Twenty years ago, around the time of the remarkable Pitlochry conference on Pastoral Approaches to Homosexuality, there were great expectations of rapid progress being made in understanding and in care. The very title of the Pitlochry Conference was significant. It recognised that the churches not only had considerable numbers of gay and lesbian members whose pastoral needs they must address, but that the churches must come clean about the place of gay and lesbian people in the Christian fellowship. 'The problem' (if that is how one sees it) is not simply 'out there' in what is sometimes called the world, but it is also an internal issue for the churches which they must face honestly if they were to deal faithfully and well with their gay and lesbian members. And the issue was more profound than that: it was a matter of the nature of the community that is called 'Church': How far is it open to difference? Can the suspicion between straight people and gays be overcome within the church, as was the division of hostility and unease between Jew and Gentile Christians long ago? Can the Church help its members to overcome prejudices and suspicions which often impede the development of loving openness within the congregation and within the Christian family?

It was perhaps purely accidental that with the Dunblane conference ten years later the title was slightly changed. It now became Pastoral Approaches to Gay and Lesbian People. That is a useful and important reminder that we are dealing with people and with patterns of relationship, with love and friendship, and hopes and fears, with uncertainties and confusions, with questions of identity and with the nature and importance of fidelity. But while the change from the abstract 'Homosexuality' to 'Gay and Lesbian People' is to be welcomed because it personalises matters, we must also remember that all the members of the church and everyone within the ambit of the Christian faith needs greater responsiveness to God's call to love the neighbour who is different, greater understanding of matters of sexuality, greater frankness and courage in facing difficult issues honestly, and greater sensitivity in dealings with people who are different, in sexuality or otherwise.

It would be nice to be able to say that there had been steady progress since Pitlochry 1980. Perhaps there has been progress in some areas and in some places. There are people who as a result of listening, and of openness to the human situation and to the mind of Christ have changed their views radically. But progress, if it has happened, has been painfully slow, and often seems to be a matter of one step forward and then two steps back. There has been too much dialogue of the deaf, with people from different positions speaking past one another, and rarely pausing to listen. Yet lack of progress over the last two decades simply underlines the importance of forging an honest, open and sensitive dialogue with the Scottish churches now. This matter is intensely urgent. People are still being deeply hurt by the churches' attitudes and actions. Many gay people in the churches ask how long they can remain members of churches that are so often suspicious and uneasy, if not outright hostile. And huge numbers of younger people just cannot understand how Christian churches can be so intolerant. There is a younger, different 'Silent Majority' from that which opposed the repeal of Section 28 which believes the churches are in their attitude to gay people for the most part hypocritical and oppressive, and totally out of touch with the realities of today.

In some ways things seem to have got worse since 1980. Those who believe that Cardinal Winning's populist and extreme rhetoric represents the steady position of the Roman Catholic Church could be reminded that the 'Pastoral Guidelines' of 1979 which were authorised until a colder wind blew from Rome, started with a magnificent section on friendship and love, and their central importance for everyone, suggesting that perhaps all Christians have lessons they should learn from gay people about the importance of generous, open friendships. The Guidelines then went on to suggest that while in 'the objective moral order' homosexual behaviour was 'disordered', in the real world in which we live and in which the pastor must give guidance, in some circumstances long-term loving relations involving physical sex may be pastorally acceptable. That cautious but significant new openness has now been replaced with a harder line. Which is a pity, because it represented a far more open and sensitive approach than has been presented more recently. But it is important to remember that on this issue the Vatican - or Cardinal Winning, for that matter - does not represent the view of all Roman Catholics.

My own church, the Church of Scotland, like many other churches around the world, has had a difficult time working out where it stands on this issue. In 1994, after considering several reports which took rather different views, the General Assembly agreed to recognise that there were radically divergent positions within the church, and called for a period of study and reflection in the hope that after a time the church could reach a common mind. I am in favour of not rushing to judgement on a matter which can be so divisive. Any sharp decision by a majority would deeply wound many members of the church, and give a misleading impression of unanimity in the Church. But I get the impression that there is rather little of the serious study that the Assembly recommended going on. A lot of people seem to be hoping that the issue will simply go away - which of course it won't. But where there is serious study here and there, and people actually face their feelings and fears and prejudices and try to realign and reassess them in accordance with their Christian faith. Remarkable things can happen, and are happening. Christian parents find that they cannot dismiss their gay son as 'disgusting', and have to learn from him how to be loving Christian parents to a gay young man. Conventional Christians are forced to admit that gay love is love, and that we all have a lot to learn from the gay experience. But we must be honest: the Church of Scotland is still full of prejudice against gays. Some ministers are fearful and feel they have to disguise their sexuality. And there has been, unless I am much mistaken, a significant haemorrhage from the Church of Scotland of gay people to other denominations in which they feel they are more likely to find acceptance.

The Anglican Communion, as we discovered from the last Lambeth Conference, is deeply and bitterly divided on issues of sexuality. The Scottish Episcopal Church is something of an oasis in an Anglican desert. But even here, although there is commonly a real welcome for gays and they are listened to, there remain some deep and disturbing divisions within the Church.

All in all, the time is ripe for this conference to initiate a serious (but not necessarily solemn!) dialogue with the churches. My hope and prayer is that people will listen to the hurt and pain of exclusion, to the fears of gay Christians, and the isolation of many. But above all, I hope people will realise that the fullness of the Church demands the full involvement of gay people in the life of the Church. They have distinctive and rich gifts to offer in and to the Church of Jesus Christ in Scotland and elsewhere. They have lessons to teach us all.