The first Open Table wedding - OTN Coordinator reflects on ten years since first civil partnership in UK place of worship
Warren and Kieran sign the schedule of civil partnership - the first couple to do so in a UK place of worship.
PHOTO: Simply Perfection.
TEN YEARS ago, on 6th May 2012, Kieran and Warren, two of the founders of the first Open Table community in Liverpool, arranged a church blessing of their civil partnership.
While they were planning it, the UK Government changed the law so they could register their civil partnership in a church - and be the first couple in the UK to do so!
Kieran and Warren spoke to the Liverpool Echo on their tenth anniversary about how they met through another LGBT+ Christian group in the city in 2007, and were drawn into conversation by matching shoes!
They describe how they wrote their own blessing service and avoided using any language associated with marriage, yet received negative media coverage when a newspaper claimed it was a marriage, although same-sex marriage was not legal in the UK until 2013.
In 2015, they converted their civil partnership to marriage, and their marriage certificate was back-dated to the date of their civil partnership. They also had a service of thanksgiving at St Bride’s Liverpool, where the first Open Table community began, and the church community provided an amazing bring-and-share buffet!
Warren, 46, is now the LGBTQIA+ Ministry Facilitator at St Bride’s Liverpool. Kieran, 51, is now the Coordinator of the Open Table Network, which has grown from one community in Liverpool to 24 communities across England and Wales since 2015.
The Open Table journey has been a huge part of their relationship of more than 14 years. They became a couple about six months before the first Open Table community began.
