Greenbelt: LGBT+ Christians more than welcome to come as you are
Revd Dr John Bradbury speaks to the Open Table community in Cambridge in 2019. A minister of the church where Open Table Cambridge began, he became the General Secretary of the URC later that year. In 2020, John became a Patron of the Open Table Network.
ATTENDING a church service or Christian event can be hugely daunting for LGBT+ Christians and those exploring faith.
The Open Table Network (OTN) is working with the United Reformed Church (URC) to help people create safer sacred spaces for LGBT+ people as part of Greenbelt, an inclusive, affirming Christian festival of artistry, activism and belief.
While most other public places welcome us equally, LGBT+ people are still not always welcomed in Britain’s churches. We are significantly more likely to experience mental distress, which research has shown relates explicitly to discriminatory pastoral practices of local churches, and the Church’s substantial contribution to negative attitudes toward LGBT+ people in society (In the Name of Love, Oasis Foundation 2017).
Revd Fiona Bennett (centre), URC General Assembly Moderator 2022-23, with OTN Co-Chairs Revd Dr Alex Clare-Young (left) and Ms Sarah Hobbs (right) at a vigil for Trans Day of Remembrance at Downing Place United Reformed Church, Cambridge, in November 2022.
For the first time this year, OTN will host two workshops in yoURCafé, the URC’s café venue at Greenbelt, on ‘Creating safer sacred spaces for LGBT+ people’, where together we will explore how to cultivate an enriching and safe environment where LGBT+ people can explore and develop faith. This could be of huge benefit to LGBT+ people and to churches that might have a longing to welcome and support more LGBT+ people.
OTN has grown from one ecumenical community in Liverpool in 2008 to 40 communities across England and Wales today, hosted by churches in five traditions. More and more LGBT+ Christians are finding their way to communities where they can feel safe to explore their faith among friends.
The second Open Table community began at St John’s URC in Warrington in 2015. Gail Rose, who now leads the community and is an Elder in the church, said:
Open Table means everything to me. It has truly saved me. I was at a point of really hating who I was, but Open Table gradually brought me to a point, now, where I can stand and look at myself in a mirror and say, ‘You know what? I actually like you.’ That’s a point I never thought I would get to.
Eight more Open Table communities are now hosted by United Reformed churches, in Cambridge, Birmingham, Guildford, Bromley, Exeter, Heswall on the Wirral, Kendal, and Wanstead in London.
In March 2023, the URC Mission Committee awarded OTN a grant of £50,000 over three years. With the help of this grant, OTN is supporting more URC congregations across Britain to welcome, include, affirm and empower LGBT+ people from any Christian tradition, or any or no faith background.
The Revd Chris Dowd, Minister of Wylde Green URC in Birmingham, which has hosted an Open Table community since January 2022, said:
Open Table is a quality mark. It says clearly that there are LGBT+ people active and in leadership in the Church. It’s shorthand for ‘yes, you really are welcome’ for a whole range of questions that most LGBT+ people would ask before they stepped over a threshold of a church. Open Table already has a trusted reputation that would take a church many years to build on its own. That means you are starting years ahead of what you could do by yourself to prove you are trustworthy. It means LGBT+ people will also engage with other parts of your church knowing they will also find a welcome there.
On the outside of churches, signs often proclaim ‘All Are Welcome’; a simple phrase that promises a good outcome. It should mean that everyone, anyone, could walk in and be welcomed. But often, for LGBT+ people, it isn’t simple at all. Church welcomes may turn out to be chilly, awkward, conditional, complex, provisional or just missing.
That’s the reason why, until things change, the Open Table Network will continue to exist and grow; to build communities where we can feel God’s love in safety, affirmation and belonging.
Our slogan, ‘Come As You Are’, was inspired by a hymn one of our founders heard when he returned to church after many years. It still inspires us in the hospitality we offer in our communities. Come As You Are is our invitation to belong in our growing network. It reflects our intention, to offer an unconditional welcome in the name of Jesus to His table.
