letter from Latvia
All the major church denominations in Latvia would have a conservative approach to sexuality. The soon-to-be-retiring Archbishop of the Lutheran Church in Latvia has made something of a point of holding firm on these issues, John Woods writes.
In my own teaching on human identity and sexuality I have made use of some of the ideas outlined in Andrew Bunt’s excellent short book: Finding Your Best Identity: a Christian introduction to identity, sexuality and gender.
I was therefore particularly glad to hear of the visit to Latvia in April of Andrew Bunt and Andy Robinson of Living Out.org. Both men, who speak from experience of same-sex attraction, were in Latvia for an event organised by the Baptist training centre, the Baltic Pastoral Institute (BPI). The event was called: ‘Truth in Love: answering questions about sexuality and gender with the unchanging hope of the gospel’.
BPI kindly opened the two-day event to other Christian groups. Around 25 leaders and students attended for teaching, discussion and a Q&A on sexuality, gender and identity. The hope is that this training will start to equip Christian leaders in Latvia to engage well on these topics.
Andrew Bunt reported that the questions raised different themes from those we tend to get at home, but those differences were in line with what he expected – more of a focus on questions of causation and change. Also there seems to be a greater struggle than at home to understand the idea of gender stereotypes, as separate from roles.
