There is no easy, straight forward answer to whether the ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ within the Methodist Church has been successful, and there must be an awareness that nobody is claiming that it has come to an end, but there needs to be a real recognition of whether it is positively achieving its aim ‘to combat repression and discrimination, to work for justice and human rights and to give dignity and worth to people whatever their sexuality.’[1]

            It is clear that on official lines the Methodist Church began to affirm all of its people, the 1993 Conference was an official recognition that gay men and lesbians are part of the church and that they are permitted to have a ministry within Methodism.  In essence the ‘leading body’ of Methodism had made a decision on a subject that was proving to be divisive, which was positive, or seemed to be, to non-heterosexual people (however the affirmation does leave out bisexual and transsexual members).

            Whilst 44% of non-heterosexual people who responded thought the ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ had achieved something towards its aims, 44% thought it hadn’t.  The ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ in its ultimate is about recognising and including these people, yet almost half feel that nothing has been done.

            The ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ has brought the issue to recognition and made open space to discuss what sexuality is, it has almost permitted people to discuss a previously taboo and shunned topic.  Some recognise that it has helped them to acknowledge and tell others about their sexuality, others feel that attitudes have changed, but there are still significant reasons why the ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ has not worked towards this.

            There was a definite feeling that although the ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ had worked at the top level within Methodism, and had made the atmosphere there one of openness and discussion, there was little signs of people at the grassroots of Methodism engaging in any pilgrimage at all.

            In the research conducted amongst the sample circuit there is a definite variety of opinion, with many opinions held that official understanding in Methodism would deny.  The most significant being that 41% of people disagree with Resolution 6 of the 1993 Derby Conference, perhaps without even recognising it.  Methodism since 1979 has affirmed that homosexuality has nothing to do with paedophilia, every report on sexuality since then affirmed this, and yet 14% of people mentioned children when asked to discuss gay and lesbian people.  There were many fears about promiscuity, a belief that affirming gay and lesbian people is about allowing a sexually promiscuous society as acceptable, thus there were concerns mentioned about the spread of diseases.  It seems that some people believe that allowing homosexual people in the fullness of church life is about accepting the ‘ways of the world’, even when the Methodist reports on sexuality have affirmed the wholeness of committed long-term relationships, and Resolution 2 affirms that Methodism believes promiscuous acts to be destructive and against God’s will, whilst in the same breath affirming the welcome of gay and lesbian people, highlighting that a promiscuous society and homosexuality are separate issues.  There were thoughts that sexual orientation could be changed, or thought of as only tendencies, even though Methodism affirms this as unlikely.  All of these prove that people have not engaged with a pilgrimage concerning sexuality, they have not understood, or it has not been shown to them, precisely what Methodism is talking about concerning non-heterosexual people within the church. 

There were many responses that seemed to believe that non-heterosexual people aren’t actually in the church, but they are a certain group in society who the church is looking at perhaps permitting in one day, that choose their sexuality and their lifestyle.  Yet Methodism, again in its reports, has affirmed that an individual does not have a choice over their sexuality, and that roughly 5% of not just society, but also logically the church, are homosexual.  This proves that people are not hearing about the stories and experiences of non-heterosexual people in the church, to aid them in their pilgrimage.

There were also a number of concerns expressed about same-sex relationships threatening married life, it would be interesting to discover exactly what it does threaten, but nonetheless these were real fears amongst many people.  There were many expressions of marriage being about procreation, yet Methodism here has affirmed that sexuality is now to be understood not just about having children, for what about childless couples – is their marriage less valid?

At the grassroots of the church, and many would argue the ‘actual’ church – because that’s where people’s lives are affected and led – there is a large amount of miseducation and misunderstanding.  They have not had the information to engage with, to digest and think about.  If Methodist people are going to actually engage in a ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ then the facts and the starting points need to be understood and recognised by all – only then can people truly recognise what the issues are, and understand what they are disagreeing on, looking towards reconciling the various viewpoints, or at least discussing them.

            Despite many people expressing negative views about homosexuality, there were still half of people who were accepting and affirming of having homosexual people within the church.  However, as some people have pointed out in their responses, this may have nothing to do with the ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ at all, but the way society’s attitudes have changed.  This is likely, as the majority of people who responded, within the specific circuit, had not even heard about the ‘Pilgrimage of Faith’ that is meant to be a significant response to dealing with the issues surrounding non-heterosexual people in the Methodist Church.  In looking at the British Social Attitudes survey, in 2003 about 36.54% thought that sexual relationships between two adults of the same sex were not at all wrong, whilst 31.39% thought they were always wrong, with a variety of views in the middle.  Taking into account all the views in the BSA research, it would seem that about half were accepting of them, which is very similar to the research found here.  The British Social Attitudes also shows that acceptance has been increasing over the years, and some of the responses have commented that older generations are much more conservative than younger ones, and they certainly seem to have a much more fixed understanding of sexuality and marriage.  This leads some to believe that it will naturally move towards an acceptance of non-heterosexual people.