What makes sacred space queer and queer space sacred? Open Table members share their experience

Dr Peter Jones graduating at University of Leicester, July 2024

‘Church is more queer than we think.’ - Davide (Jones, 2024, Pg. 260).

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.

Peter’s PhD thesis, entitled Queerly Beloved: Bridging Spaces of Christian Faith and LGBTQIA+ Identity through Creativity, uses the social sciences, primarily human geography, and aspects of theology, to explore several core questions:

• How are queer sacred spaces made and maintained within the Christian faith?

• How do sexuality, gender, and faith establish themselves as co-creators of each other?

• What changes spatially when these relationships occur?

In short, what are the geographies of a queer church?

‘The place that God is calling us all to is a queer place and the place that is embracing queerness, that space is a holy space.’ - Bethany (Jones, 2024, pg. 276).

Crocheted monks gifted to St Nicholas’ Church, Leicester, one with a white skin tone holding a rainbow pride flag and one with a brown skin tone holding a trans pride flag.

A creative diary entry from Charlie showing an icon of her friend

Charlie’s diary entry of a chalice with her reflection

A diary entry from Jide showing his home altar space in response to the prompt ‘Take a photo or draw an item that is holy to you, what makes it sacred?’

Through in-depth interviews with members of Open Table and the community at St Nicholas’ Church, Leicester, plus participant observations within these communities, Peter has collated hundreds of hours of stories and experiences, and carefully examined and reflected upon them to tease out what makes sacred space queer and queer space sacred. Among the findings is the exploration of storytelling itself as a key method for crafting queer sacred space, where the art of testimony is used for activism, healing, and community belonging.

Peter engages us through the nuanced ways that LGBTQIA+ Christian spaces are beyond the binary, neither completely free from institutions with complex power relationships, nor completely bound by them. In doing so he presents a critical intervention into approaching the subject of sexuality, gender, and faith, especially for national conversations in institutional churches. He explains:

‘Queer sacred spaces provide an invaluable space that allows LGBTQIA+ Christians to just be, beyond reconciliation and “debate”, and we should therefore be safeguarding these spaces.’

Peter argues that while many demand resolution of sexuality, gender, and faith, and argue for their reconciliation, queer sacred spaces like the communities across the Open Table Network offer space to be unresolved, unreconciled, to come as you are, as the Open Table Network slogan says. This ability to provide space to be comes through various means of reclaiming and reworking (queering) rituals and practices within church tradition. Liturgies are re-written, hymns crafted to reflect a larger breadth of identity and experience, and rites of passage are reclaimed for queer lives. See our ‘Speaking and singing to God’ webpage for some practical examples.

 ‘You have a place in the heart of God and in the Christian tradition and have every right to explore your relationship with God in our churches.’ - Karen (Jones, 2024, pg. 267).

As a queer trans man himself, Peter weaves in his own precious experiences, talking of baptism liturgies being reclaimed and reworked to mark the changing of his name. Such practices not only make queer sacred space, they allow LGBTQIA+ Christian lives to actually live, beyond debate, beyond argument, beyond reconciliation. This research highlights the nuances of a queer church with creativity and narrative storytelling woven into the writing. Ultimately, Peter makes a strong case for the nuances within these spaces as a work of holy chaos!

READ Peter’s full thesis entitled Queerly Beloved: Bridging Spaces of Christian Faith and LGBTQIA+ Identity through Creativity free here:

Jones, P.N. (2024). Queerly Beloved: Bridging Spaces of Christian Faith and LGBTQIA+ Identity through Creativity. University of Leicester. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.25392/leicester.data.26068105.v1