THIS WEEK the Church of England’s College of Bishops meets to continue its reflections on how to respond to feedback from across the Church on its Living In Love And Faith process on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. Warren Hartley, co-facilitator of the Open Table Liverpool community offers four insights.

THANKS to the hospitality of the Jesuits in Britain, who have hosted LGBTQ+ Christian retreat weekends since 1991, St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in rural north Wales hosted a retreat called ‘A glimpse of Jesus’ on the last weekend in October. Yvonne Taylor shares her experience of her first time on this annual retreat.

A story of self-acceptance from Jonny Masters, Diocesan Youth, Children and Families’ Adviser in the Church of England Diocese of Chester, and a founding member of our new Open Table community in Nantwich, Cheshire.

It’s not easy being a Christian woman who loves another woman - Wendy Young shares her story of teen love, ‘prayer ministry’ to free her from this ‘lifestyle’, and a marriage proposal which rocked her world.

TODAY, 7th October, is the feast day of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, who are among the earliest authenticated and most celebrated Christian martyrs. Their story includes one of the earliest known references to ‘brother-making’ - a celebration of a loving, life-long, Christian relationship between two men, ‘not by the bond of nature but by faith and the spirit’.

THE final of Theology Slam 2022 - a competition to find engaging young voices who think theologically about the contemporary world - featured a talk on the body by Revd Alex Clare-Young, OTN Co-Chair and pioneer minister in the United Reformed Church.

ON SUNDAY 11th September at Open Table Warrington, Warren Hartley, co-facilitator of our first Open Table community in Liverpool shared this reflection on ‘the price we pay for love’, which echoes the words of Queen Elizabeth II in a message of condolence to those affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

BILLED AS ‘the nice people’s pop festival’ when in began in 1974, Greenbelt is more subversive than it first appeared nearly 50 years ago. The annual celebration of art, activism and belief describes itself as ‘a festival that’s inclusive, open-minded, participatory and generous in spirit’. Moon from Open Table Liverpool shares this reflection on their first visit.

GREENBELT, the Christian festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974, took place again last weekend. As part of this year’s OUT @ Greenbelt programme, OTN Co-Chair Alex Clare-Young led an LGBTQ+-affirming communion service on Saturday evening. Here is their reflection.

ON SATURDAY 13th August, the good folk from Open Table Chester and Wesley Church Centre took to the streets to celebrate the city’s Pride festival. Inspired by this joyful celebration, Suzanne wrote this poem to mark the occasion.

AS PART of the Christians At Pride service at Liverpool Cathedral last weekend, Sue Say, a member of Open Table Liverpool, offered this reflection on the theme ‘Come Together’, inspired by St Paul’s image of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-26).

THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE, a gathering of bishops from across the Anglican Communion for dialogue on church and world affairs, begins in Canterbury this week. Steven Shakespeare, author of Prayers for an inclusive church, calls out one of this year’s Lambeth Calls’ which claims express the common mind of the church but clearly doesn’t.

AT A PRIDE event hosted by a church in her diocese last weekend, OTN Patron Bishop Cherry Vann offered this reflection on the love of God in and for every one of us, without exception.

AT OUR Open Table Liverpool communion service this month, Revd Frances Skinner, a trans priest from the Diocese of Chester, shared this powerful sermon on the radical hospitality Jesus practiced which we are called to emulate.

AT OUR national gathering last month, PhD researcher Peter Jones, whose research features stories of Open Table members, led a breakout group on ‘mapping sacred space’. Here Peter reflects on how the event was so much more than another research opportunity.

STARTING a conversation about supporting LGBTQ+ people within any faith setting can be tough, writes Will from Frontier Youth Trust. This is what happened when a #Christian youth work charity asked an #LGBTQ+ organisation to train Christian youth workers.

AS PRIDE MONTH ends and London Pride celebrates its 50th anniversary, gay Christian blogger Jonny Masters shares this short story to mark this milestone.

AT A SPECIAL communion service to celebrate the 14th birthday of our first Open Table community in Liverpool on Sunday 19th June 2022, OTN Coordinator Kieran Bohan shared this reflection on Pride Month and how the origin of Open Table is linked to Liverpool’s first official Pride event.

Suzanne from Open Table Chester shares a poem for Pride Month: ‘Finding acceptance at Open Table has been transformative for me. Our friends there are some of the extraordinary people who have loved me back to life. Thank you for everything you do.’

A RESPONSE to a call to ban the Pride rainbow flag on church buildings because ‘what [the flag] represents… is contrary to the word of God’, by Revd Robert Thompson, the vicar who hosts our Open Table community in West London, and a member of General Synod.