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AdventCircle Email Community
A community for Seventh-day Adventist Family and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
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AdventCircle index
AdventCircle
is a sub-list of the inter-denominational GLOWcircle
which is intended to be a place
where Christian families and friends of gays and lesbians can share
experiences and convictions and ask questions without fear of
condemnation or ridicule. The bulk of the discussion is intended to take
place on GLOWcircle, but the sub-list exists for those
times that specifically Adventist concerns are discussed -- the type of
thing that others might not understand. Subscribers may not agree on all
issues but can support each other while seeking to understand children,
siblings, or friends and learning how best to help them to meet the
challenges of their situation.
Homosexuality is an
isolating influence in the lives of families -- isolating children from
parents and friends and siblings from each other. Often our loved ones
draw back from us because they fear our reaction to them, and they
sometimes draw back from God for the same reason. But God actively seeks
out those who are wandering in stray paths, far from the
Father's home. And He can give us the love to bring to life the words of
Edwin Markham in the poem below:
He
drew a circle that shut me out --
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But
Love and I had the wit to win
We drew a circle that took him in!
--
Edwin Markham |
In order to be accepted as a subscriber to this list,
you are invited to tell a little about yourself so that we may introduce
you to other list members, and we may be assured that your goals are
sympathetic to ours. You may subscribe to AdventCircle by
clicking on the YahooGroups icon at
the bottom of the page, and you will receive an email asking you for
further info. Subscribing to AdventCircle will also
subscribe you to GLOWcircle,
where most of the discussion takes place. You will be notified by
a moderator as soon as your address is subscribed to the
community.
Please be sure to read our Posting
Guide lines and Dreams and Convictions. (below)

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AdventCircle Dreams and
Convictions
- God has shown unconditional love to us long before we responded to
Him, and His grace enables us to reflect that unconditional love to
each other as well as to gay and lesbian friends and family.
- God alone is competent to judge the heart of another.
- We believe each of us has but a dim and partial understanding of
God’s truth, and He guides each of us in individual ways from our
unique starting points toward the center of His understanding.
- Because we realize that in order for us to demonstrate the love of
God to our friends and family, we need to maintain our own
relationship with the Savior, that this community will help to
sustain and nurture such a relationship.
- Personal testimony is God's chosen method of communicating the
gospel, and we believe that the most effective way to persuade
others to allow God to work in their lives is to testify of his
power in our own lives.
- We understand that same-gender attractions are real and not just a
chosen behavior. They are an integral part of an individual and
morally neutral.
- We believe that God designed sex to be a component of the
life-long bond between one man and one woman. Thus the main thrust
of this mailing list is to encourage the support of gay people in
our lives but not of gay sexual activity. However, we deplore the
attitude that gay sexual activity is somehow worse than heterosexual
activity outside of God's plan. It appears to us that heterosexual
promiscuity and serial marriages do much greater damage to the
fabric of society than gay people could ever inflict. Thus persons
involved in gay sexual activity should not meet with condemnation,
but with love and compassion, as it is only thus that any of us can
begin to understand the unconditional love of the Savior -- the only
One that can meet the love-hunger of the soul.
- We each have the responsibility to be true to the convictions to
which God has led us, while keeping an open mind toward new insights
He may bring.
- It is our dream that subscribers will find such loving support in
this list that they may be freed to love their gay and lesbian
family and friends in a way that will encourage them to grow into
their God-given potential in Christ. We hope that the atmosphere on
this list will facilitate "bearing one another's burdens,"
encouraging one another and lifting each other up in prayer.
- We also dare to dream that the support of this list may give some
subscribers the courage to be speak out to their fellow church
members about the issues we discuss on this list. For too long
Christian churches have been party to a conspiracy of silence on
sexual issues, and it is time for this to be broken.
In His love,
Inge Anderson, List Owner
and the moderator team
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Last modified
16 Dec 2005 12:52 PM |