 'I
  draw some people to myself', he said 'I draw all,
  all, ALL'. Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free,
  male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
  Jesus. Galatians 328

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Inclusiveness

• It's about the local church family
• It's about people their characteristics, nature,
  beliefs, actions and so on
• Most of all its about difference

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Being left out, or excluded

• We did this exercise
• Think of an occasion when you were left out or
  excluded from something. Try to remember how you
  felt.

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How we remembered feeling when left out or
excluded

• Isolated, alone, abandoned
• Wanting comfort
• Frightened
• Resentment, anger, sorrow
• Sense of longing for home
• Rejection
• Sense of being ignored
• Inability to share problems
• Criticised or judged
• Sense of being in the wrong place at the wrong
  time
• Wanting to leave or run away

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Whats the missing word?

• Xxxxx is an opinion held in advance about
  something, someone or some group without good
  reason or adequate knowledge or experience. Xxxxx
  is about feelings and beliefs and it can
  influence our perception. There is a good deal of
  evidence to show that what we believe actually
  influences the way we see an event, i.e. people
  are not usually xxxxxed because of what they see
  or hear, but will see or hear people/events
  differently because of what they believe.

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The missing word?

• Prejudice is an opinion held in advance about
  something, someone or some group without good
  reason or adequate knowledge or experience.
  Prejudice is about feelings and beliefs and it
  can influence our perception. There is a good
  deal of evidence to show that what we believe
  actually influences the way we see an event, i.e.
  people are not usually prejudiced because of what
  they see or hear, but will see or hear
  people/events differently because of what they
  believe.

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Experiencing prejudice

• We did this individual exercise
• Think about your own life and see if there was a
  time when you thought someone felt prejudiced
  against you.
• Try to put a name to the type of prejudice you
  experienced.

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Types of Prejudice we have known

• Anti-men
• Being poor
• Ageism
• Suffolkacial
• Racial

• Insecurity
• Jealousy
• Cliqueiness
• Blackleg

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Include who and in what?

• Preparation for group exercise
• We are thinking about the family of a local
  church in the broadest sense, not simply in
  relation to membership or office
• We need to consider people whom we think are not
  like us

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Perhaps list under two headings

• Preparation for group exercise
• Where there might be a theological (ie Biblical)
  question mark (eg women in ministry)
• Where there is no apparent theological question
  mark

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Results those to be included theological

• Openly gay ? ? some
  dissent
• Criminals ?
• Drunkards
• Unmarried mothers
• Other doctrines
• Co-habiting couples ?
• Junkies
• Bigamists
• Other religions ?
• Adulterers ?
• Women in leadership ministry

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Recap those to be includednon-theological

• Other races
• Physically disabled/deaf
• Mentally ill
• With learning diffs
• Socially inept
• Happy-clappies
• Homeless Travellers
• Aliens asylum-seekers
• All age groups
• All intellects
• All incomes

• Single-parents families
• Co-habiting families
• Unfashionable
• Shy, reclusive
• Youth cultures
• Oddies, eccentrics
• Chavs
• Grumpy old people
• Depressed
• Depressing, boring

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What are the Limits?

• An exercise for the CTS Council
• Consider how far can we go with inclusiveness
  without affecting the comfort or security of the
  majority, or our theological integrity. Then come
  up with a list of types of people whom we would
  not wish to include.

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The Limits of InclusivenessThis meeting doesnt
want to include these

• No-one (Wesley)?
• Aggressive disrupters?

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The Limits of InclusivenessMy seminar didnt
want to include these

• Paedophiles
• Terrorists
• Drug pushers
• Murderers
• The verbally abusive
• Rapists
• Gays
• Infected

• Smelly
• Drunk/disruptive

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What are the barriers?

• An exercise for the CTS Council
• Agree on the key barriers to the creation of an
  inclusive church (no more than, say, five)
• Try to rank the barriers in order of difficulty
  to remove
• Suggest, for say the top two in your list, steps
  to aid their removal

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Key Barriers identification

• Cultural
• Failures to listen to others
• Ignorance/ Invisible disabilities
• Dislike of change
• Fear of having own presumptions challenged
• Passive prejudice
• Stereotyping/labelling
• Negative beliefs
• Wanting to hold on to power
• Lack of empowerment (eg lack of hearing loop)

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Key Barriers action

• Learn about the culture of others
• Provision of resources, eg online
• Meet those who are different to understand
• Recognition of own gifts, strengths
• Recognise our need to understand
• Move out of our comfort zones, get out of the
  boat
• Find out what the local area needs
• See what is being opened, revealed

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Key Barriers identificationMy seminar results

• Us
• Personal feelings prejudices
• Inability to mix
• Cliques
• Expectations of the church
• Coming alone
• Lack of facilities
• Lack of personnel
• Favourites

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Key Barriers actionMy seminar results

• Education, education, education of us
• Example setting, support exposure
• Reasonable adjustment to accommodate
• Deliberate effort to speak to the different
• Pray for other halves
• Move ones seat
• Discerning our strengths

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Some more questions

• Do we consider that Jesus was inclusive? What
  examples do we have? What implications does this
  have for us?
• Here it is easy to say that we should be
  inclusive but its not always easy to do. What
  can we go away and do as individuals about our
  own feelings towards including others?

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Individual actions

• Checklists for our meetings
• Try challenging the status quo
• Go to where the excluded are