FOLLOWING the success of our recent Q&As with our Patrons (still available on our YouTube channel), in September our Q&A was 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, was in conversation with Revd Mark Rowland, a founder member of Dignity and Worth which works for LGBT+ equality in the Methodist Church.

If you missed our Q&A webinar with Barbara and Mark on Thursday 23rd September 2021, or want to watch it again, now you can catch up below or on our YouTube channel (58 mins).

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 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 exploring 'a queer theology of holiness'. 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, pioneered work on policies local Methodist Churches can adopt around services following same-sex marriage or civil partnership, and hosted an Open Table Network national gathering. 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.
Read Mark's blog about his hopes for the Methodist conference votes.

Barbara and Mark discussed a wide range of questions, including:

• How does the Methodist Church make its decisions?

• What’s it like sitting in John Wesley’s ‘big red chair’ as President of Methodist Conference?

• Why does the church need an understanding of cohabitation?

• Why does it matter that we talked about ‘conversion therapy’ to change people’s sexual orientation / gender identity?

• How might these decisions transform the wider church? Will the sky fall in because of these changes?

• How do we de-problematise conversations around sexuality and marriage, and recognise diversity of belief?

• What do you think the decisions that the Methodist Church have made mean for partnerships with other Christians e.g. Anglican and Catholic churches which hold different positions?

• What does the Methodist Conference’s decision on gender-neutral language mean in practice? e.g. what’s the gender-neutral term for ‘Patron’? How can organisations like OTN feed into that conversation?

• How to we ‘queer’ the church and move away from binary debates? How did John Wesley radically transform the Church?

• How do we understand the role of experience in making decisions about our faith?

• Did the Methodist Conference consider gendered language in how we talk about and address God?

• Do you think the ‘traditional’ Methodist Church is too lenient with those who use the Bible against change?

• How might the Methodist Church move forward with ministers who differ in their views from their church community e.g. a minister who is in favour of marrying same-sex couples and a chapel who is not?

• If Conference protects the right to hold a belief in marriage as only between one man and one woman, does it also defend the right of those people and churches to say to a same-sex couple: ‘in our view, you aren’t married in the sight of God’?

• What advice might you give to the Church of England in its process of reflection on identity, relationships, sexuality and marriage?

• What do you think the decisions that the Methodist Church have made mean for the Open Table Network?

Catch up with Barbara and Mark in conversation (58 mins):