An original altar frontal artwork designed by Tony O’ Connell for the first Open Table community in Liverpool
Our faith & belief
Here is a simple summary of the way we think about God’s love and the basic Bible ideas upon which Open Table was built, and which keep it growing. There is no doubt in our mind: God loves us all.
Our theology
“This is why OTN needs to exist and to grow: to allow us all the space to experience that, in God’s ever-loving eyes, who we are is who we’re meant to be.”
The word ‘theology’ comes from two Greek words - theos, which means ‘God’, and logos, which means ‘word’.
The simplest definition of theology, then, is ‘words about God’. For us, as followers of Jesus, theology is the faithful development of Jesus’ words and ideas. We look constantly at the relationship between the Bible and our lives, to understand what God wants, for us and from us.
But there is more than one way of thinking. Black theology and feminist theology, for example, emerged because the lived experience of black people and of women has been so widely ignored by mainstream theology. The same is most certainly true for LGBTQIA+ people: our part in God’s world has been widely ignored, or even denied.
One of the most dangerous things that one Christian can do to another is to assume they know about that other person’s life. Another is to presume they know what God thinks about that life. OTN’s theology is about God’s undoubted love for us all, and the way it shows up again and again in the Bible’s poetry and stories, in the words of the prophets and - of course - in the words, actions and life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Our spirituality
The Cambridge Dictionary defines spirituality as,
“The quality that involves deep feelings and beliefs of a religious nature, rather than the physical parts of life.”
That’s basically the received wisdom of centuries.
But it won’t completely do, because implied in this definition is the notion that, somehow, the physical sides of our lives and loves can be ignored or denied - and of course they can’t. God didn’t create humans only as Spirit. God created us all to be who we are, in the flesh, and sent Jesus to be with us. God with us. Everyone’s spirituality must be a part of their whole being.
This is why OTN needs to exist and to grow: to allow us all the space to experience that, in God’s ever-loving eyes, who we are is who we’re meant to be.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that any of us has arrived at where we’re going. But in our experience of loving (and being loved) by God, and in learning from Jesus and from one another, we’ll end up more whole with more integrity, strength and joy.
Our faith
All of us, especially those who have been rejected by a faith group (often more than one), have to make a ‘leap of faith’ from fear to hope.
St Paul didn’t believe in Jesus to start with. For a long time he feared Jesus’ ideas and persecuted his disciples. He thought they had no part in God’s plan. Finally he came to faith in a blindingly huge and transforming moment on the road to Damascus [Acts 9:1-19]. Some time later, he wrote this to the new community of Christians which he had founded in Rome:
“I am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.”
All of us are part of God’s love and God’s plan.
Our belief
Take any group of people within any community, cultural group or faith gathering, and however much they belong together, and identify with each other, they’ll all have different ideas. Churches are like that - and so are our Open Table communities. We all believe according to our ideas of what is right, our traditions, our lived experience; and those are unique to ourselves.
Our first ever Open Table worship meeting, which took place in Toxteth,Liverpool in 2008, had six people present, from four different Christian traditions. The thing that held - and holds - us together was an ache to belong in a LGBTQIA+ community that trusts wholly in God’s love and in the powerful words and actions of Jesus. So, belonging in an Open Table community doesn’t mean you’re expected to ‘sign up’ to a list of our ‘Truth’. You may be the friend or family member of a person who belongs to an Open Table community. You don’t even have to be a Christian. We just want to offer you a space to belong and to find out what new belief emerges from being part of a safer, more accepting worshipping community.
This is the OTN Statement of Faith which underpins our decisions, our processes, our conditions for membership and our safeguarding practice:
“The Open Table Network is a Christian organisation,
but not a church.
Our work is built on a common profession of the faith of Jesus Christ,
but not confined to the detailed tenets of any one denomination.
We believe human lives, identities and relationships are precious gifts from God,
which all are called to live out with integrity.
Our goal is to build communities where this is evident,
and which equip others to go out and do the same.
We seek to serve members of the
LGBTQIA+ communities, and the wider Church,
by sharing the Christian gospel and promoting
invitation, understanding, acceptance and reconciliation between them.
We value and supports the practice of Christian common worship,
specifically the celebration of Holy Communion,
which we regard as the primary context of our welcome and outreach
to LGBTQIA+ people.”