Meet our Patrons: John Bell in conversation with Alex Clare-Young
THE OPEN TABLE NETWORK (OTN) 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 OTN, speaking about us and supporting us in the public eye. We are proud that these individuals believe in what we’re doing and want to have their names associated with us.
In the sixth of our Q&A webinars with our new Patrons, John Bell, hymn-writer, Church of Scotland minister, and member of the Iona Community, a dispersed Christian community working for peace, social justice, rebuilding community and renewal of worship, was in conversation with our Co-Chair Alex Clare-Young, a trans Christian minister and also a member of the Iona Community.
If you missed our Q&A webinar with John Bell on Thursday 15th April 2021, or want to watch it again, now you can catch up below or on our YouTube channel (60 mins). For the first time, this Q&A video includes British Sign Language interpretation, thanks to Andy Higgins of Vee Limited, who supports our Open Table community in Manchester.
John is also a broadcaster, and former student activist. He works throughout the world, lecturing in theological colleges in the UK, Canada and the USA. He has produced many collections of original hymns and songs, published by the Wild Goose Resource Group, a project of the Iona Community.
In 2017, responding to the story of 14-year-old Lizzie Lowe, who took her own life because she was afraid to tell her parents about her sexuality, John came out as a gay man in front of hundreds of people in a talk at the Christian festival Greenbelt, called Rampant Heterosexualism. He has remained single because he believed that this enabled him to work without hindrance or compromise as a public Christian and fulfil his commitments in the Church of Scotland.
John Bell was in conversation with Alex Clare-Young, Co-Chair of the Open Table Network. Alex is a minister in the United Reformed Church, currently ministering to an online community called Churspacious, and with the trans community. Alex's first book, Transgender. Christian. Human. was published in 2019 by Wild Goose. Alex is also a member of the Iona Community.
John answered a wide range of questions, including:
Tell us about your faith journey.
What are your tips for making music in our church communities more accessible and inclusive?
Members of the Iona Community follow a rule of life, which includes a commitment to ‘working for justice and peace, wholeness and reconciliation in our localities, society and the whole creation’. What does that means to you?
You chose to remain single to enable your work in the church. How do you feel about that now?
In 2017, you decided to come out more publicly at the Greenbelt festival. What led you to that decision, and how did you felt just before you gave that talk at Greenbelt?
Your songs are loved by many congregations and Christians. What inspires you to write?
One of your best known songs is The Summons, also known as ‘Will you come and follow me?’ It has profound lyrics, including ‘Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?’ What did that mean to you when you wrote it, and now?
What does ‘Open Table’ mean to you?
How can we sit together at an open table with people who would disagree with or exclude us as LGBT+ Christians?
You gave a talk at Greenbelt while wearing a bright yellow suit. What was the significance of the colour?
Are social justice issues more important to stand up for than preserving the idea of unity in the worldwide church?
When writing hymns, does the music or lyrics come first, or is it both?
There are two versions of the tune for The Summons - why is that, and which came first?
Tell us about your interview with Nick Bundock, the vicar of the parish in which 14-year-old Lizzie Lowe took her own life.
If you could choose to sit around a table with anyone, who would it be?
