Dec 01
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2016/12/01/who-is-my-neighbour-a-reflection-on-the-170th-anniversary-of-liverpool-ymca/
Jun 17
SUCH a sad few days since news of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub broke on Sunday. The worst terror attack on US soil since 9/11, the worst gun crime in US history, and perhaps the largest murder of LGBT people since the Holocaust. How do we respond in the face of such horror? I have …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2016/06/17/weareorlando-solidarity-with-those-lost-and-injured-in-terror-attack-onepulse-lovewins/
May 17
Why do we need a worldwide day to defend LGBT rights? At least 81 countries in the world criminalize same sex relationships. This means that 40% of the world population (or 2.8 billion people) are not free to choose who they love. Millions of homosexual and bisexual people live in a constant state of fear. In 10 countries, the death …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2016/05/17/watch-whywefight-un-free-equal-video-marking-idahot2016/
May 17
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, …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2016/05/17/one-flesh-the-play-lgbthm-review-pt-7/
Apr 24
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2016/04/24/barnardos-faith-toolkit-lgbthm-review-pt-5/
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 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 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/
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