IN OCTOBER 2014, the UK Government announced £2 million funding for charities offering creative ideas to stamp out homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (HBT) bullying in schools. In March 2015, eight organisations received a share of the fund, including the children’s charity Barnardo’s, for its plan ‘to provide face-to-face support for victims of HBT bullying and training for staff with a focus on… Read more »
AT A carol service last Sunday, hosted by Open Table, an LGBT Christian community in Liverpool, I read one of the readings, which I found moving, inspiring and too good not to share. The poem, called Coming Out by Sigrid Rutishauser-James, draws on the image of light in darkness, which was the theme of the whole service: Come into the light Be brave… Read more »
THIS WEEK in England there is an interesting combination of commemorations – Anti-Bullying Week, Interfaith Week, and Trans* Awareness Week, culminating today in Trans* Day of Remembrance (TDOR). I have been at four events in the past week to mark these campaigns: ‘An All Embracing Faith’ – Keynote speech by Ruth Hunt, CEO of Stonewall LGBT rights charity at Liverpool… Read more »
WHEN AN LGBT PERSON speaks of coming out, it often involves the moment of revelation to those closest to you, especially parents and family. October 11th is #NationalComingOutDay – so here’s my story: Coming out was certainly a major milestone on my journey, delayed and complicated by the fact that I spent three years in my twenties hiding behind the smokescreen of… Read more »
*Queer – originally meaning odd, used as a term of homophobic abuse, reclaimed by activists as a defiant act of liberation, now interpreted to mean radical transgression of norms – see my comments on Keith Sharpe’s book The Gay Gospels below. IT’S BEEN an extraordinary couple of weeks since my last post about the Bishop of Liverpool’s visit to the monthly… Read more »
IT’S LATE – my phone rings. It’s someone I haven’t heard from in a while. I answer. His greeting is warm, but it sounds like he’s been drinking. He chats about Facebook – he says he doesn’t use it much but he’s logged in and noticed the rainbow filter on my profile picture, the only one among his list of… Read more »
In at least 76 countries around the world, loving someone of the same sex is illegal and, in ten countries, it is even punishable by death. In many more countries citizens are denied their right to live as their preferred gender identity. As well as legal discriminations, social homophobia, biphobia and transphobia daily serve to deny millions of people across the world… Read more »
LAST WEEKEND, director of Changing Attitude Colin Coward came to our church to give a series of reflections inspired by twenty years working towards a more inclusive church around the world. Colin is an Anglican priest who originally trained as an architect and subsequently as a psychotherapist. He ministered for 19 years in inner-city parishes. In 1995 he founded Changing… Read more »
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters. This was the aim of last week’s two-day conference Open Church: The church, sexuality, mission and the future hosted by Steve Chalke, Baptist minister and founder of international charity the Oasis Trust. Steve hit the headlines two years ago when he called for an ‘open conversation’ around same-sex relationships and marriage in response to the… Read more »
BY POPULAR REQUEST, members of the community that meets monthly at St Bride’s Church, Liverpool for the Open Table LGBT service spent a day away again this month, six months after our first away-day last October. Following the theme of identity and individuality we explored in last month’s service, we developed and deepened this at St Joseph’s Prayer Centre in… Read more »
