THIS MONTH, as the Co-ordinator of the Open Table Network, I led the first of a new series of monthly online worship gatherings. We took the theme of ‘coming out’, as 11th October is marked around the world as ‘Coming Out Day’.
Pride in Liverpool is ten years old this year. It was formed as a response to the murder of 18-year-old Michael Causer, who died 12 years ago today. It’s also twelve years since the launch of the first Open Table community at St Bride’s Liverpool, and five years since the beginning of the Open Table Network. Last weekend I offered a… Read more »
IT’S BEEN a year since the sixth step on the Journey of Hope pilgrimage of training in ‘Christian peace-building and reconciliation… to inspire and equip Christian leaders to become skilled practitioners of reconciliation in their churches and communities.’ reconcilerstogether.co.uk The pilgrimage journey included five residential modules from January to June 2019 – I wrote my reflections on each of the previous steps… Read more »
AS PART of the tour of Merseyside by Queer Virtue author Liz Edman last month, I took part in a panel discussion called ‘Queer Faith Voices’. Liz uses the term ‘queer’ in the academic sense, as a verb meaning ‘to disturb / disrupt false binaries’. These binaries can relate to gender (male/female) or sexuality (heterosexual/homosexual), but they can be so… Read more »
For the past three years, the Open Table LGBT+ Christian community based at St Bride’s in Toxteth has coordinated the Christians At Pride group in the Liverpool march.
In 70 countries, loving someone of the same sex is illegal and, in 7 countries, it is punishable by death. In many more countries citizens are denied their right to live as their true gender identity, and 369 murders of trans and gender-diverse people were reported worldwide in 2018. As well as legal discriminations, social homophobia, biphobia and transphobia daily… Read more »
THIS WEEK is your last chance to see a trailblazing exhibition of stories, objects and memories from Liverpool’s LGBT+ community at the Museum of Liverpool. #TalesFromTheCity was launched on 12th October 2017, the day after National Coming Out Day, to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act with stories from Liverpool’s LGBT+ community over the past five decades.
Yew Fook Sam, known as Sam, from Liverpool, Merseyside, has had his request for asylum rejected by the Home Office and fears he will now be detained and deported. Sam is 67 years old, in poor physical health, and facing physical punishment or imprisonment if he is forced to return to Malaysia because he is openly gay. The Home Office… Read more »
SINCE 2010, the third Thursday in October has been marked as #SpiritDay, when millions of people wear purple and change their social media profile pictures to help create a world in which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) young people are celebrated and accepted for who they are. It began in 2010 when Canadian high school student Brittany McMillan created it as a response to… Read more »
IN RESPONSE to a post I shared recently from my blog archive, ‘I am what I am’ – A reflection on identity, Claire, a member of the Open Table ecumenical Christian worship community for LGBTQIA+ Christians in Liverpool, wrote this response which I am happy to share: When I think about my identity, I often remember a dream I had… Read more »
