Looking Behind the Blue Cards: Understanding Contested Ethical Approaches in the Ecumenical Space

Abstract

This article has been generated from observations to do with public theology being exercised in an ecumenical space: that context was the World Council of Churches Assembly in 2013. Some participants sought to create an inclusive safe space for conversation on LGBTQI+ exclusion; they wished to voice the concerns, hurts, gifts and joys of living in the hyphenated queer-Christian experience. When the topic of human sexuality arose in business sessions, Orthodox Church representatives raised ‘blue cards’ which indicated their dissent. Looking behind the ‘blue cards’ there is a mismatch of Orthodox approaches to understanding liberation theology as the basis of those seeking to engage a public theology response to sexuality in the WCC ecumenical space.