August 10:Summary send to the congregation

A summary of our concerns was sent to the entire congregation.  Much of the note repeats entries already on this blog.  Therefore only the summary is included here.

Summary

Since April 27^th the group has repeatedly asked for a conversation with the council to discuss the policy change and the process by which the policy was changed.    This council has refused to have this conversation. 

When the new policy was originally announced on March 11, we were informed that we were welcome to renew our social contacts with Mike and Richard.  This is no longer the case.  Mike and Richard have been told not to have any social contacts until this matter is resolved.   As of this writing there is no timetable for a resolution of this issue.

Until recently the group communicated its concerns through Phil.  We had hoped that he would inform the entire council and that would bring our concerns to the congregation so the congregation as a whole would be informed of our concerns.  Since this has not happened, we are communicating directly with you.

We initially hoped to resolve this internally within the church.  Most of us now agree with Phil and the council that engaging an outside consultant to heal the wounds may be necessary.  But we see a change in the policy needs to happen now to begin the healing process.

We are deeply concerned that our church is departing from the teachings of Jesus; that of radical love, acceptance, and forgiveness; rejecting no one.  We have differences at present with the decisions of our church leadership.  We maintain love and respect for them but not for this new policy.  If you are not aware of the issue, we have taken it upon ourselves to share what we know with you.  You may or may not agree with the policy but we want you to be informed about it and the challenge we experience in having a conversation with church leadership.

We are hopeful that we can exercise our congregational voice and once again be a united, open and affirming congregation, committed to compassion and inclusion.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact anyone in our group. 

JB Note: This was signed by 38 members of the group.  A few of the original members of the group have already left the church.