Inclusive & Affirming

On 8 November 2025, the Assembly Council of the NSW/ACT Association of Baptist Churches resolved to disaffiliate our congregation at Avalon Baptist Church. At the Gathering, which incorporated the Ordinary Assembly held at Ryde Baptist Church, representatives of the NSW/ACT Baptist Churches voted 207 in favour and 50 against the motion to disaffiliate.

Media Release.
Link: Avalon Baptist Church kicked out of NSW Baptist Association over Marriage Equality – News Hub

Motion Response: Sally Longley, Brad Dalton, and Bruce Davies

Motion Response FinalDownload



Declaration:
“We are an affirming church. This refers particularly to marriage. Marriage has become a point of contention in both the wider society and the church, indeed there are a variety of views held by our church members. However, our church’s position is to encourage people when considering marriage to see it as a serious commitment. Marriage should aim to be a covenant relationship between two people where faithfulness, love and monogamy are valued.

We have joined Open Baptist, a new movement of Baptist churches in Australia and New Zealand, open to the diversity of people that God gathers into our churches and open to the diversity of ways that God calls us to respond in our local contexts.

This openness arises from our Baptist heritage with its deep commitment to the authority of Jesus Christ as head of the Church, the priesthood of all believers, freedom of conscience, and the autonomy of the local church. We have many differences within and among our churches, but we partner together in mutual support and mission to make known the good news of God’s unfailing love for everyone. “
https://openbaptists.org/

Belinda Groves, Chair Open Baptists, Video by Daniel Nganga
https://youtu.be/1Ep-xKoJyYo

From the Chair, Open Baptists Board
Initial report on the 2025 Gathering
held 14-16th March 2025 at Tuggeranong Baptist Church ACT


An oft-quoted biblical scholar changes his mind on LGBTQ inclusion in the church
OPINIONANNA SIEGES  |  APRIL 6, 2024
“Hang up your tweed jackets and lower your spectacles, people, something big just rattled all us scholarly types. Richard B. Hays has changed his mind on LGBTQ inclusion, and there are layers to this conversation.”

Link to full article:
https://baptistnews.com/article/an-oft-quoted-biblical-scholar-changes-his-mind-on-lgbtq-inclusion-in-the-church/




Sunday (15 Oct 2023) CBC agreed for us to publish a paper they have prepared on Same-sex Marriage and the NSW/ACT Baptist Association. The paper is attached.

Our (CBC) motion stated that we wanted:

  • To affirm our (CBC) ongoing commitment to the NSW and ACT Baptist Association, despite recent events, and in the context of the real prospect of Canberra Baptist being disaffiliated;
  • to explain why we oppose recent decisions by the Association to require support for a particular view of marriage; and
  • to provide some resources so others may consider these issues, in the absence of any being provided by the Association.

Our (CBC) hope is that this paper will be useful for others. Please feel free to distribute it as widely as possible!

Click link to full document:

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Paper – Same-sex Marriage and the NSW ACT Baptist Association (15 Oct 2023)Download

Further: a wonderful expose by the Rev. Nathan Nettleton that might help you see more clearly the issues around marriage equality,
Published (on our website) 15th August 2017

Supporting Same-Sex Marriage, as a heterosexual, Bible-believing, Baptist Pastor
by the Revd Nathan Nettleton
Although the author of this chapter is an ordained Baptist pastor, the opinions expressed here are his personal views and are not seeking to represent the official position of any union of Baptist churches or the majority opinion of Baptist people.
This chapter has been published in the book:
Speak Now : Australian perspectives on same sex marriage.
Edited by Victor Marsh, PhD
ISBN: [978-0-9807120-9-4]
Publisher: Clouds of Magellan –
Publication Date: 2011 in paperback and most eBook formats
Marriage equality for same-sex couples is often portrayed as being an agenda pushed only by those who oppose the Christian faith and despise heterosexual marriage. At best, that is a gross generalisation, and I am one of the many exceptions. I am a married, heterosexual, evangelical Christian pastor and theologian who supports legislative amendment to allow same-sex couples the right to formalise their commitments in the legally-recognised covenant of marriage.
Personal Background: Since biases and vested interests are almost inevitable in this debate, it is necessary to begin by acknowledging where I come from. I was not always a supporter of gays in the church. Far from it.
As a fifteen-year-old, I was targeted disturbingly, but fortunately not very successfully, by a sexual predator who was an older male friend of my family. That experience left me with a hatred of homosexuals, and as a conservative Christian, it was easy to find biblical justifications for my fear and hostility. But I married young and my wife left me for another man before I was twenty four, and as a divorcee, I found myself in a category of people who, according to my own biblical conservatism, were ruled out of marrying and confined to lifelong celibacy.
It was out there in that wilderness, and chaffing against the unfairness of it, that I began to look around to see who else was similarly excluded. Who else was marginalised and left without hope of acceptance by the kind of thinking I had embraced? For a conservative and homophobic young Christian, finding that I was standing alongside the gay community was a bit of a shock. But now hat I was being told that the Christian thing for me to do was give up sexual intimacy forever, I
could see the injustice of what I had previously demanded of gay people. I recognised that they didn’t choose to be gay any more than I chose to be divorced, and that they couldn’t become straight any more than I could become un-divorced. So, I could relate to their alienation, even though I’ve never been able to relate to being sexually attracted to men. I find it hard enough to understand why women would be sexually attracted to men!
A few years down the track, with my theology maturing into something that took the Bible a lot more seriously (although not nearly so loudly), I fell in love with a girl in one of my theological classes and was soon thinking about re-marriage. I was reminded that it was still not acceptable to many of my evangelical brothers and sisters, because when I was accepted for ordination, some members of the selection committee declared that although they thought that in all other respects I was an excellent candidate, they had to vote against my acceptance because I would not rule out re-marrying.

So, while I had discovered in the crucified and risen Christ a grace that could welcome and celebrate new life after death, I remained very aware of what it feels like to live in the morally ambiguous space that is created by such grace.

 
 For more check the link below:

Same Sex Marriage Chapter