Auckland Community Church
Te Hahi Waka Huihui i Nga Tangata o Tamaki Makaurau

Family Circle June 2006

People news

Frantisek Riha has a work visa

On the move

Cathie and Liz seeing some more of their extending family
Glenn and Steve to North America for an extended time of traveling from August
Stephen, now a Kiwi, to Texas in mid-July
Craig and Geoff, Mark and Alan for holidays & the Outgames / Gay Games in July.

Pre-ACC history

As our website records “John Bluck, assistant priest at St Matthew's, offered his views on homosexuality in an editorial published in the New Citizen magazine (1) . The Church, he said, needed to welcome homosexual people. When gay members of his own congregation challenged him to put this into practice, John helped organise the Sunday evening study group.” I ferreted out the editorial published on July 25, 1974 . (2)

John begins with a discussion of the word “community”, looking to new forms of community: gatherings of women; of Maori and Polynesian groups; pensioners; homosexuals; ecumenically-minded Christians. He states “rather than trying to control and regulate it, the Church should be encouraging this explosion of interest in new forms of community.” John was probably, as editor, responsible for the article on the front cover on the 13 August 1974 welcoming the bill to decriminalize male homosexuality from age 21 with the headline “The taboo that love and law must break”.

On July 22 1976 Don Mence wrote an article about ministry to homosexuals. (3) He refers to a study group affiliated to MCC for which he has been privileged to lead worship for the previous 18 months. At that stage he was looking forward to the possibility of a young MCC minister to come from the USA. There were a few letters opposing this proposal, and one or two letters were supportive and responded to these. One by the then largely unknown David Lange gives a flavour of his wit:

“… there seems to be an extraordinary presumption that anyone who commits what is classified in Orakei as a sin is excluded by God from the church. What price the sinner not the sin? … Overt thieves, drunkards and adulterers got the message long ago. We are distinctly short on publicans. In retrospect it is quite clear that Our Lord let the side down rather badly.” David Lange

The New Citizen was an ecumenical continuation of the NZ Methodist, it had a wide circulation in Methodist and other protestant churches.
Bluck, J. (1974) Finding who I am in how I share. The New Citizen. (25 July 1974).
Mence, D. (1976). Homosexual Chrsitians – a challenge to the churches. The New Citizen (22 July 1976).

Newcomers’ dinner

Wednesday July 12 : newcomers' dinner at Peter Lineham's 6 Peel St, Grey Lynn.

Planning day

We will lunch then plan on the afternoon of 9th September at All Saints Ponsonby.

Retreat camp

We will go on a weekend camp / retreat. More details will be notified as fixed arrangements are made, we are looking at either 28-30 October, or 3-5 November.

Book Reviews

Thomas Stevenson, Sons of the Church: The Witnessing of Gay Catholic Men. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2006

reviewer: Mark

This book addresses the lives of 44 gay Catholic men, most of them living in or near Chicago, most middle aged, interviewed between 2000 and 2004. They are identified as witnesses because they witness to the source of their faith and because they inspire faith, hope and love.

Their stories seem fairly typical, and would resonate with NZ gay men’s experience. The first two chapters deal with youth. One common feeling is of isolation and hiding. Their faith experience in youth was also mixed; a measure of community but also of secrecy, burden and above all from the Church silence. I wondered since these were men who continued within the Catholic Church whether they had to some extent forgiven the Church for its negative messages as they came to terms with their sexuality.

Many conformed to societal and Church expectations of heterosexual marriage and children. Many had little or no contact with other gay men, one waited until the age of 38 before meeting another gay man (p.48). The process of self-identication and acceptance was hard. Few attribute much assistance directly from their Church, but many speak of their faith as a positive force. I found it frustrating in a way that the author refers vaguely to the “baggage” of being Catholic but then moves smoothly on to discussing the cherished memories of the interviewees’ Catholic heritage. Nevertheless there's no glossing over so much of the pain in the interviews including gay bashings, suicide, school bullying, and broken relationships.

The penultimate chapter deals with the "absolutization" of gayness. What are the dangers of becoming immersed in “gay culture” to the exclusion of all else? I’m not convinced this is such a problem. But still for many of the interviewees there seems a choice either be Catholic or be gay. One other quibble – the bibliography of 9 items seems unreasonably spare.

Overall this is a thoughtful but slight treatment, the author allows the “witnesses” to speak and limits himself to careful analysis of their contributions.

Paul Russell The Coming Storm , St Martin’s Press, 1999

reviewer: Craig

This novel is set in a traditional boys’ school in upstate New York, and its centre is the forbidden relationship between a teacher and his student. It is also the story of four interlocking lives – Louis Tremper, the school’s headmaster; his wife, Clair; Tracey Parker, a young teacher who has just joined the school; and Noah Lathrop, a troubled student. I enjoyed the description of the characters’ inner state of mind, and how they dealt with their own desires and secrets in the face of the relationship between Tracey and Noah.

I thought it a sympathetic portrayal of a difficult subject, although perhaps a too rosy in its outcome.

20 years since Homosexual Law Reform events

Keep up to date using www.gaynz.com. Here are some of the events planned

Fri 7	Sat 8	Sun 9	Mon -Fri	Sat 15
Remembering pre- reform Rydges 6pm	Gala by invite Town Hall	Bridge at Alleluya 3pm, Gay Bowling 5pm Our service		Photo exhibition - Aotea

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Contacts:
curl by email: info@aucklandcommunitychurch.org.nz
curl by phone: Cathy and Liz (64)(09)578 1292 or Hugh Dyson (64)(09)579 1850
curl by snail mail: c/- 187 Federal Street, Auckland, New Zealand.

This date was last updated on 18th May 2006 - the page may have been updated later than this!

Auckland Community Church Te Hahi Waka Huihui i Nga Tangata o Tamaki Makaurau