What is Radical Welcome?

Recently I wrote a brief essay for the Christian Century blog Theolog that carried the title “The Welcoming Congregation.” That essay focused on the journey my congregation has been taking toward learning what it means to be truly welcoming. The issue that stands at the center of that journey, of course, has to do with the inclusion of GLBT persons. It is a journey that we’ve not completed. We’re not intentionally “open and affirming”; in fact, we’ve not had that discussion yet. But we’re asking ourselves what does it mean to be truly welcoming – beyond being nice to visitors.

To be welcoming is one thing, but apparently to be “radically welcoming” is another. What does it mean to be a “radically welcoming” congregation? That is the question raised in a book I’ve just picked up by Stephanie Spellers entitled Radical Welcome (Church Publishing, 2006). The book was recommended to me by a representative of GLAD – “Gay and Lesbian Affirming Disciples”) as a must read book. So, I’m reading it and later I’ll post a review of it here. Today I’d like to just lay out a definition from the book so that we can imagine what radical welcome might be.

Radical welcome is a fundamental spiritual practice, one that combines the universal Christian ministry of welcome and hospitality with a clear awareness of power and patterns of inclusion and exclusion. (p. 11).

Radical Welcome involves self-awareness and intentionality. It recognizes that the one offering welcome is likely in a position of power and able to exclude. To welcome radically is to embrace the Other – the one who is standing on the margins. To offer Radical Welcome, as Spellers notes, isn’t easy – but it would seem to be our calling if we’re followers of Jesus.
Originally published at Faithfully Liberal.

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