Dec 24
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/12/24/coming-out-a-gay-christian-poem-for-christmas/
Dec 05
IT’S TEN YEARS this month since the first civil partnerships for same-sex couples in the UK. The first couple to benefit from the new legal recognition for their relationship were Chris Cramp and Matthew Roche from West Sussex, on 5th December 2005. Yet when images from the first UK civil partnerships appear in the media …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/12/05/a-momentous-decade-reflecting-on-ten-years-of-uk-civil-partnerships/
Nov 20
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/11/20/makingnoise-antibullying-interfaith-tdor/
Oct 31
AT THIS time of year it’s not unusual to hear people in England complain of the ‘American import’ of Halloween and its lanterns, costumes, and trick-or-treating. While it’s true that Halloween celebrations have become as commercialised as Christmas, in the USA and increasingly here in the UK, it’s also true that it was our ancestors …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/10/31/halloween-summers-end-a-feast-for-remembering/
Oct 26
WHAT IS a conversation if it’s not shared? Talking to myself? Enjoying the sound of my own voice? Only hearing views I agree with? This odd phrase was chosen by the Church of England to describe its facilitated listening process to seek some reconciliation, or at least ‘good disagreement’ over diverse views on sexuality and same-sex …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/10/26/what-is-a-shared-conversation/
Oct 24
THIS WEEK, the church where my partner and I volunteer to run a monthly LGBT inclusive service, faced a huge decision – whether to commit to at least ten years of major fundraising and building work, or to walk away and start afresh somewhere else. A question this big was hard to answer – the …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/10/24/some-principles-for-making-prayerful-decisions/
Oct 11
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/10/11/comingoutday15/
Sep 22
ON US TV today (Sept. 22), the clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to ANY couple because she didn’t believe in same sex marriage has said what hurts her most about how she has been treated since she defied the Supreme Court ruling on marriage in June – being called ‘a hypocrite’. Kim Davis …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/09/22/kim-davis-let-me-show-you-what-persecution-looks-like/
Aug 04
*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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/08/04/a-very-queer-time/
Jul 20
A CHRISTIAN community which warmly welcomes Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people, their friends and family, celebrated its seventh anniversary on Sunday 19th July, with the Bishop of Liverpool as their guest. The inclusive service, known as ‘Open Table’, meets on the third Sunday of each month at St Bride’s Anglican Church on Percy …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/07/20/bishop-shares-absolute-welcome-with-lgbt-christians/
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