Andrea King and Luke Dowding took part in a historic moment for LGBTQIA Baptists globally
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE PROVIDED
Two LGBTQIA British Baptists have been ordained in Canada in a landmark moment for queer Christians everywhere. Despite being denied ordination by the Baptist Church in the UK due to their sexuality, Andrea King and Luke Dowding were ordained by the First Baptist Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Association for Baptist Freedoms.
During a recent consultation by the Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) about national rules of accreditation for Baptist ministers, a third of the council was in favour of changing the rules so that LGBTQIA people could be ordained. However, currently, in the UK, LGBTQIA people cannot be ordained into the British Baptist Church.
Both Andrea and Luke are part of the UK-based charity OneBodyOneFaith who aim to support LGBTQIA Christians. Andrea, Director of Strategy and Safeguarding at OneBodyOneFaith, wrote a powerful response to her ordination on the charity’s blog. She said: “Love, prayer and an unrelenting sense of justice achieved what UK leaders had been unable to reach an agreement to build – a welcoming space of love, so poignant in a national context of truth and reconciliation, where direct and honest conversations about the impact of racial injustice, colonialism and the misuse of faith, were overtly progressed across the country.”
Although Andrea and Luke have both undergone the same training and formation for accredited ministry as their peers, in the UK it is their sexuality which has meant they cannot be accredited ministers. Alongside her work at OneBodyOneFaith, Andrea is also the editor of the Creating Sanctuary materials which were developed to nurture a different conversation for LGBTQIA safety within churches.
Reflecting on the power of their ordination in Canada, Andrea commented: “We were seen, we were met, we were received – not as a problem, a challenge, not with sadness or regret, or hostility and hate, as we are so used to in the UK – but with a regard that with ‘two eyes’: saw all of us, embraced our whole selves in God and welcomed the journey of faith that had shaped us both.”
You can learn more about Andrea’s journey by pre-ordering a copy of our Dec/Jan issue now: www.divadirect.info/
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