The Meaning of Singleness

If you are wondering what happened at our Shepherd's Hut seminar on singleness read on to discover the key points covered.

Dani Treweek spoke honestly about her own experience of being single in the church. She also combined this with her in-depth academic research into the topic.

Here are some of the things she said:

We need to be aware that it is almost impossible to talk about singleness without suggesting that it is in some way ‘deficient’.

We need to be careful with the descriptors we use to talk about people. We would never say of a married person, ‘they are un single'. But we often describe single people as being ‘un married’.

Singleness can occur at any stage in life and is not just a ‘waiting room’ before marriage.

There are many in our churches who are single for a vast array of reasons.

Single parents, recently divorced people, widowed people, and same-sex attracted people who choose not to pursue relationships. There are also students, those who desperately want to be married, and those who are content in their singleness.

Learning how to love and support all these people requires wisdom and patience.

Evangelical Christians have been unhelpfully complicit in furthering certain cultural narratives that give the impression that marriage is the ultimate, indeed the only context where people can truly flourish.

We need to be careful not simply to agree with certain leaders because they are so helpful on other (unrelated) topics.

On the other hand, we need to be careful not to begin talking about singleness as a greater sacrifice than others that deserves special honouring in our Christian communities.

It is our status as God's beloved children, and our inheritance secured by our elder brother Jesus, that ought to serve as the grounds for our self-understanding. And for how we relate to one another, whether we are married or single.