LGBT Q&A: Meet our Co-Chairs
OTN Co-Chairs Revd Andrew Howorth and Dr Carol Joyner.
FOLLOWING the success of our Q&As with our Patrons in 2020-21 (still available on our YouTube channel), Open Table Network Co-Chairs Revd Andrew Howorth and Dr Carol Joyner were in conversation in the last of our new webinar series.
If you missed our Q&A webinar with Andrew and Carol on Wednesday 21st May 2025, or want to watch it again, now you can catch up below or on our YouTube channel (60 mins).
Andrew became a trustee of the Open Table Network in March 2023, and Co-Chair of the charity in March 2024. Carol became a trustee of OTN in March 2024 and Co-Chair in April 2025.
Andrew recently retired as a Chaplain at the University of Bradford. He worked in mental health for 27 years, and served as a Methodist minister, before becoming a Church of England priest. Andrew works alongside his civil partner with the team that is developing the Open Table community in Bradford, the first to meet in a place that is not a church. WATCH Andrew’s intro video [2.5 mins].
Carol is a freelance tutor, lecturer, public speaker and author of several books on bisexual Christian intersectional identities and LGBT Christian inclusion. She is part of the worship team at Augustine United Church in Edinburgh and on the leadership team of Our Tribe LGBT Ministry there. She lives with her wife just outside of Edinburgh and hopes to extend the Open Table Network in Scotland. WATCH Carol’s intro video [2 mins].
Andrew and Carol answered a wide range of questions, including:
Both:
In your early years, what was your experience of church?
How would you identify and when did you realise this part of your identity?
How has your faith helped or hindered you to understand your identity?
Andrew:
What did you learn from becoming a Methodist minister then transferring your ministry to the Church of England?
How have your experiences in mental health chaplaincy and university chaplaincy informed your understanding of the needs of LGBTQIA+ people, particularly younger people?
How did you come to host the first Open Table community that meets in an LGBT community venue, and not a church?
Carol:
How did you became a bisexual Christian activist.
You were married to a man, and now to a woman, so how has people's understanding of your sexuality changed?
What did you learn from being Secretary to the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups and Vice-Chair of the Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement that might inform your OTN role?
Both:
What unique perspectives do each of you bring to this shared leadership role?
What are you most looking forward to in your role?
What are the biggest challenges facing Open Table communities and the network?
Andrew:
What would you say to your younger self, and what might you say to a young person today facing similar challenges?
Carol:
How can people who aren't bisexual better understand or better support bi people and bi Christians in particular?
Both:
What do you think a truly inclusive church looks like?
What sort of relationships would OTN like to have with church denominations, with local congregations, and what might help to build those relationships?
What gives you hope?
