Publications

St. Martin's Publications arise from sermons, education courses, lectures, liturgies and articles which reflect the lively theological conversations at the heart of our community. They are an expression of our desire to make connections between our faith and the contemporary world. In this written form they are offered as a wider resource for thought and reflection on a range of faith and ethical issues.

Publications can be obtained from the Parish Office, 6 St Martin's Place, London, WC2N 4JJ. Tel: 020 7766 1126. E-mail: Sheilah.Fletcher@smitf.org

We do not charge for our publications but invite you to make a contribution towards the cost of their production. (Suggested donation £2 per booklet incl. p&p)

Our current list of publications is:

• Life after Life: An exploration of living, dying and whatever comes next
• Christianity and Homosexuality (Revised 2005 Edition)
• In Search of Healing
• Shifting Horizons - the long road to reconciliation
  A Thanksgiving for the 40th Anniversary of the Corrymeela Community
• In a Strange Land? An exploration of exile - past and present
  (from the 2005 Lent Education series)
• How shall we sing the Lord's song ... in a strange land?
  A meditation on living and learning through exile
  (from the 2005 Lent Sunday 6.30pm series)
• MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY 2005 - So what happens next? (A review of the year and the issues that remain)
• Jesus Christ:  The door into life - a collection of Douglas Board's Good Friday addresses
• When the builders laid the foundation - a collection of material from recent education events and broadcasts, reflecting on buildings, temples and the people of God
• Lent Sermon series

Extracts from Current Publications

Extract From: Christianity and Homosexuality (Revised 2005 Edition)

What are the main issues in the current debate?

The issues raised in the Christian discussion of homosexuality ask serious questions of the Church and its attitudes to sexuality in general. In contemporary culture the attitude towards sexuality is largely "consumerist". These attitudes are exemplified by the way in which sex is increasingly being used to help advertise and sell products or ideas. There is an emphasis on individual fulfilment and people themselves are treated as a commodity. This is a serious distortion of the Christian understanding of what it means to be human. The questions raised for the Church by these contemporary attitudes apply not merely to homosexuality but to sexuality as a whole.

There is increasing pressure in our highly sexualised society for relationships to gain sexual expression more rapidly and more frequently than ever before. This is a major challenge to the Christian commitment to lifelong fidelity in sexual relationships.

The opening up of debate about homosexuality is a recognition that there are a significant number of homosexual Christians, including clergy, in the Church. It also recognises the particular issues faced by these Christians in both affirming church teaching on lifelong fidelity and facing the reality of their sexual identity. The tolerance of these people as long as they remain invisibly homosexual is no longer just or acceptable. Secrecy about homosexual activity has encouraged a culture of furtive promiscuity. Homosexual Christians in committed relationships have lacked the public expression by which marriages receive social and legal support to help sustain them in times of difficulty. If homosexuals are to be openly accepted, the blessing of same sex unions will inevitably and properly follow. This would ease the Church's decision about how to recognise the registration of civil partnerships.

Extract From: In Search of Healing

HIV can unveil secrets, shake families and split communities.

Where is the healing for the 40 million people infected across the world? In the places where the young die early, making orphans of children, and returning grandparents back into primary carers.

It is easy to say there is no healing but it wouldn't be true.

There is the healing power of forgiveness when a wife continues to love the husband who infected her, caring for him on his death bed knowing that she may soon follow.

Sometimes there is the healing of estranged families where in the face of HIV the family have become reconciled, accepting their gay son or brother, and loving not only of him but his partner also.

There is powerful healing when AIDS activist challenge drug companies and governments over the exorbitant prices of life saving drugs that are largely out of reach of those in developing countries.

There is healing in communities when people living with HIV/AIDS challenge prejudice and discrimination; when HIV+ women form action groups to support each other; when men put their wives' health and safety above their own pleasure; when collectives of prostitutes refuse to have unprotected sex with their clients. There is healing when running sores are cleaned, head lice removed, those dying on the street are picked up, held and allowed to die with dignity.

And there is always healing when adversity is met with gentleness, fear with courage, stigma with openness, death with life.

Extract From: MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY 2005

- So what happens next? (A review of the year and the issues that remain)

"The radio and TV bulletins and the papers this morning could have carried the news that thirty thousand people died yesterday because they were too poor to stay alive. They didn't...partly perhaps because they could run precisely the same story every single day and that wouldn't fit one of the conventional definitions of news -- "something that has happened today that didn't happen yesterday". But even if we did have that kind of headline every day, I wonder how much difference it would make. We are not short these days on rhetoric about global poverty. We are still short on delivery.

The Archbishop of Cape Town wants an independent body to see that the commitments made to improving the lives of people in Africa are implemented effectively -- a body drawn from the faith communities, NGOs and trade unions in Africa itself. Real voices of Africa would, he hopes, tell us what difference the activity aimed at achieving the millennium goals is actually making. The good news and the bad news.

The African proverb says: I showed you the moon and all you saw was the end of my finger. If this new partnership is really to be of service to all the world's people, it must already look beyond the Millennium Development Goals."