This is the third of our Q&A webinars with our new Patrons.
“God wants us to thrive and to shine and to rejoice in the way God has made us, not to live in fear or self-loathing as so many of us do.”
The Open Table Network is becoming a charity, so we have asked several notable Christians who identify as LGBTQIA+, or as allies, to become our patrons. They will be advocates for our Network, speaking about us and supporting us in the public eye. We are proud that these people believe in what we're doing and want to have their names associated with us.
The Right Revd Cherry Vann was among the first women to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1994. When she became Bishop of Monmouth in south Wales on 2nd February 2020, media attention focussed on the fact that she was the first lesbian bishop in the Church in Wales, and that she has a civil partner. As Archdeacon of Rochdale for 11 years before that, she celebrated with Open Table communities in Liverpool and Manchester, and supported a community consultation which led to forming the Open Table community in Derby.
Bishop Cherry will be in conversation with Sarah Hobbs, Co-Chair of the Open Table Network. Sarah works as the Managing Director of a consultancy which supports large organisations to identify and release the talents of their employees. She is an experienced conference speaker and Zoom webinar host with a passion for helping people to realise their potential. In 2017, she publicly came out as a transgender woman and began her transition process.