“YES! For an Inclusive Church”

It is not a question of whether one wants an inclusive church, but of embracing an inclusive church.

“Yes! For an Inclusive Church” was the title of an English-language seminar held on 31 May 2022, organised by Gabriele De Bona, Gender International Officer at ELM.
The title of the event alone left no doubt as to its focus: it is not a question of whether one wants an inclusive church, but rather of affirming an inclusive church and committing to being an “open house for all”, as De Bona put it in her opening remarks.

To underpin this argument, De Bona had invited prominent and eloquent guests:
Lilana Kasper is a pastor in the ELCSA, the largest Evangelical Lutheran church in Southern Africa. Kasper is also the Executive Director of LUCSA and thus one of the few women in senior leadership positions within the church. The Lutheran Community in Southern Africa (LUCSA) is a regional organisation of the Lutheran World Federation, serving 15 member churches in 10 countries across Southern Africa as a service provider for holistic mission.
She says: “For us in Africa, a diverse church is still a challenge. It is still a struggle for women to be ordained, to have a space, to be seen. There are no other women in sight apart from the few who are there now. There are no safe spaces for women.” That is why she advocates stepping out of one’s comfort zone and embracing discomfort. “Gender inclusivity” has hardly been implemented at all within church structures, and a proposed quota system has failed spectacularly.
Alongside the lack of political will to do justice to all genders within the Church, Kasper makes no secret of the fact that she herself faces personal discrimination. As Secretary-General, she is, after all, not a bishop, and all the disparagement she experiences simply because she is a woman is something she faces even in the (senior) position she now holds.

Prof. Dr André Sidnei Musskopf teaches at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Brazil at the Institute of Human Sciences, specialising in religion, society and culture. His areas and topics of research include: feminist studies, gender studies, queer studies, masculinity, homosexuality and sexual diversity in relation to theology and religion. He campaigns for greater openness within church institutions, but above all for the assertion and exercise of the religious civil rights of LGBT people, despite the exclusionary discourses of the churches.
In his lecture, he speaks of a welcoming, open and affirmative church. A church as a living organisation that must finally move away from the idea of being a monolithic block. As an example, he points out that, in his view, the Protestant churches have eliminated everything that is ‘magical’, rather than recognising that religious experiences are diverse and ever-changing. “The problem is not diversity, but how we deal with it,” he says. Diversity, he argues, is not to be found somewhere else, but has always been right here amongst us. Unfortunately, the Church as an institution still often sees itself as an “authority” that divides things into right and wrong. But “Control is not the church’s role. We must live together. If we are unable to embrace diversity, we will perish,” says Musskopf. He advocates for greater fluidity rather than rigidity.

This is also evident in the discussion that follows Dr Kerstin Söderblom’s lecture. Söderblom is a Protestant pastor with further training in pastoral care, systemic organisational development and supervision, coaching and mediation. She works as a pastor and pastoral counsellor in the Protestant Student Parish (ESG) at the University of Mainz. Her areas of specialisation include intercultural and gender-sensitive supervision and pastoral care, coaching and conflict counselling, and she is an activist in the LGBTQ movement.
In her talk, Ms Söderblom argues in favour of coming out and telling one’s own story, to make it clear that it is not the ‘others’ who are gay or lesbian, but people we interact with every day – or ourselves.

Musskopf qualifies this suggestion by arguing that we currently live in fundamentalist cultures where, alongside a fear of embracing change, there is also a fear of losing privileged rights, and that for diverse people who are willing to tell their stories, there must always be people willing to listen. His strategy, therefore, is to build networks with heterosexual people and find advocates amongst them.

There was agreement that ‘we are many in Christ’, that we must read the Bible in a new and different way than our ancestors perhaps did, that there must be safe spaces for dialogue, and that it is time not only to talk about diversity amongst LGBTQ people but also about the diversity of ‘old, white men’, because diversity is found everywhere, both within and outside the Church and our own circles.

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