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Understanding Sexuality: A respectful conversation on two views of sexuality and the church.

WIth Special Guests

Jordan Redding - Minister St Heliers Presbyterian Church

Session 2 -

How would your view inform how the church responds to and cares for people who are grappling with issues of sexuality?

Please contact us if you would like a recording of these sessions

More info

Every year without fail PYM gets requested to put on a workshop or training regarding an aspect of sexuality in relation to our church and specifically in relation to youth ministry.

Many of these requests are simply asking what they as youth leaders should do as they encounter a growing number of young people who either identify as LGBTIAQ+ or who are questioning how the church, or a Christian should respond.

We recognise that any discussion or workshop on this important but contentious issue has the potential to ruffle feathers, disappoint or even offend some of our members of our theologically and culturally diverse church.

Despite this we think it is important that our leaders and young people have the opportunity to wrestle with some of these issues. We understand that many young people in particular don’t want to be told what to think on this issue, rather they want to be exposed to a variety of perspectives that may help to better inform their views.

Therefore we have invited two ordained ministers from our Church to lead two 90 minute conversations where they will share different perspectives on the following:

Understanding Sexuality: A respectful conversation on two views of sexuality and the church.

Session 1 – Why do I believe what I believe regarding sexuality and the Christian Faith? Tuesday the 11th of June

Session 2 How would your view inform how the church responds to and cares for people who are grappling with issues of sexuality? - Monday the 17th of June

During these 90 minutes sessions there will be some opportunity for a few questions by the audience.

In these sessions we will endeavour to offend/disappoint everyone equally!

We acknowledge the limitations of what we are offering:

1)      Two 90 minutes sessions are nowhere near enough time to thoroughly explore this topic. A week-long symposium may be the better option!

2)     These two ministers have differing views but they will not be able to express the breadth and diversity of views on this issue.

3)      The two ministers invited happen to be cisgender pakeha males. We invited them because:

a)       They understand our PCANZ context

b)      They have experience in ministering to people in the LGBTIAQ+ community

c)       They have a great ability to clearly articulate some of the key theological and sociological arguments that underpin what they do

d)      They were willing and available to take part in these two sessions

We acknowledge that there are lots of important voices missing from these two sessions, culturally, theologically, and representationally. However in this instance we wanted to go deeper with two views rather than shallower with multiple views.  

There is no agenda behind this event to persuade anyone to land on a particular theological position in these sessions. We want to see all young people in New Zealand cared for and believe that discussions like this will help inform and inspire better care of our rangatahi.