by The Revd Sue Hammersley, Vicar 

St Mark’s is proud to call itself an inclusive church. We are members of Inclusive Church and sign up to their statement: 

We believe in inclusive church – a church which celebrates and affirms every person and does not discriminate.  We’ll continue to challenge the church where it continues to discriminate against people on grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, learning disability, mental health, neurodiversity, or sexuality.  We believe in a Church which welcomes and serves all people in the name of Jesus Christ; which is scripturally faithful; which seeks to proclaim the Gospel afresh for each generation; and which, in the power of the Holy Spirit, allows all people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ. 

And yet, we are not free from the reality of inequality and discrimination.  We aim to be honest about the fact that all are welcome here and yet we are not allowed to marry (or bless) same sex couples – because these are the rules of the Church of England.  It’s not fair and it’s not equal.  We try to be the kind of community where everyone can play a full part. Yet we are predominantly white and well-educated, so we know that some people don’t feel that they fit in here.  We have a lot still to learn. 

I recently attended some Unconscious Bias training.  It made me think hard about how each of us becomes aware of the attitudes we inhabit without really noticing.  How do we do more than include others in our community?  How do we allow ourselves to be changed by the diversity of our members?  

Our starting point is the God whose love is unconditional. When we come to church we open ourselves up to the possibility that we, as individuals, and the world of which we are part, have been less than unconditional in our loving.  When the church is unloving in its behaviour towards us this can make it very difficult for us to believe that God does in fact value us as the people we are.  So each of us has a part to play in revealing the immensity of God’s love, the diversity of God’s people and the inherent value of each and every person. 

If you don’t see yourself here – please come – because we need you!