Human Sexuality Task Group

Papers from the Westminster Consultation September 2011

• Commitment on Human Sexuality - General Assembly 2007
• Towards a theology of same-sex relationships
• Sexual Orientation: the lessons and limits of science - Church of Scotland 2011
• Guidelines for good conversations

Meetings:

21st January 2013

Human Sexuality Task Group (2012) meeting notes (Word Document)

14th May 2012

2012 May meeting notes (Word Document)

1st November 2011

2011 Nov 1st meeting notes (Word Document)

20 May 2011

2011 May 20 meeting notes (Word Document)

26 January 2011

2011 January 26 meeting notes (word Document)

22 September 2010

2010 September 22 meeting notes (Word document)

Meetings during 2009

The group met in September and November 2009 and again in February 2010. Much of our work has been concentrated on the eleven points listed in Section 9 of the 2007 Assembly report.  References to the eleven points are emboldened, and refer to the the 2007 General Assembly report.

1.    Open Microphone Session – this was held at the November Mission Council and was felt to have been a useful experience which could be helpfully repeated in other contexts, helping people to share experiences and listen to each others stories.
2.    Liturgies – we have agreed to co-ordinate a collection of liturgies that could then be made available to the church. Rev Claire Gouldthorpe will take the lead on collecting this material.
3.    Theological Conference/Consultation – we are exploring the possibility of running such an event to enable dialogue.
4.    Mission Council/General Assembly – a paper outlining progress so far will be discussed at Mission Council in March and will progress to General Assembly in July 2010

30th November 2009

9.1 Theology – The Faith and Order Reference Group have agreed to take on the task of producing a theology of same sex relationships either by using existing materials or writing something new.

9.5 Legal Implications – The Methodists have done some work on this aspect and we have asked them to share any legal advice they have received. We await a response from them.

25th September 2009

At our meeting on 25th September 2009 we discussed the following issues and agreed the related actions:

9.6 Blessing of civil partnerships – we discussed an amended version of the Mission Council advice to churches on the blessing of Civil Partnerships. This amended version was subsequently agreed by Mission Council.

9.11 Pastoral issues – we looked at a paper outlining some of the dilemmas encountered by the Moderators and recognized that there was work being undertaken by Ministries on Ministerial Standards of Conduct some of which was concerned with similar issues.

19 June 2009 meeting notes (Word document)

This group was created in 2008 by Mission Council