You Are Welcome at St. Andrew’s

 “Welcome one another, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”  Romans 15:7

St. Andrew’s seeks to be a truly welcoming Christian community for people of all backgrounds and theological convictions to seek and be transformed by God. 

We recognize that through the ages Christians (like all people) have disagreed about many theological and spiritual questions. Today, this includes honest disagreement among Christians, including other Anglicans, about how Scripture and the Christian tradition speak to the breadth of our welcome of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the Church. 


We want to be clear: 

St. Andrews affirms that everyone is created in God’s image and deserves dignity and respect. Because of God’s grace and love fulfilled in Jesus, all—no matter their gender or sexual orientation—are welcome and to be fully included in the sacramental life and worship of the Church. This welcome includes equal access to lay and ordained leadership, baptism and the Lord’s supper, and marriage.

You may have questions. 

Perhaps you have been hurt by Christians or excluded from a church because of your gender identity or sexual orientation. Or perhaps you are coming from a Christian tradition that holds a different view and are concerned that this understanding of inclusivity compromises Christian morality or the authority of Scripture. 

This website will not answer all of your questions but is an invitation to enter into Christian community, envisioned by St. Paul, where in our differences and diversity we “live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together [we] may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 14:1-15:7).


The full inclusion of gender and sexual minorities in the Church flows from the Gospel and the authority of Scripture. 

Our commitment to the inclusion of gender and sexual minorities is rooted in the gospel of Jesus and the authority of Scripture. And, contrary to popular belief, it is not new to the Christian tradition! In the early fifth century, St. Augustine surveyed the diversity of humanity and observed that some people have “the nature of both sexes,” alternate between “begetting and conceiving when they mate with each other,” and do not fit neatly into the binary of “male or female.” Though he did not have a modern scientific understanding of gender and orientation, in these observations St. Augustine described what we might refer to today as examples of gender and sexual diversity. St. Augustine acknowledged that some, due to the limits of human understanding, might be “offended at what appears to be [a] deformity,” but he saw this and other human diversity as part of the divinely-intended tapestry of creation:

“For God is the creator of all things; and he himself knows where and when it is right or was right for anything to be created. He knows how to weave together the beauty of the whole in the similarity and diversity of its parts. …. No one should be so foolish as to imagine that God made a mistake.” The City of God, 16.8 (circa 426 CE)

St. Augustine didn’t come up with this. In Scripture God reveals that the radical inclusion of gender and sexual minorities goes back to the earliest Christians and is rooted in the work and person of Jesus. For example, in the book of Acts, an Ethiopian eunuch encountered the disciple Philip while reading from the prophet Isaiah about the ‘suffering servant’—a passage understood by Christians to prefigure Christ. Philip then drew from Isaiah to proclaim the good news of Jesus’s death and resurrection, leading the eunuch to ask: “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:26-39, quoting Isa. 53:7-8). 

Historians of the ancient world have observed how, in Roman society, eunuchs’ gender ambiguity (as neither ‘male’ nor ‘female’) and sexuality (assuming both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ roles) disrupted rigid hierarchical gender categories and norms. While an ancient eunuch’s sense of gender and sexuality are not the same as our modern understanding and categories, they faced stigma and prejudice because of their gender and sexuality, and were even excluded from the temple in Jerusalem. (Deut. 23:1-4). 

So, when the eunuch asked Philip what prevented him from being baptized, the answer for the eunuch and  the first readers of Acts would have been obvious: 

Everything. 

He was a gentile court official (and likely slave) of a foreign queen. And he was a eunuch, excluded from the temple and whose sexuality and gender ambiguity were the cause of moral and social disquiet in Roman society. But when the eunuch asked this question, Philip didn’t hesitate: “he commanded the chariot to stop” and “baptized him.” 

Nothing—not his gentile ethnicity, not his social status as a slave, not his ambiguous gender—prevented the Ethiopian eunuch from being baptized. 

Through this story, we see how Jesus fulfilled the promise in Isaiah where, through the suffering servant, eunuchs are welcomed into the household of God and given “a name better than sons and daughters.” (Isa. 56:1-8). And, in his baptism, the eunuch powerfully embodied St. Paul’s description of how in Christ: 

“There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28.

Following in the footsteps of the earliest followers of Jesus, who offered the sacrament of baptism—full membership in the covenant people of God—to those outside their culturally-accepted norms of gender and sexuality, St. Andrew’s warmly welcomes full participation in the sacramental life and work of the Church regardless of one’s gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. 


But doesn’t the Bible say that marriage is only between ‘a man and a woman’ and condemn ‘homosexuality’?

The short answer is no. 

If you’re coming from a Christian tradition that holds a different view, certain passages of Scripture may come to mind and you may have questions. We’re happy to talk about it!

Scripture and Tradition reveal that Christian marriage includes same-sex couples.

Through the Book of Common Prayer, Anglicanism reflects the deep Christian tradition of marriage as “established by God in creation” and signifying “the mystery of the union between Christ and his Church.” (BCP p. 423). Standing in this tradition, we affirm that this sacramental union of two people “in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God’s will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord.” (BCP p. 423; see also Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage II).

This tradition is rooted in Scripture where, from Genesis to Revelation, the mystery and sacrament of marriage is revealed to be a mutually self-giving covenant between two people that reflects the love and faithfulness of God. 

In Eden, God saw that it was “not good” that the human (or, in Hebrew, adam) was alone and so made another adam—a woman later named Eve—who unlike the animals was like him and so was suitable to be his partner. (Gen. 2:18-24). As theologian Matthew Henry observed more than 300 years ago, Eve was not created “for the increase and continuance of [Adam’s] kind,” that is, for procreation. Rather, God created “one of the same nature and the same rank of beings” because of the human need to “exchange knowledge and affection with those of his own kind, to inform and to be informed, to love and to be beloved.” (Commentary on Genesis 2).

Scripture and tradition certainly celebrate the good of procreation in marriage. Yet as St. Augustine recognized while reflecting on the different forms of marriage over time, while biological procreation is a natural good of marriage it is not the ultimate good of Christian marriage. Rather, marriage is a sacrament rooted in mutual fidelity that points to God’s faithfulness and our permanent union with God. As for procreation, St. Augustine saw all acts of sexual pleasure as sinful lust unless the couple’s only purpose was biological reproduction (a view largely rejected by the Christian tradition). Even so, he recognized that the desire to biologically procreate was not limited to Christians (or even to humans) and so “no one who is perfect seeks to have children except in a spiritual way.” That is, spiritual procreation and the nurture of children is the good of Christian marriage, not simply biological reproduction. In this way, the Christian tradition roots marriage not in procreation itself but in the spouses’ faithfulness to each other and God, seen “especially if they also nourish spiritually the children they desire physically.” (On the Good of Marriage, 1-7, 19-22, 32). 

As St. Augustine did more than 1,600 years ago, we too can see how God has revealed that marriage is above all a committed mutually self-sacrificial partnership, one that reflects God’s relationship with us. Then, in that context, the gift and nurture of children is a blessing that occurs biologically, through divine intervention, and through adoption. This is true of all marriages (no matter their gender composition) and illustrates both God’s faithfulness and the ‘procreation’ of God’s kingdom. And, as the Roman Catholic Catechism acknowledges, even without children, spouses “can nevertheless have a conjugal life full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. Their marriage can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, of hospitality, and of sacrifice.”

The marriages described in Scripture take many different forms, including polygamous marriages and marriages where an economic exchange rather than a loving partnership is at the forefront. All of these marriages differ from the Christian understanding of marriage today. Yet in them and throughout Scripture, God reveals a consistent throughline that resists the patriarchal attitudes of the surrounding culture and elevates mutual self sacrificial love and fidelity as the grounding of marriage. In this, marriage embodies and signifies God’s love and faithfulness to his people and Christ’s union with the church. 

This is particularly seen in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. For instance, when challenged by the religious leaders of his day, Jesus alluded to the creation stories in Genesis to show that an explicit law that allowed men to divorce their wives “for any cause” was not God’s covenantal ideal. In so doing, Jesus challenged a culture that freely allowed men to divorce while demanding that women be faithful. By commanding mutual marital fidelity, Jesus elevated wives to a place of equality with their husbands. (Matt. 19:3-9). 

St. Paul likewise subverted the assumed gender hierarchy in marriage of his day by recognizing the full equality of each spouse not only in their fidelity and physical intimacy but also as the spiritual leaders of their family. (1 Cor. 7:3-16). Notably, in Ephesians St. Paul undermined the absolute authority of the Roman male head of household and co-opted the cultural language of domination by stating that the spouses are to “submit to one another.” Then, drawing from the mysterious relationship of Christ with the church, he laid out how husbands should take a role of service and sacrifice for their spouse as Christ did on the cross. (Eph. 5:21-33; see also Phil. 2:3-8). Reading this today compels us to look beyond gender roles and categories to see the centrality of covenant fidelity—the lifelong self-giving commitment to another—in marriage. 

In Revelation, this picture of marriage is vividly illustrated by the union of Christ and the church—a multitude of humanity in all its diversity—culminating in resurrection and new creation in the union of heaven and earth. This union is marked by the overflowing love of God embracing all of creation and bringing life to all who seek it. (Rev. 7:9-12, 19:6-9, 21:1-22:17). 

From beginning to end, the consistent witness of Scripture shows that loving self-giving covenantal faithfulness—reflecting the divine reality of God’s love and faithfulness—is the cornerstone of Christian marriage. As biblical scholar Karen Keen observes, “same-sex couples can also exhibit and witness to [these] divine realities through self-sacrificial love.”


The Bible does not condemn ‘homosexuality,’ LGBTQ+ people, or their relationships. 

Sometimes this conversation focuses on certain passages that speak negatively of types of same-sex sexual activity common in the ancient world. But properly understood, these passages condemn self-indulgent and dehumanizing uses of sex. They do not support the exclusion or condemnation of LGBTQ+ people or of mutually self-giving same-sex relationships. For example:

Sodom and Gomorrah, a condemnation of sexual violence. In the story of Sodom in Genesis (Gen. 19:1-9), the men of the city threaten two angelic male visitors with sexual violence. Such violence was often used in the ancient world to dominate a foe or stranger. The story condemns this dominance and violence, not loving same-sex relationships. 

Mosaic Purity Laws and New Testament Vice Lists, a critique of idolatrous and unrestrained sexual excess and exploitation. When understood in their cultural and literary contexts, two laws in the Mosaic Holiness Code (Lev. 18:22, 20:13) and two “vice lists” in St. Paul’s letters (1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10) warn against idolatrous and unrestrained sexual excess and the use of sex to exploit others. They do not exclude LGBTQ+ people from the kingdom of God.

Paul’s letter to the Romans, a universal picture of our need of God’s love and grace. Perhaps most significantly, in Romans 1 and 2, St. Paul draws from the Wisdom of Solomon to demonstrate humanity’s universal need for God using the illustration of consuming lust seen by his readers in pagan temple rituals and other self-indulgent sexual practices (some of which incidentally involved people of the same sex). St. Paul and his readers, like the rest of the Roman world, didn’t have equal and self-giving same-sex relationships in view. Rather, St. Paul condemns all self-indulgent dehumanizing uses of sex, no matter the religion, ethnicity, or gender of the people involved. In so doing, St. Paul challenged his readers to understand sin (how and why we fail to love God and neighbor) as a universal condition, not just a problem ‘other’ people have. 

Like the Ethiopian eunuch—who was both a castrated slave and a royal official who had power over others—we all are both victims and perpetrators of sin and injustice: oppressed and oppressor. Against this backdrop, St. Paul lays out the radical inclusion of the gospel: how through the cross all are included in God’s redeeming love through the faith of Jesus, the suffering servant and incarnate God, who was uniquely oppressed but not an oppressor. Jesus is paradoxically “victor and victim, and victor because victim” and is “priest and sacrifice, and priest because sacrifice, making us sons and daughters” of God. (Confessions, 10.69). Because of this, “nothing, not even death, shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (BCP p. 862; Rom. 8:1-39, 11:30-36).



Where to go from here…

We hope this provides clarity and context about how we understand the radical welcome and love of God revealed in Scripture, seen in Jesus, and proclaimed in the Gospel. As with any attempt to plumb the depths of God and what God has revealed, this only scratches the surface. This is a starting point for a discussion, not the end of one.

To paraphrase St. Augustine, though we are many, in the one Christ we are one. We invite you to come and worship with us!

Please send any website questions, comments, or corrections to: webmaster@standrewshopkinton.org