The Christian Consultation broadened its mission in its third annual gathering on November 2-3, 2001, by reaching out to pastors and to minor-attracted adults from all communities.

The first action taken by the men and women gathered near Washington, D.C., was to adopt a new name for the organization: the Christian Consultation on Adult Attraction to Minors. Participants expressed the hope that more people from a variety of Christian communities concerned with adult-minor attraction would take part in future gatherings.

The Christian Consultation was founded in 1999 in an attempt to bring together minor-attracted adults and people who are not attracted to minors to discuss Christian issues related to pedophilia and pederasty. Past gatherings have discussed ways to begin dialogue on these issues and have offered suggestions on how a minor-attracted adult can seek assistance from others through peer support groups and support circles.

The need for greater variety of participants was especially apparent at this year's meeting because the topic was how pastors can minister to minor-attracted adults who are celibate. One participant, Ted, noted that only one person at this year's gathering was a pastor, and he said, "I find this presumptuous that you're offering advice to pastors when none of you are pastors."

Several participants agreed that it is important to provide the opportunity for peer support between pastors who provide ministry to minor-attracted adults. A new project to provide such support was discussed by the participants, who agreed that pastors working in this topic area have few resources to draw upon.

Alan, a Protestant pastor who had been told a few years ago of a congregation member's attraction to children, said that simply knowing of other cases of ministry to minor-attracted adults would be useful to a pastor. At the start, he said, "I would have found it helpful to know that this was no new thing, that other pastors have dealt with this."

Helen, who is not attracted to minors, added, "I would say that the first thing that needs to be done is to make people aware that [celibate] minor-attracted adults exist. There's a general perception that all pedophiles go out and molest children."

Bonzo agreed that it was important to "provide a situation where pastors can talk to each other." He said that it was useful for pastors to be provided with scientific and historical information, but that such information needed to be supplied "precisely and succinctly, with an acknowledgment that disagreements exist between scientists" studying adult attraction to minors.

The importance of history was underscored by Andrew, who has studied the history of homosexuality, including the history of pederasty. He said that it is useful for pastors to know that the minor-attracted adult in their congregation "has not fallen off an asteroid," and that adult-minor attraction has been common throughout history. Although he noted that societies have disagreed on the moral worth of pederasty, Andrew believes that "historically, the societies that dealt with [adult-minor attraction] dealt with it by making it known."

The participants agreed that counseling from a pastor or a spiritual director can provide assistance to a minor-attracted adult seeking Christian guidance, but the participants at the gathering had mixed stories to tell about how successful such ministry can be.

One of the minor-attracted participants reported that he had told his pastor after several months of close conversation. He had received the spiritual guidance he sought.

Another participant said that he not only told his pastor but also set up a support circle of friends and acquaintances who were not minor-attracted but were willing to provide guidance to him. He described the support circle as being an experience of mutual learning, with the members of the support circle reporting that they had learned about their own sexuality in the process of assisting the participant.

By contrast, another participant said that, when he told others in his denomination that he was attracted to boys, there had been little reaction except a general wariness of him from that time forth. He said that he has been withdrawing from his church community because he feels that he always has to watch what he is saying.

Another participant had told a friend of his attraction to boys, and the friend had informed the Buddhist community that they both took part in. As a result, the participant was barred from continuing in his training as a meditation teacher, since the community feared that he might harm the children in the families that he would teach. The participant concluded, "This is more grist for the wheel. Despite the fact that this has been painful for me, it hasn't changed why I would be a Buddhist."

The secular world provided a helpful approach to another participant, who works with children. When his employer learned of his attraction, the participant said, he was advised of certain guidelines he must follow in his work with children. These were the same guidelines that all other adults at his workplace were expected to follow.