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Seattle Mormon leaders to gays: Come back to church

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October 15, 2014

Jana Riess writes about the initiative going on in the Seattle North Stake to welcome gay members back to Church.  The article quotes Mitch Mayne saying, “That means LGBT individuals are welcome to come to church regardless of where they are in their personal lives — single and living under the confines of the policy as we understand it today, married to a partner of their same gender, or dating someone new every night. There is no Bishop’s interview to sit in the pews on Sunday. There is no test to take to come to Sacrament or any of our meetings or events. Everyone is welcome, just as they are.”

Read the full article here:

http://janariess.religionnews.com/2014/10/14/seattle-mormon-leaders-gays-join-us/

1 Comment

  1. Dean Snelling on October 12, 2015 at 8:12 AM

    I do not live in that stake. I live in the Surrey Stake in Metropolitan Vancouver, BC area. I have been legally married for the past eleven years +. I attend church every Sunday… all three hours and I am welcomed by the members of my ward. However, I was excommunicated in 2004 because I was not living the law of chastity. If I understand correctly, People in YOUR stake can attend church and not have to worry about that, so you can have sex outside of heterosexual sex and it is just fine. I am legally married, I do not have sex outside of my marriage, The last time I asked to be baptized again when living in the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Stake the Stake President wrote the first presidency asking for me to be able to be baptized again. He spoke to the first presidency office and was verbally told (not in writing) that the church had not received revelation for people such as me, and I was denied baptism into the church. Why is it that people in YOUR stake can go to church without having to worry about excommunication but in my stake I attend church every week, I can not take the sacrament, I can not have a church position, (I was a high priest when I was exed and had served in a Bishopric) and technically am not suppose to make offerings or have a home teacher, or be able to bare my testimony in church. My Stake President and Bishop has allowed me to give my testimony on fast Sundays, pay my tithes, and offerings, and recently I have a home teacher. I have been reminded that they have over extended themselves to let me do that. Why is it in YOUR stake that YOU can remain a member no matter if you are having casual sex or are in a gay relationship and having sex or whatever… yet I am legally married for almost 12 years and I am not able to be a member? Should I be able to be baptized again? Although my Bishop is most kind and I am very much welcomed in my ward, the Bishop has told me that THE CHURCH IS VERY CLEAR THAT SEX OUTSIDE OF A HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGE IS NOT ALLOWED IN THE CHURCH. So I have not been encouraged to ask again for baptism. Why are YOU allowed to have sex in YOUR stake… but not in mine? I know several gay couples that do NOT attend church because they do NOT want to be exed. I tell them that they should attend, get exed… and then they can go as much as they like. They do NOT want to go that route. They would prefer to stay at home… be silenced, and nobody knows they exists. I on the other hand… attend church each week… AND I LET EVERYONE KNOW I AM GAY… I am thankful to be in such a lovely ward that has welcomed me with open arms…BUT… there is still NO PLACE FOR ME. I do not understand a two teared system where some of you can attend and still be members of the church, living the same life I do… but I can not. Who can explain to me what the answer is to this situation? We do not have an Affirmation Group in Vancouver and I have tried several times to contact people in Seattle to learn of how to connected to that group but nobody has returned my requests. I also asked if they would be interested for me to be a contact person in the Vancouver area… again the person I wrote to did not respond. Perhaps I am considered a trouble maker because I complained that when I moved from Nova Scotia it took more than a year after five times to have my name removed from the list of contact persons. I was NOT trying to be a problem… I just did not see the purpose of listing me as a contact person for Halifax on the Atlantic Coast, when I am now living four blocks from the Pacific Ocean 45 minutes south of Vancouver. I have just about given up for contact with Affirmation… I am writing in response to this as I saved it in a special spot because I am writing my memoirs of my life for my children and grandchildren, and there was information in this that I thought I could use. Probably nobody will read it as this is such an old posting. Never the less… kind regards to anyone who does…[email protected] White Rock, BC

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