A church for all sexualities
Displayed in the window of St Columba's United Reformed Church off the High Street is the sign which reads: 'Praying to be an inclusive church'.
The sign says much about the hopes of this church to live its faith in a particular way. The community has provided a kind of haven for asylum seekers. It tries to be a good friend to those who live on the streets and to offer a welcome to anyone who comes by. The regular Wednesday Welcome morning offers warm drinks, cake and friendship to those who suffer from our society's most aching pain, loneliness. The church also hit the news recently when the Alfred Street Big Issue seller was badly beaten up while sleeping in the doorway.
But St Columba's has also found itself becoming a safe home for Christians who are gay and who want to live in a faith community where they don't have to hide this or feel ashamed of it.
In recent years, St Columba's has also celebrated a number of commitment ceremonies for gay couples and is glad to have done so.
The freedom allowed to local churches within the United Reformed Church means that this is something St Columba's can offer without fear. The minister of the church, Rev. Dr. Susan Durber is the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement contact person for such blessings in Oxfordshire.
It all began a few years ago when one of the Elders was open about his sexuality in a church newsletter. He was a popular and much loved part of the church and the community was (mostly) wholly glad that he could be so honest.
Then, the Metropolitan Community Church - a denomination which began in the US with a particular ministry to gay, lesbian and transgendered persons - began to share the building at St Columba's. There was much learning and exchange between the two groups and when, sadly, the MCC had to close, St Columba's began to see itself as having, as part of its ministry, the inclusion and welcome of gay people within the church. St Columba's is by no means the only church in Oxford to offer this kind of openness, but the structures of the United Reformed Church make this possible in relatively open ways.
Not everyone in the congregation is always entirely comfortable with this approach, but a stand has been made and gay people are welcome and take leading roles within the church. It's not something that's always being talked about or emphasised and the clues given are subtle, but they are enough to make sure that, though far from perfect, St Columba's is living up to its prayer to be an inclusive church.
Recent controversies in the Church of England, such as that of the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire, have shown once more that this remains a hot issue within the church.
This is so within the United Reformed Church too and not every congregation would take St Columba's stand. For some people this is an issue about how you read the Bible, for others it's a question of justice and human rights.
Susan Durber, the minister of St Columba's says: "I believe that the openness of Jesus to all kinds of people gives us a clear signal about the nature of God's love for us. Our sexuality is an important of who we are. It is part of what God made in us and it is a holy thing.
"I believe that what is important about the relationships we make is not so much the gender of the people involved, but the quality of the love and the faithfulness of the friendship. I have been so privileged to preside at services of commitment when an evidently holy and faithful love has been expressed. I hope that the prayers and support of the church community will strengthen such relationships and enable them to be lived in security in our fragile world. We are not natural radicals at St Columba's, but we believe that God is leading us to affirm and celebrate with those who have not always found a welcome in churches."
The church itself, which is a Chaplaincy and a Church tucked away down a tiny street off the High, was built at the beginning of the last century by Presbyterians from England and Scotland to create a Chaplaincy for Presbyterians at the University of Oxford.
St Columba's is one of a number of denominational chaplaincies within the University, provided by the churches to give a home to students who are not from the Anglican tradition or who particularly want something different from their College Chapel.
By the late 1920s people from the town had begun to come too and so it became a congregation with services during the vacations as well. John Buchan, author of The Thirty-Nine Steps was once an Elder, the comedian and actor Hugh Laurie was once part of the Sunday School, and St Columba's even gets a passing mention in Brideshead Revisited.
The modern front, added in the 1960s, has its own austere beauty, but has rendered the church rather invisible to passers by who could be forgiven for thinking they are passing a sort of office building.
The church continues to offer a home for students and academics, with its broadly liberal style of Christianity, its simple worship and warm pastoral care. St Columba's was the first home for the Oxford charity Asylum Welcome and its secluded site was an ideal place for the timid to come to find some kind of sanctuary.
19th Feb 2004