FOLLOWING the success of our recent Q&As with our Patrons (still available on our YouTube channel), in September our Q&A will be a conversation between two Methodists about the recent votes on marriage, conversion therapy and gender-neutral inclusive language at the Methodist Conference in June.
Revd Dr Barbara Glasson, former President of the British Methodist conference, and a Patron of the Open Table Network, will be in conversation with Revd Mark Rowland, a founder member of Dignity and Worth which works for LGBT+ equality in the Methodist Church.
Revd Dr Barbara Glasson, OTN Patron
Barbara is a pastoral theologian and former President of the Methodist Conference. In 2000 she founded Somewhere Else, an inclusive faith community in Liverpool where people gather to bake bread and worship God. There she met LGBT Christians and other groups she calls ‘prophetic communities’. Her book The Exuberant Church: Listening to the prophetic people of God reflects on ‘coming out’ as a spiritual experience, and how the church too must ‘come out’. Barbara Glasson sees the coming out process as both profoundly human and deeply of God. As she became President of the Methodist Conference in 2019, the Methodist Church approved a report called God in Love Unites Us which proposed to allow churches to hold same-sex weddings. Covid restrictions delayed local churches voting on this report so she was unable to see a final vote before she stepped down in July 2020. Barbara now teaches Pastoral Theology at The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham. Read Barbara's blog on the outcome of the vote to allow same-sex marriage in Methodist churches.
Revd Mark Rowland, founding member of Dignity & Worth
Mark Rowland is originally from Aberystwyth and is a Methodist minister, currently serving as Free Church Chaplain at the University of Warwick. Mark lives with his partner Sam, who is also a Methodist minister. Mark is undertaking PhD studies at the University of Leeds exploring 'a queer theology of holiness'. He trained for ordained ministry at the Urban Theology Unit, Sheffield; Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, USA and Wesley House, Cambridge. Mark is passionate about the inclusion of LGBT+ people in the church and while at Coventry Central Hall built up a strong relationship with Coventry Pride and pioneered work on policies local Methodist Churches can adopt around services following same-sex marriage or civil partnership. Mark is a founder member of Dignity and Worth which works for LGBT+ equality in the Methodist Church, speaking prominently for these concerns in the Methodist Conference. He is interested in music and liturgy and has recently started to learn to dance! Read Mark's blog about his hopes for the Methodist conference votes.