REGENT’S NOW STUDENTS AND RESEARCH
A Year in the Ministerial Community ANDREA KING
Co-designed by several eminent Baptist and Church of England leaders, Creating Sanctuary (www. creatingsanctuary.org.uk) provides a six-part structured framework that seeks to understand the impact of exclusion on those experiencing the harm. It prioritises the voices of our LGBT+ siblings who, no matter how deep their faith or how extensive their sacrifice, often struggle to find Baptist churches where they might belong; might be welcome; and, sadly, might be safe. The last few years have been devastating. To our deep sorrow, we have lost a significant number of our community to suicide. This is not because there is anything that predisposes the LGBT+ community to suicide, but rather because our siblings have been relentlessly told by some that their faith and any sense of belonging in the church community (now and in the future) is simply not possible. Creating Sanctuary draws deep on the biblical principles of reconciliation and is underpinned by the Apostle Paul’s eloquent description of a body of people, the
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Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), in which every part, hand, foot, eye, ear is valued, welcomed and honoured. Creating Sanctuary focuses on pastoral care and safeguarding. It facilitates emotionally intelligent and reflective dialogues about how we might look and think again, and how we might recognise the devastating consequences of our collective impact, when we are not pastorally sensitive towards everyone, LGBT+ people included. It asks anew how we might treat each other with a love that mirrors the divine love so freely offered to us and how we might build safer churches together, building on the very best of what our Baptist community seeks to be and to offer. This resource has been welcomed by interdenominational church leaders all over the world and promoted by national leaders and influencers in the areas of safeguarding and mental health.
Andrea King is the Ministerial Association Representative (2019-2020) and a mature student, reading for the BTh in Theology (2016) as an Independent Minister in Training; she is also a Coordinator and Chair of the Creating Sanctuary Core Team.
Within 24 hours of publication, Creating Sanctuary was viewed by 1000 leaders in the UK and, within 5 days, it was viewed by 5000 leaders worldwide. And the momentum has continued! In October 2020, over 700 participants joined a conference in London to discuss the imperative for change, and to help churches navigate what kind of community they wish to be and how to get here. 2020 has been a year of societal revelations around inequality and disparity, from the disproportionate impact observed in COVID-19’s wake to the righteous injustice of our siblings of colour in Black Lives Matter. The publication of Creating Sanctuary has thus been timely. It is especially meaningful that Creating Sanctuary was supported by Regent’s Park College, which has made space for me, a LGBT+ Minister in Training declared independent because of current inequalities surrounding ordination. On behalf of the 2020 ministerial cohort, I have no words to adequately express my gratitude to the Regent’s leadership team for their integrity and their support of this ground-breaking work. As a Baptist family we have been praying side-by side for many years over Isaiah 43:19: ‘see I am doing a new thing’. Our heartfelt prayer is that 2021 would be a year of reconciliation, where we manifest God’s love by building churches that provide a space of refuge, joy and compassion for all.
© Creating Sanctuary 2020
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hen asked what news the ministerial cohort would like to communicate in Regent’s Now, we felt a little stumped. 2020 has been a challenging year because of the multiple responsibilities everyone has been managing within College and within our communities. Together we decided this year’s highlight was the publication in February 2020 of Creating Sanctuary, a resource designed by members of the ministerial community at Regent’s and Baptist leaders across the country.
