This year Liverpool YMCA celebrated its 170th anniversary, and this year I became the chaplain to this extraordinary community. My role is to listen, support, care and gently question – to be there for everyone in the organisation regardless of faith or belief. At the anniversary celebration at Liverpool Parish Church last month, I read the story of the Good… Read more »
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 marriage. Perhaps they meant that,… 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 »
A YEAR AGO I trained as a volunteer with Diversity Role Models, a charity which offers workshops in schools featuring positive LGBT or straight ally role models who speak directly to young people about their experiences, to challenge bullying by promoting empathy. They began in London in 2011 and are now expanding across the UK, including Merseyside where I live and… Read more »
OPEN TABLE, the monthly service for Liverpool’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* (LGBT) community at St Bride’s Liverpool, held its first Retreat Day last weekend. Twelve regular participants in the Open Table service came together at the Cenacle Convent in Liverpool for a time of reflection on where we have come from as individuals and what it mean to be an… Read more »
This article about my work was published last week on the blog of Young Minds, the UK’s leading charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people: Coming out to yourself… …is the first step FOR THE LAST nine years, I have had the pleasure of supporting young people who identify as lesbian, gay,… Read more »
WHAT MAKES a couple relationship happy and lasting? It helps if you’re gay, have no children, and like a nice cup of tea… Last month, The Open University published the finding of research project called Enduring Love? Couple Relationships in the 21st Century into how couples experience, understand and sustain long-term relationships in Britain today. It revealed that: • Same sex couples are more positive… Read more »
A YEAR AGO TODAY, Stephen Fry came to Liverpool to meet members of the Liverpool LGBT youth group GYRO (gay youth ‘r’ out) to find out about their experiences of being young and LGBT in 21st Century Britain. It was planned as part of his documentary on homophobia called Stephen Fry: Out There which was first broadcast by the BBC… Read more »
LAST WEDNESDAY: former Aston Villa and Everton midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, who resigned from professional football last September, announced he is gay. No other professional footballer currently playing in this country has had the courage to do the same. Hitzlsperger said there is “a long way to go” before there will be an openly gay man playing in a top league. He explained: ‘The… Read more »
I BEGAN this blog a year ago after attending a seminar called ‘The Book You Were Born To Write’ by Nick Williams. Completing my 42nd year felt like an apt moment to do so, since 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything! It’s been an interesting and eventful year – I did not… Read more »
