The Chaplaincy Council had a very positive and constructive meeting on Saturday, 19th September 2020. We had a discussion on what is our mission and outreach and came to conclusion that we must first define who we are ourselves.
We all come from many different backgrounds and with our own identities. We do not always agree but wish to be truthful to our calling to be an ‘inclusive community of word and sacrament’.
We also know that we could do better; to learn more about what it means to be a welcoming community. in order to help us explore what it means to extend the spirit of welcome to all the Council passed the following resolution:
“This Council adopts the Inclusive Church Vision as our view of the Church:
We believe in inclusive Church – a church which celebrates and affirms every person and does not discriminate. We will continue to challenge the church where it continues to discriminate against people on the grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, learning disability, mental health, neurodiversity, or sexuality. We believe in Church which welcomes and serves all people in the name of Jesus Christ; which is scripturally faithful; which seeks to proclaim the Gospel afresh for each generation; and which, in the power of the Holy Spirit, allows all people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ.”
So this is a beginning of a journey when we hope and pray to learn how ‘wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus Christ’, to be faithful to the Christian faith as the Church of England has received it and, to continue our commitment to the ecumenical collaboration with our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially in the Porvoo Communion Churches.
In Christ
Tuomas Mäkipää, Anglican Chaplain