A love song we sing back to God - The words we use at Open Table
Warren Hartley, co-founder of the first Open Table community in Liverpool. PHOTO: Mark Loudon.
AS WE PREPARE to celebrate the 15th birthday of the first Open Table community in Liverpool, Warren Hartley, one of its founding members, shares how the words we use in worship reflect the diversity of this community.
It may not always appear this way, but I struggle with words. Words so often feel inadequate to convey what is really going on in my heart or in my head. I so often feel I say the ‘wrong thing’ or it just comes out wrong.
Poetry or songs can move me to tears and I can’t explain why. My faith is similar, it is more something felt deep within, and words just slip away from me. It drives me crazy, as the words just rattle round in my head and can’t find expression. Just ask my long-suffering husband who has to listen to it all!
I share this to give an insight in how we put our orders of service together here at Open Table Liverpool. We are a diverse bunch of people across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, plus our families, friends, and anyone who wants to belong in an accepting, loving community. We come from many different Christian traditions, which speak of God and Jesus in different ways. The words in our order of service follow ancient structures. The basic layout of our service is similar to those the early Christians held around a century after the birth of Jesus. It connects us to the origins of our faith which grew out of Jewish traditions going back thousands of years before that. The words we use today are more modern, written by people who are LGBTQIA+, straight and cisgender, black and white, people local to us and from a long way away.
Brought together on the page, we pray they are a vehicle for you to find yourself in God’s presence and experience him/her/them beyond the words. May these words speak beyond their immediate meaning and point us beyond. Our faith is communal, it isn’t just an individual thing, we gather together as a people, as a community, as children of God in all our pain and in our triumph. Each word is chosen carefully to be a love song to this community which we then sing back to God!
There is much to weep over in our world. It can feel like Good Friday most days to many, and I know I’m not alone in feeling deep and profound sadness mixed with fear, from war, climate change, political, economic and social instability, as well as the homophobia and transphobia in our country and our churches. It can be easy to just give up or give in… I feel powerless, my efforts meaningless, that I let myself and this community down in effecting change or offering comfort or support.
Perhaps my efforts are inadequate… and perhaps that’s ok. You see it isn’t all about me, nor is it all about you. Resurrection isn’t a one-off event, it’s here amongst us today, and is a collective thing.
Where is the body of Christ today? Look around you. We are the body of Christ, living and loving in the world, and so there is hope.
One of the questions we are often asked is ‘How can we make the words we use in church more inclusive for everyone?’ So we’ve gathered here some beautiful prayers, services, poems and songs our Open Table communities have found these to be inclusive and affirming. READ MORE.
