When I was a writer for the Faith Page of the Winnipeg Free Press I would frequently get letters telling me I was not a Christian. I would write about the equal roles men and women should play in the church, or encourage religious institutions to join the campaign against smoking, or present evidence that sanctions from other countries were hurting the most vulnerable in Iraq. I never knew what kind of column might invite a response from someone who’d tell me I was not a Christian or inform me that despite my membership in a Christian church I did not represent its views.
I was reminded of that this week when the Nashville Statement from 150 evangelical leaders was released. One of its articles essentially states that you cannot call yourself a true Christian if you approve of homosexual or transgender lifestyles. The article goes on to say people who call themselves Christians shouldn’t even agree to disagree about the morality of those lifestyles.
That certainly leaves me and my church out of the Christian loop. We have a rainbow flag on our church website and each week our church bulletin states that………………. Imitating the inclusive welcome of Jesus, we seek to be a community marked by the love of God. Regardless of age, race, or sexual orientation, we invite you to make our church your spiritual home.
Literally thousands of Christian leaders have responded to the Nashville Statement saying they disagree with it.
Christ of the Breadlines by Fritz Eichenberg
It seems to me that debates and pronouncements about whose ‘in’ or ‘out’ when it comes to being a Christian are a colossal waste of time in a world where millions are waiting for love and help and hope.
Other posts………
The Women’s Balcony is a Hebrew film about a synagogue in Jerusalem being influenced by their new young conservative rabbi who wants women to worship separately from men in a closed room at the side of the temple. The women want to worship in an open balcony right in the same area as the men worship. Eventually the women leave their husbands because they are siding with the new rabbi. The women raise the money for a balcony and manage to get it built. They return to their husbands who facilitate the removal of the conservative rabbi and the return of their older more flexible rabbi. Progress has been made although the fact that official power in the synagogue still rests with a man, or that women still sit separately from their husbands in a balcony isn’t addressed in the film. Reading about the film later I learned it reflects the ongoing divide in Judaism between orthodox and liberal factions and their differing views of women’s roles in the church. Women are becoming more visible but are still far from equal. 
This is St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem. I visited it on a school trip with my Hong Kong students. 
The church is located right beside the pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed a man who had been sick for 38 years. This is fitting because Anne is the saint of healing. Interestingly Anne’s church in Jerusalem is at the same spot where there used to be a shrine to the Greek god of healing Ascelepius. 
In Quebec City I visited the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
I’ve been to the former Trappist Monastery site in St. Norbert many times to watch productions of Shakespeare in the Ruins. But I didn’t know anything about the history of the place. I also didn’t know that behind the area where the theatre productions are held there is a garden and cultural centre. One of my Winnipeg Art Gallery colleagues helps to maintain the beautiful green space around that cultural centre and she told me about it recently.
