As a single person in Church, I’ve asked myself at times: do I really belong? Church life can, by default, be built around marriage and families, and that is not my immediate experience. I’ve even asked church leaders outright what place there is for someone like me in church – a single woman with no children (and now in my 40s).

But I haven’t had any decent answers yet. Instead, I’ve charted my own path, knowing full well that Jesus himself was single and has a purpose for those, like me, who fall outside of the assumed pattern. Though churches don’t set out to intentionally exclude single people, by emphasising marriage and families, singleness gets treated as nothing more than a waiting stage before getting married, rather than a wholly valid status in and of itself. Read more at Woman Alive