Category: Coming Out

Love is all we need – A Christian marching at Liverpool Pride

THIS is a guest post by Jen Williams, a member of Open Table at St Bride’s Liverpool, who writes about walking with a Christian group in a Pride march for the first time: Basking in the sun, under a brightly coloured rainbow umbrella, donning a rainbow cape, and wearing a beautiful white t-shirt with the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2016/08/06/love-is-all-we-need-a-christian-marching-at-liverpool-pride/

One flesh: The play – #LGBTHM review part 7

In Interfaith Week, November 2015, the LGBT Foundation in Manchester held an event called ‘Believing In LGBT Young People‘, which was the inspiration for the Divine Love event I facilitated in Liverpool in LGBT History Month this February. At this event I met a young playwright and director who was promoting her new play, One Flesh, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2016/05/17/one-flesh-the-play-lgbthm-review-pt-7/

Barnardo’s Faith Toolkit – #LGBTHM review part 5

  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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2016/04/24/barnardos-faith-toolkit-lgbthm-review-pt-5/

Coming out – A gay Christian poem for Christmas

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/12/24/coming-out-a-gay-christian-poem-for-christmas/

Making noise for #AntiBullyingWeek, #InterfaithWeek, #TDOR

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/11/20/makingnoise-antibullying-interfaith-tdor/

Coming home – My story for #NationalComingOutDay

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/10/11/comingoutday15/

A very queer* time – Bishop goes viral, Quest continues, Love in the dock, God loves hugs & Michael’s mates

*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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/08/04/a-very-queer-time/

‘Rainbow profile pictures for sex offenders’ – Homophobia NOT satire

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/07/12/rainbow-profile-pictures-sex-offenders-homophobia-not-satire/

WATCH: United Nations ‘Free & Equal’ campaign video marking #IDAHOT2015

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/05/16/watch-united-nations-free-equal-campaign-video-marking-idahot2015/

A Coward with courage – challenging the Church, changing our image of God

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.  …

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Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2015/04/25/a-coward-with-courage-challenging-the-church-changing-our-image-of-god/

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