baptist church
baptist church
baptist church
We welcome the LGBTIQA+ community
Welcome
At Open Icon Baptist Church, LGBTIQA+ people and their families are not just tolerated but honoured, loved, affirmed, and welcome to participate fully at every level of the church’s life. We were possibly the first Baptist church in Australia to make that official — we did so way back in the 1990s. We acknowledge with sorrow that we are part of a wider church that has too often been guilty of scapegoating, vilifying, and abusing the LGBTIQA+ community, and we repent of our complicity in that past and commit ourselves to being a sign of reconciling love.
What kind of church we are
We are not aiming to be a specialist LGBTIQA+ church, but a community that is inclusive of all sorts of people, and in which a queer identity raises no problems and presents no obstacle. If you are looking for a predominantly queer church, we can’t offer you that. But if you are looking for a genuinely inclusive, affirming church where following Jesus is taken seriously and joyously, and where who you are is simply who you are — you may have found what you’re looking for.
What we believe, and why
The story of the Bible is, among other things, a story of expanding welcome — a persistent pattern in which the circle of those who belong keeps being drawn wider than anyone expected. In Luke and Acts especially, this pattern is unmistakeable: suspect women, the Samaritan neighbour, the crippled and lame at the feast, the Gentile household of Cornelius. And most strikingly, the sexually othered Ethiopian eunuch, who asks “what hinders my being baptised?” Everyone knew that the answer to that question was spelt out in Deuteronomy, explicitly excluding him from the assembly of God’s people. But Philip recognised that the Holy Spirit had already moved on, and so willingly baptised him in the nearest waterhole. We read that trajectory as a living challenge to the church — including to ourselves. The fruit we have seen in the lives of LGBTIQA+ people who have been genuinely welcomed, loved, and freed to flourish in faith convinces us that the Spirit is still expanding the circle. We want to be part of that.
A more general discussion of the faith and beliefs of our congregation is available here.
Still on the journey
We know we are still on a journey. We don’t always get this right. There are ways of making people feel unwelcome that have nothing to do with policy and everything to do with practice — a careless word, an unconsidered assumption — and we have not been immune to those failures. What we can say is that we take them seriously when they happen, and that we keep learning. The welcome is real, and the commitment to growing into it more fully is also real. And the tricky challenge is that being as inclusive as possible also means continuing to include those who are struggling to catch up.
Further information and connections
For those who want to explore the theological basis for our position more deeply:
- Our pastor has written an essay setting out a biblical case for the full inclusion of LGBTIQA+ people, originally published as a chapter in an edited volume on same-sex marriage. You can read it here.
- In 2011, he appeared on national television advocating for marriage equality. You can watch that here.
When a gay Christian man was welcomed into the membership of our church, he wrote and shared a poem — “A Big Fleshy Man’s Heart” — as his testimony. You can read it below.
If you are looking for an LGBTIQA+ affirming church elsewhere, we recommend the affirming church directory at GayChurch.com
A gathering for LGBTIQA+ people and allies
The Mid-Week Gathering is a small, physically-gathered, worship service held twice a month at the Earthen Vessels Church at 12 Surrey Road, South Yarra — the building that was home to our congregation for many decades. It is led by John Fowler, a former pastor and a member of Open Icon Baptist Church, with the support of a small team that sometimes includes other members of our congregation.
The Gathering originated as a worship community for LGBTIQA+ people and their allies in Melbourne, and it still caters primarily for those who have not experienced welcome elsewhere, though we hope and pray that the need for that is receding. Straight people are warmly welcome and are among its regular participants nowadays.
Join the Mid-Week Gathering
You would be welcome to come along any time, and if you would like to know more first, get in touch with John.
A Poem – A Big Fleshy Man’s Heart
Cameron, a gay Christian man, was welcomed into the membership of our church, by reaffirmation of his baptismal vows, during the 2016 Paschal Vigil. He wrote and shared this extraordinarily powerful poem as his testimony.
As a baby they wetted my head
and declared me theirs’
and God’s…Belonging to the Church Universal
Church was spelt
With a big “C”
And I mean a really big “C”
As in the”Hail Mary”, nuns, priests, rosaries, confessions and the real presence
God Locked in a brass box
At the back of a big “C” church
A boy
Held
Loved
and saved and safe
Growing into becoming
Growing into loving and seeking
and wonder
Wondering about my heart….now a fleshy mans heart that wanted to
that felt called to
that desired to
Give my fleshy man’s heart
My big fleshy man’s heart
My God given heart
to another
Another fleshy man
And then
And then “intrinsically disordered”
anxiety arriving every Sunday
Present and fearful
“Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed”
That word was never spoken
Instead banished
“Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears”
Wandering in the valley of tears
Wandering and wondering into
This place
Here
This people
You, each one
This table
This table round and long and open too
Jesus
Embraced, proclaimed,
Bodies, hearts, bread, wine, tears
Broken shared and shed
This Real Presence
Here
So small
So little
So precious
So so beautiful
and Silence…
Welcomed and welcoming
Here I am missed
Here I belong
To this people
To this place
To this table
To this church and
Here all of me belongs to
Jesus
Creator
Redeemer
And Sustainer
Alleluia! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed!
Amen