Coventry Cathedral Welcome sign

Coventry Cathedral put up a welcome sign some time ago, which attracted more attention than most church noticeboards. They emphasised their inclusive welcome of those often excluded by ‘normal’ churches: 

"We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, widowed, straight, gay, confused, well-heeled or down at heel. We especially welcome wailing babies and excited toddlers …

We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome keep-fit mums, football dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems, are down in the dumps or don’t like ‘organised religion.’"

This was a good piece of advertising for a church building: amusing, self-aware, and intentionally reaching out to people who might not think themselves ‘welcome’ in a Christian setting. However, rejection isn’t always caused by middle class prejudice. Sometimes it is the inner hurt of Christians, which makes them uncomfortable in the presence of some people.

I remember an incident in one local church, where a lady told the pastor, she could no longer attend, because a prostitute had started to come. It wasn’t that she objected. She was glad this sex-worker was meeting Christ. It just made her feel uneasy. Perhaps it reminded her of her own emotional wounds or sexual repression.

Often our rejection of others arises from our own experience of pain, which has not yet been healed. But whatever the reason, it operates to erect divides in the Body of Christ. It is this kind of respectable religion that the Coventry sign (which they acknowledge is not original to them) is designed to challenge.

However, it represents, oddly, exactly the usual do-gooding, liberal, vice of middle class Christianity. It is only the ‘nice’ sins, if sins they are, which are listed. The emphasis is on redressing, rightly, the marginalisation of those rejected by straight society. But in so doing, it misses the radical nature of grace.

The scandalous extremism of the gospel challenges all of us, conservative or progressive, on our attitudes to those we reject. Perhaps our churches should have welcome signs like this:

"We welcome murderers and thieves, racists and rapists. We welcome human traffickers, white supremacists, and pornographers; even bankers and hedge fund managers. We welcome the child abuser as well as the abused, the drug pusher besides the addict; the unreconstructed male chauvinist, along with the TERF."

All the bogeymen, trigger points, and baddies, of our society. You can add your own personal list of pet reprobates. But what church would put up a sign like that? What church would actually want that kind of people attending? The safeguarding issues alone would be horrendous.

But this, surely, is the gospel offer. Jesus himself stated that he had come for those who recognise they are sick, not those who consider themselves spiritually righteous, whether on Left or Right.