IN 1984, charismatic preacher Billy Graham came to Liverpool at the invitation of local churches as part of a six-date tour called Mission England. This June, his son Franklin intends to come to the city, though the venue has withdrawn the booking, as have all seven of the other UK venues on his planned tour. So what’s going on? Our Coordinator Kieran responds:

AT A carol service last Sunday, hosted by the first Open Table community in Liverpool, we heard this prayer, which was moving, inspiring and too good not to share.

ARE WE spiritual beings having an embodied experience or embodied beings capable of spiritual experience? Our Coordinator Kieran reflects on a workshop for trainee spiritual directors.

FEBRUARY is LGBT History Month in the UK, an annual commemoration of the lives and achievements of LGBT+ people. Kieran Bohan, Open Table Network Coordinator, reviews how four Open Table communities marked the month.

AT A carol service this month, hosted by the Open Table community in Liverpool, we heard this moving, inspiring extract from a lecture called ‘Jesus for the non-religious’ by John Shelby Spong, a retired US Episcopalian bishop

JEN WILLIAMS, founder of the Open Table community in Sefton, Merseyside, in 2017, reflects on what Open Table means to her, and what she’s learned from setting up a community.

ON SUNDAY 29th July 2018 the first Open Table community in Liverpool hosted a Post-Pride Chillout Service in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral to mark the end of the city’s Pride festival. This is the reflection from that service by Kieran Bohan, Open Table Network Coordinator.

A REFLECTION on the parable of the mustard seed (Mark 4:26-34) by poet Cate Jacobs, author of Climbing Mountains in the Dark, which evokes her experience of living with HIV, at the tenth birthday communion service of Open Table Liverpool, the first community in the Open Table Network.

AT A carol service last Sunday, hosted by the first Open Table community in Liverpool, we heard this poem, which was moving, inspiring and too good not to share.

‘DREAMING around an Open Table’ was the title of our national gathering in Coventry on 21st October, when 30 members of Open Table communities, and those considering whether Open Table is a ministry they wish to offer in their church, came together to share experience, insight and visions for the future. Here is our Coordinator Kieran’s reflection with which he opened the day:

ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2017, sixteen years after the devastating terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Center, an article appeared online about its first recorded victim, which asked: ‘Could Father Mychal Judge Be the First Gay Saint?’ Kieran Bohan from Open Table Liverpool reflects on a talk from his biographer Michael Ford.

THESE were the courageous words of the keynote speaker at this year's annual conference of Quest, which offers pastoral support for LGBT Catholics in the UK. Sister Jeannine Gramick has cared and campaigned for the LGBT+ community in the USA since 1971, two years before Quest was founded here.

ON FRIDAY 7th July, the Church of England General Synod Human Sexuality group celebrated an Open Table Eucharist on the theme of 'Pride & Protest'. Members of the Open Table communities in London and Liverpool led the service in York, which more than 80 people attended.

ON THE EVE of the General Synod debate on marriage and same-sex relationships, Kieran and Warren from Open Table Liverpool attended the launch of OneBodyOneFaith (a merger of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and Changing Attitude). Here is Kieran’s reflection on these events.

AT A carol service last Sunday, hosted by the first Open Table community in Liverpool, we heard this poem which was moving, inspiring and too good not to share.

Today (Saturday 29th October) is the final day of Asexual Awareness Week, created to celebrate asexual, aromantic, demisexual and grey-sexual pride and also to promote awareness. Amy, Gary and Katherine, members of Open Table at St Bride’s Liverpool, reflect on being asexual and raising awareness this month:

ON SATURDAY 2nd JULY 2016, members of Open Table Liverpool met representatives of the Open Table communities in Warrington, Manchester and North Wales, for an 'Appreciating Open Table' day, to help us discern our core values, how we share our vision, and where we want to go in the next three years.

WHEN I OFFERED to help look after the Open Table community stall at Liverpool Pride this year, I did not expect the experience to be quite so enriching and educational as it turned out to be.

JEN, a member of Open Table Liverpool, writes about walking with a Christian group in a Pride march for the first time. The theme of the Liverpool Pride march was ‘Icons’.

THE FIRST Open Table community in Liverpool marked its eighth birthday last month, with a celebration of what we have achieved in the past year, and looking forward to Liverpool Pride on 30th July with the theme: ‘Liverpool Icons’. Community co-facilitator Kieran offered this reflection.