THIS WEEKEND the Bishop of Liverpool, Rt Revd Paul Bayes, will join the celebration of Open Table, an ecumenical Christian worship community which offers a warm welcome to people who are: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) and all who seek a more inclusive Church. It’s not his first visit to Open Table. We originally invited him to join us… Read more »
IT’S BEEN almost five years since I started this blog – but in the last five months I have been unusually quiet. It has been an exceptionally busy time with the unprecedented growth of my voluntary work with the Open Table ecumenical Christian community, alongside other commitments. Not only that, but the company which was hosting the website became increasingly unreliable… Read more »
In April each year, many Anglican churches have an annual meeting to review the past year and look forward to the year ahead. St Bride’s Liverpool is host to the Open Table ecumenical worship community for Christians who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) and all who believe in an inclusive church. This post is adapted from the Open Table report at the St Bride’s annual meeting last month.
February is LGBT History Month in the UK – an annual festival to celebrate the lives and achievements of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people past and present. The Open Table community at St Bride’s Church in Liverpool, which my husband and I host, is honouring the occasion in its gatherings this month. LGBT History Month began in 2004, organised by Schools… Read more »
Yesterday afternoon I visited a secondary school to discuss what more they could do to support their LGBT+ students. Last night I dreamed I travelled back in time and saw myself as a teenager. My younger self recognised me, approached and gave me a hug. I may have been watching too much science fiction lately, but I suspect these two… Read more »
TODAY is Holocaust Memorial Day – the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz which marked the end of the extreme prejudice and discrimination which led to the extermination of millions of Jews and other minorities. Or did it? The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust also commemorates other genocides in more recent times – Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia,… Read more »
AT A carol service last Sunday, hosted by Open Table, an inclusive Christian community in Liverpool, I read one of the readings, which I found moving, inspiring and too good not to share. Amazing Peace by Maya Angelou Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses. Flood waters await us in our avenues. Snow falls… Read more »
This week I was proud to be part of the You Are Here LGBT+ history pop-up exhibition at Tate Liverpool. I loaned the Liverpool Echo report on our civil partnership (the first to be registered in a UK place of worship, at Ullet Road Unitarian Church… …and the 2014 Being Proud Award for Best LGBT+ Youth… Read more »
THE LAST two posts have told the experiences of members of the This post was inspired by the words of the visitors to the Open Table stall who left messages of love and thanks, wishes and prayers. Our aim with the community stall (see photo 1) was to create a safe sacred space in the festival marquee, a ‘prayer station’ to encourage… Read more »
THIS is a guest post by Richard Bibby-Brooke, a member of Open Table at St Bride’s Liverpool, who writes about being on our community stall at Liverpool Pride for the first time: When I offered to help look after the Open Table community stall at Liverpool Pride this year, I did not expect the experience to be quite so enriching and educational as… Read more »