Movement Magazine: Issue 160

Celebrating
Diversity
As Access and Inclusion portfolio holder on
General Council, celebrating diversity is the
aspect of SCM’s vision that I spend most of
my time thinking about, figuring out how we
can make SCM as inclusive and diverse as we
can so that everyone that wishes to is able to
find their home in SCM like I have.
We never have members who join us to
improve quotas or to make us seem more
diverse, but we welcome all our members in
the same way, usually with open arms and
hugs! We appreciate their new perspectives,
range of skills and life experiences that
helps make the movement an even more
wonderful and supportive community to be
a part of.
Making SCM somewhere that is accessible
(in terms of events and resources etc) is
very important and needed, but at SCM
that isn’t enough to us. Every one of us is
unique and special to God in so many ways,
so it’s important to be able to celebrate
this, especially for those who may not feel
they fit into a church or faith community,
or may have something about them that
perhaps isn’t always accepted or included
in mainstream Christianity such as being
LGBT+, having a disability or chronic illness,
being neurodivergent or being from a BAME
background. Ecumenism is also at the heart
of the movement and is another way to
engage our diverse membership, through
inter-denominational dialogue. Through
having a community of people for whom
diversity and inclusion is important, not only
can we learn from the experiences of others,
but it can help us develop and reflect on our
own personal faith.
Through being on General Council I get to see
what means it to different members of the
movement, and how they choose to celebrate
diversity, which is wonderful. It means
something different to every member and
every SCM group, but at the heart of it always
is the firm belief that everyone is welcome and
our differences should be celebrated. Some
members attend pride parades as members
of the LGBT+ community or as allies, others
may run autism-friendly events or organise
ecumenical or interfaith events on campus.
To me, celebrating diversity really is at the
heart of SCM and what we do, and a very
important part of our history. SCM has been
championing diversity and supporting
marginalised communities since before it was
cool or popular to do so, and that is something
we need to continue. The focus on inclusion
and supporting all members is what drew me to
get more involved in SCM,
so it is a privilege to help
further that work for the
movement to ensure we
are as inclusive, diverse
and accessible as
we can be.
Emilia De Luca is an
SCM Trustee and a
student in Coventry.
In the 65 years (hardly believable!) in which
SCM has been part of my life, it has always
been in some way about inclusiveness. That
did not mean inclusion of sexual minorities
in those early days – homosexuality was a
subject hardly ever mentioned, and only ever
as a ‘problem’. But SCM gave me my first
experience of the ecumenical movement
and introduced this naive young Welsh Baptist to
the friendship of people who prayed in unfamiliar ways and were
equally committed to following Jesus. This was something new
to most of the churches at that time. By the time the churches
caught up with it SCM was becoming inclusive of people of other
faiths and of no faith.
SCM has always been one or two decades ahead of the churches,
sometimes in uncomfortable ways. In the late 1960s, when I was
a staff member, it was tearing itself apart with theological and
political controversy and rapidly decreasing in membership. The
churches were to go through something like this at a later stage,
and are now, I believe, just showing the first signs of a new life –
like SCM, scaled down but as creative and dynamic as ever.
It was in an issue of Movement in the early 60s that I first came
across a Christian article about homosexuality – still portraying
it as a ‘problem’, but tentatively reaching out towards a broader
understanding. I myself was very much in the closet at that
time, but it was comforting to know that there was at least one
Christian out there who understood.
While spending a year as a mature student at Glasgow University
in 1979-80, I joined the very small but enthusiastic and
welcoming SCM group. One of the issues it was keen to discuss
was the gay one. Again, this was way ahead of most churches at
that time: it was actually during that year that Scotland caught up
with England and Wales in de-criminalising sex between men.
Today I rejoice to see how SCM has for some time been
embracing the whole LGBT spectrum and more, and it is
encouraging to see that churches are slowly catching up. I am
privileged to be involved as an LGBT+ champion in the University
Chaplaincy where I work, and – more surprisingly – to belong to
a local church in the South Wales valleys where I feel completely
free to be openly myself.
Ray Vincent is a Baptist minister and a Chaplain in the University
of South Wales. He is Stonewall’s 2019 Gay Role Model of the Year.
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MOVEMENT Issue 160