SINCE JUNE 2008 when we began, we have bloomed and grown! Starting with a group of just six, we've turned Open Table into a network of welcoming, affirming LGBTQIA+ worship communities. We're multiplying and blossoming. In March 2021, the Open Table Network became a charity. Read a summary of our first annual report.

JUNE 1st-7th is Volunteers’ Week, and this year’s theme is ‘A Time To Say Thanks’. The Open Table Network wouldn’t - and couldn’t - exist without the volunteers who give energy, time and talents, across England and Wales. All of our Trustees and Patrons do the same. So we want to thank them all for making OTN what it is today.

OUR ONLINE celebration of Pride Month features a reflection by our Co-Chair Alex Clare-Young, on the relationship between Pride and Pentecost, the 50th day after Easter, on which Christians remember the gift of the Holy Spirit to the frightened first followers of Jesus following his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to heaven.

AN INCLUSIVE event at Liverpool Parish Church this Saturday 14th May will celebrate the Liverpool City Region’s LGBT+ community and mark International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia led by Open Table Network and our community partners.

TEN YEARS ago, 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!

LAST MONTH, amid widespread condemnation, the UK Government decided not to include trans people in its conversion therapy ban. In an interview with the Evening Standard this week, OTN Co-Chair Alex Clare-Young shares experiences of conversion therapy, and concern that being trans is not something to be cured, but to be accepted and joyfully celebrated.

THIS WEEK, in My Faithful Ally, the podcast that shares the stories and testimonies from queer people of faith, OTN Coordinator Kieran shares his journey from teaching and training for priesthood to a new call to support LGBTQIA+ #Christians

THE DEADLINE to respond to the consultation on Living In Love & Faith (LLF) - the Church of England’s resources on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage - is fast approaching. If you have taken part in an LLF course - or if you have not but still have feedback you want the bishops leading the process to be aware of - you have until Saturday 30th April to respond.

OTN PATRON Rachel Mann and Co-Chair Alex Clare-Young were among the 14 church leaders calling on the Prime Minister to remove the exclusion of trans people from the proposed ‘conversion therapy’ ban

THE ETERNAL WALL OF ANSWERED PRAYER is a glorious landmark under construction NOW. Each of the one million bricks will digitally hold a story of prayer answered. And Open Table Network supporters are invited to tell our stories.

THIS WEEK the 2022 Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives Conference (GIC+) brought together more than 150 religious leaders from 30 countries and a range of faiths, along with academics and lay leaders, to agree a set of Safeguarding Principles to protect LGBT+ people from harm.

THIS MONTH, two OTN supporters feature in My Faithful Ally, the podcast that shares the stories and testimonies from queer people of faith.

FAITH AND CIVIC LEADERS will come together with Liverpool City Region’s LGBT+ community and allies on Saturday 14th May for a celebration and LGBT+ affirming service to show that ‘Liverpool Loves You’.

MORE THAN 2,500 signatures from Christian leaders have been added to a letter in support of a full ban on 'conversion therapy' in less than 10 days since it was published. The letter will be sent to the Government on 1st March 2022.

LAST SATURDAY, the Bishop of Liverpool, Right Revd Paul Bayes, retired. In an interview with the Church Times this week, he speaks candidly about his ministry and hopes for the future of the church.

FOR LGBT+ History Month, the BBC has spoken to several LGBT+ people in ministry who share their stories of faith, hope and love. Among them is OTN Patron Cherry Vann, Bishop of Monmouth, the first lesbian bishop in the Church in Wales, and in a civil partnership.

FEBRUARY is LGBT+ History Month, an annual festival to celebrate the lives and achievements of LGBT+ people past and present. As part of the month-long festival, the Museum of Liverpool is hosting a panel discussion Big Chat Series: Christianity and LGBT+ Lives, with OTN Coordinator Kieran Bohan on the panel.

A 2021 safeguarding survey of more than 750 UK LGBT+ Christians shows that only a third ‘feel safe to be out’ in their local churches, and just one in five feel ‘safe to be out to the wider Christian community’.

IN JULY 2021 Inclusive Church, OneBodyOneFaith and the Open Table Network asked our members and supporters to respond to a survey about your experience of online church and in-person church gatherings and events. Researcher Krysia Waldock shares the newly-published findings of the survey.

FIVE LGBTQIA+-affirming organisations have agreed to endorse and signpost to the statement of Inclusive Church, the educational charity which works with churches of different traditions, encouraging them to explore ways in which they may become more inclusive.