Event to Promote Healthy Adventist Conversation About Relating to LGBT+ Loved Ones
18 January 2018 | Sanctuary for Conversation, an event aimed at creating “safe spaces for positive, healing, informed, authentic conversation” for Adventists relating to LGBT+ loved ones, will be held on Saturday, February 3 at Adventist Health Glendale. The event will take place from 2:30 to 5:30 pm in the medical center’s auditorium.
Sanctuary for Conversation organizers claim the workshop “faithfully follows the Holy Bible and honors the current position of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
The workshop will be led by Chris Blake, a recently retired professor from Union College who has combined listening, dialogue and active-learning in designing the workshop.
A message advertising the event from an unnamed “current Adventist pastor in December 2017″ states that it is designed to “meet Adventists who are at the early stages of their journey of wrestling with how to compassionately relate to their LGBT+ church members and loved ones while remaining faithful to scripture.”
The message goes on to claim that the target group of Adventists is “torn between what they understand to be a clear reading of certain prohibitive texts on one side; and a clear reading of texts calling them to compassionate and graceful hospitality on the other.”
The workshop will not urge rejection of scripture or acceptance of same-sex marriage.
Participants will have the chance to listen to an Adventist mental health professional; two Adventists who identify as LGBTQ and parents of an LGBTQ child. Conversation and questions are welcome.
The event has been updated from a version presented to pastors at the 2015 “Called” convention of the Adventist denomination’s North American Division.
Further information about the event is available at the links below (use the EventBrite link to register):