One tolerant step at a time:
Halifax’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people are without spiritual anchor after their church of 20 years closed on Sunday. Around 50 people gathered at Safe Harbour Metropolitan Community Church on Veith Street to hold one last worship service. The congregation of 27 decided to disband on April 17 after a vote at their annual general meeting.
“We reached a point in our history where we realized we couldn’t go on,” says Jane MacConnell, the vice-moderator of the church. “The biggest (reason) being the financial side of things.”
Let’s see if the usual signs of the church death spiral are there. Female pastor? Check. “Reverend Darlene Young” and “Reverend Jennifer Paty”. Homophilic? Check. “Safe Harbour was the first church in HRM to accept lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.”
One wonders if this gentleman understands the irony in his words: “Tim Doufar has been a member of Safe Harbour since 1993, yet sees the church’s dissolution as a step forward for gay people… “Now (gays) are accepted in my home church, the Anglican church.” Doufar said it’s only a matter of time before all churches accept gay people.”
It’s never going to happen. Eventually, even the most would-be tolerant Christians are going to notice that once a church starts throwing out the clear teachings of the Bible, it leaps into the death spiral that killed Safe Harbour and is now in the process of relegating the Anglican church to the dustbin of history.