Moon: 'God created me. So God loved me. It was that simple'.
The Open Table and St Bride’s group marching at Liverpool Pride in 2017 inspired Moon to 'come as you are'
This city may have two cathedrals on a street called ‘Hope’, but I never expected to find God in Liverpool.
I don’t mean that Liverpool is Godless - far from it. The two cathedrals prove that. I just mean I never expected to find myself finding God anywhere. The location is kind of superfluous... except it isn’t really. It was Pride of all places...
I mean, who expects to find God at a gay party? Except for the signs saying ‘God Hates Fags’ of course. Whenever I see those signs, I think ‘Well, He should give up smoking then!’
That was my attitude back then - to take the piss. The bible-bashers hated me and I hated them right back. But then I met the folk from Open Table and St Bride’s Church. They were different. Nice even. Not the kind of nice that makes your insides crawl, but genuinely nice. They were genuine. No bullshit.
So, back to that fateful day when I was walking behind them on the Pride march... We were crossing the flyover when I suddenly felt Christ’s presence - almost as though he was sitting on my shoulder like a parrot. But instead of squawking ‘Pieces of eight’, he was just smiling, knowingly. I knew then that he’d always been with me, waiting. Waiting for the moment I came to my senses and let him back in.
You see, I’d always been a believer but because I felt The Church, ‘Christ’s people’, didn’t welcome me, I wasn’t about to welcome them... And feeling my only way to Christ was through those people, we lived segregated lives. But here was Christ now. Here on the flyover. And the only people of his around were St Bride’s.
Intrigued, I found myself, a week or two later, at that great foreboding giant of a building. Stood at the steps, not being able to see inside, I almost lost my nerve.
But inside I found reassurance in the wooden pews and smell of damp (all gone now). This was church as I remembered it from my childhood memories. But, all the same, I was wracked with nerves: Would they try to convert me? Lay on hands? Tell me I was a sinner?
No. Like the city of Liverpool before them, they welcomed me with open arms and open hearts. Then shared a meal around an Open Table. I later found out this is called an ‘Agape meal’, after the Greek words for self-giving love; without doubt, I have found love at Open Table. Love from a community of souls hurt and abandoned by ‘Christ’s people’ but now finding it in each other through the love of Christ.
In my Bible-lessons at St Bride’s, I learned a new truth: God loved and welcomed all. There was no judgement: God created me. So God loved me. It was that simple.
I believe it is from this knowledge of God, that Open Table got their motto:
“Come as you are”
We don’t need to put on our ‘Sunday best’, do our hair and wash behind our ears here. We don’t need to mind our Ps and Qs. There is no need to be anyone but ourselves. Because of this, I have found who I truly am.
That is the magic of Open Table. It’s love. No holds barred. No knockouts. No submissions. Twice a month on Sunday (and the days in between): Love.
