Signs of welcome - A poem by OTN trustee Lucy Berry
Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash
ON THE OUTSIDE of churches, signs often proclaim ‘All Are Welcome’; a simple phrase about a good outcome.
It should mean that everyone, anyone, could walk in and be welcomed. But often, for LGBTQIA+ people, it isn’t simple at all. Church welcomes, for us, may turn out to be chilly, or awkward, or conditional, or complex, or provisional - or just missing. Lucy’s poem reflects on what church signs might say if they reflected the reality inside.
God decided that for six days
He’d change all the signs
outside the world’s churches;
so that they told the truth.
So, for six days,
God’s children,
passing on the outside of each church
could read exactly what kind of people were
singing and praying on the inside.
Every notice
which had once proclaimed
“All Are Welcome Here in the Name of Jesus”
now told the whole truth.
Some now said:
“If you look like us, we welcome you!”
and some said:
“all are welcome here
but please don’t get the idea
that we want you to think
or to make suggestions”
and some said:
“We’d like your children
for our dwindling Sunday School”
and some said:
“We are a bit nervous of everyone
(even of each other),
but come in,
and we’ll have a go”.
Some said:
“Oi! Sinners! We don’t hold with
Drug-taking
Prostitution,
Unmarried Mothers,
Divorced People
Gays
or
Women Who Believe They Can Do Theology.
You know who you are!
Some said
“All God’s Children Are Welcome Here;
(although we do not consider that everyone
qualifies as such.
Our welcome is conditional on
a short but inflexible list.
Ask inside for details).”
And there were those which said
“All Are Welcome Here
Who Kind-of Like The Idea of Christianity”.
And those which said
“Come In And Learn Our Vocabulary
So That We Can Tell You All About God”.
So, for six days,
God’s children,
passing on the outside of each church
could read exactly what kind
of people were
singing and praying on the inside.
And God saw,
scattered across the world,
just a few churches with notices outside
which hadn’t changed
which still said:
“All Are Welcome Here in the Name of Jesus”
because that had been true from the start.
And on the seventh day it was time to go to church.
Of course, by then, the old notices were back.
But by then, God’s children
passing on the outside,
knew what kind of people
were singing and praying on the inside -
generally much easier,
and venturing inside
and trying to read those signs.
© Lucy Berry
