OUR NEWLY PUBLISHED 2024 Annual Report tells the story of how OTN continues to be a life-line for LGBTQIA+ people seeking a spiritual home. Since our very first Open Table community began in Liverpool in 2008, we have grown into a nationwide partnership of communities across England and Wales. Together these communities offer a genuinely inclusive, affirming space for LGBTQIA+ people, their families and friends to ‘come as you are’, as OTN’s slogan says.

AT OUR AGM on Saturday 5th April 2025 we welcomed a new trustee to our board for the next three years. Our trustees are responsible for thinking through and putting into practice plans which will develop the Open Table Network (OTN).

JUNE 2nd-8th is Volunteers’ Week - a chance to recognise the fantastic contribution volunteers make to our communities and say thank you. The Open Table Network wouldn’t - and couldn’t - exist without the volunteers who give energy, time and talents.

FOLLOWING the success of our Q&As with our Patrons in 2020-21 (still available on our YouTube channel), OTN Co-Chairs Revd Andrew Howorth and Dr Carol Joyner were in conversation in the last of our new webinar series.

OTN is calling on supporters to sign an open letter in response to UK government policies that threaten the safety, dignity, and rights of trans, non-binary, and intersex people. The letter was created by Revd Sam Mackie, formerly part of the leadership team of the Open Table community in Derby, now an LGBTQ+ Chaplain in Essex.

THIS SATURDAY, 17th May, is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia [IDAHOBIT]. This year’s theme is ‘The power of communities’. How are you planning to mark the day this year?

FOLLOWING the success of our Q&As with our Patrons in 2020-21 (still available on our YouTube channel), former Open Table Network Co-Chair Sarah Hobbs was in conversation with OTN Director Kieran Bohan in the third of a new series of webinars.

MORE THAN 80 LGBT+ affirming organisations, including the Open Table Network, have signed a statement in response to judges at the UK Supreme Court ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.

A MOVING and thought-provoking play coming to Liverpool this month invites us to imagine Jesus coming back to Earth now as a trans woman. The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven is a unique and emotive one-woman theatrical performance that ‘leaves everyone feeling blessed’ as it seeks to end trans discrimination.

FOUR YEARS after the Open Table Network became a charity, on Saturday 15th March we hosted an event for our Patrons and recorded a conversation between them with questions from our members.

FOLLOWING the success of our Q&As with our Patrons in 2020-21 (still available on our YouTube channel), new Patron of the Open Table Network Alex Clare-Young, theologian, writer, campaigner and pioneer minister, was in conversation with OTN Co-Chair Sarah Hobbs in the first of a new series of webinars.

FEBRUARY is LGBT+ History Month,an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and non-binary history. The Methodist Church in Britain has published resources for LGBT+ History Month since 2022. This year they asked the Director of the Open Table Network to share the story of how Open Table began and has grown from one to many communities.

FEBRUARY is LGBT+ History Month, an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and non-binary history. The ‘plus’ sign after LGBT indicates that our identities are more diverse than labels can represent, so all are included. This year, the Methodist Church asked the Director of the Open Table Network to write a prayer which will be shared with churches for the month.

The Open Table Network (OTN) is celebrating a record-breaking fundraising milestone thanks to the Big Give Christmas Challenge. OTN raised an incredible £11,075 in just seven days, exceeding its £10,000 target and doubling the impact each donation will have in 2025.

THANKS to players of People’s Postcode Lottery, OTNhas received a grant from the Postcode Neighbourhood Trust. OTN’s grant of £14,610, equal to one third of the charity’s income in 2023, will enable the charity to open more doors for LGBTQIA+ people in 2025.

WHILE DISCUSSION of sexuality, gender, and faith remains prominent in Christian denominations nationally, rarely does this engagement pay attention to the spaces where sexuality, gender, and faith already co-exist creatively. Now Open Table Network trustee Dr Peter Jones has completed academic research focusing on just that, including Open Table members and communities as a case study.

In November 2020 our former Co-Chair Alex Clare-Young interviewed Anglican priest, poet, writer and broadcaster Rachel Mann as she bacame a patron of our charity. Now Rachel, who became Archdeacon of Bolton and of Salford in 2023, is stepping down as a Patron to focus on her duties as an Archdeacon and her prolific writing career.

WE’RE EXCITED to share that The Open Table Network [OTN] has secured a Charity Champion funder for this year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge, the UK’s biggest match-funding campaign! The Together Fund will match every pound raised from our supporters during the campaign, helping us reach our ambitious £10,000 target. Here's how you can help.

OCTOBER 1st marks the first anniversary of the Director of the Open Table Network taking on the role. Thanks to the charity’s first grant from a national church, Kieran Bohan became the charity’s first Director on this day in 2023. Here's what OTN has achieved this year.

AN ART EXHIBITION which travelled cathedrals and town centre churches for a year ended last month with the donation of the centrepiece painting to the church where Open Table began. Fine artist and theologian Elizabeth Gray King donated 40% of the sales of original artworks and prints which people bought because of this exhibition, to OTN.