TODAY in the community where I joined the Methodist Church last year, I led the morning service for the first time, as I am now training as a local preacher. A national Methodist Church resource called …
POPE EMERITUS Benedict XVI died on 31st December 2022, and was buried in the Vatican this week. His legacy is long, though he resigned in 2013, the first Pope to do so for 600 years. …
AT THE START of the new year, Methodists make a distinctive resolution. The Covenant Service, often celebrated on the first Sunday of the year, is at the heart of Methodists’ devotion, discipleship, and dedication to social justice. In the service the Church joyfully celebrates God’s offer of loving relationship.
THE COMMUNITY in which I joined the Methodist Church earlier this year hosts a short telephone service on Sunday afternoons – like a Christian conference call! Yesterday I was invited to offer a five-minute reflection on the Gospel reading of the day: The persistent widow and the unjust judge
TODAY, 7th October, is celebrated in many Eastern and Western churches as the feast day of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, (died c. 303, Syria), who are among the earliest authenticated and most celebrated Christian martyrs. Their story also …
TEN YEARS AGO today (as I turned 42) I began this blog. I wrote a brief retrospective after five years. Here’s an update on the next five: having ‘come out of the Catholic church‘ in 2011, …
IN THE LATEST episode of a podcast ‘for migrants by migrants’, two people with experience of seeking asylum share their stories, one who won leave to remain in the UK with support from an Open …
THIS MONTH has seen Pride events all over the country. It’s 50 years this year since the first Pride March in London in 1972. To mark this milestone, I was one of a number of …
AT A SPECIAL communion service to celebrate the 14th birthday of the first Open Table community in Liverpool on Sunday 19th June 2022, I shared this reflection on Pride Month and how the origin of …
AS CONTROVERSIAL US preacher Franklin Graham began his UK tour in Liverpool on Saturday 14th May, the Open Table Network worked in partnership with others in Merseyside to offer an alternative event which showcased the …
TODAY I became a member of the Methodist Church – it’s not something I imagined I would do, as little as ten months ago, never mind ten years ago when I began reflecting on my …
ON 6th May 2012, Warren and I arranged a church blessing after registering our civil partnership. While we were planning it, the UK Government changed the law so we could register our civil partnership in …
Oct 11
As part of YMCA Liverpool’s commemoration of World Homeless Day 2019, residents and staff gathered to celebrate the opening of a new Memorial Garden at its headquarters, Hope House. As chaplain for this extraordinary community which offers supported accommodation for people experiencing homelessness, it was my privilege to dedicate the garden to the memory of YMCA members who are no longer with us.
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/10/11/gone-never-forgotten-remembering-with-thanks-on-worldhomelessday/
Aug 22
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.
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/08/22/comeasyouare-christians-at-pride-in-liverpool/
Aug 13
SINCE January 2019, I have worked part-time as chaplain for the community at YMCA St Helens. There I discovered a hidden gem, of which many of the hostel’s residents and staff were unaware. The chapel, on the second floor of the early 20th Century building on North Road, has not been used regularly for more than …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/08/13/everyones-chapel-plans-to-re-open-worship-space-after-20-years-ymca175/
Jul 12
THIS was the reflection I gave as part of my Action At Home – Module 5 of the Journey of Hope pilgrimage in Christian peacemaking and reconciliation. Read more about the Action At Home here or listen to a recording of this reflection here (15 mins). Tonight as we consider how we might make peace, …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/07/12/peace-reconciliation-activism-my-reflection-from-my-journeyofhope-actionathome/
Jul 12
My greatest lesson from this Action At Home was that peace and reconciliation start with me – if I want to offer opportunities for peace and reconciliation to others, I need to start with myself.
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/07/12/it-starts-with-me-the-fifth-step-on-my-journeyofhope/
May 30
THIS is the story I shared as part of the Radical Hospitality module of the Journey Of Hope pilgrimage: About two years ago, I dreamed that I travelled back in time and saw myself as a teenager. My younger self approached me and gave me a hug. The day before, I had visited a secondary …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/05/30/being-the-role-model-i-needed-to-see-on-my-journeyofhope/
May 30
An ‘inside-out’ journey beginning with hosting ourselves and moving out to consider host-guest dynamics within congregations and communities.
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/05/30/radical-hospitality-the-fourth-step-on-the-journeyofhope/
May 17
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/05/17/justice-protection-for-all-international-day-against-homophobia-biphobia-transphobia-2019/
May 06
ARE WE spiritual beings having an embodied experience or embodied beings capable of spiritual experience? This was the question with which I began a recent workshop for trainee spiritual directors on embodiment, gender and sexuality, which I deliver on behalf of the Open Table network of ecumenical worship communities for LGBTQIA+ Christians and all who …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/05/06/being-in-a-body-embodiment-gender-sexuality-and-spiritual-accompaniment/
Apr 18
AT the close of a conference on homelessness earlier this month, I had the privilege of supporting three members of the YMCA community to reveal a moving tribute to those who sleep rough in our city.
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2019/04/18/would-you-sit-next-to-homelessjesus/
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