Being a Faithful Church 3 Document (2011): A Plan to Discern Faithfulness on Matters of Sexuality

Issues related to sexuality in the life of the church are among the challenges that precipitated the General Board’s sense that we need to strengthen our corporate capacity to discern the will of God. The challenges we face are many. It is important to discern the appropriate response of the church to the realities it faces, such as: cohabitation and common law marriage, same-sex committed relationships, extramarital sex, pornography, and perhaps others. There is some public disagreement in our Body, and this causes private pain that is very real. We yearn to be healthy, but we are hurting. These hurts and the potential divisions lead us to a sense of urgency to discern again our understanding of sexual fidelity in the Christian life and in the Church. Our sincere desire is to be a witness to the presence of God’s reign within us, among us, and in the world.

The General Board has discerned that it is important at this time to reconnect the broader discussion about discernment with the specific challenge of issues related to sexuality in the life of the church. The church needs to face these challenges, and needs to do so as part of the joyful task of being the church in Canada in the 21st century.

Also see the presentation at Assembly 2011 of Part 3.

Also see the larger 2011 version (Parts 1-3).