Up and Coming in the LGBT world

Recently I listened to a podcast on the Methodist website from a couple who run the Lincolnshire Parents of LGBT children support group. They were speaking about the journey they have gone on and how it has inspired them to support others. Listening to it was encouraging for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it was inspiring to hear their story and how that being faced with personal challenges had led them into being able to support others. Secondly, it was good to hear how the support that Two:23 and the group it runs for parents together with Diverse Church is developing into inspiring regional groups such as this and finally it was great to have another example of the Methodist Church seriously engaging with trans.

The support now being provided for parents through Lincs Parents, Eklektos and Diverse Church Parents - part of the wider Two:23 and Diverse Church family, which, to the observer such as myself, continues to grow in ways which seem to confirm God’s blessing is something I think is incredibly important. It is important to note that these ministries are seen as something positive which are being offered in addition to groups like Fflag not in competition to or in replacement to them.

It also prompted me to think about how it was probably time I did an overview of what’s going on at the moment because as ever the sands have been shifting in the Christian LGBT area.

One of the most significant changes over recent months has been Jayne Ozanne taking over at the helm of Accepting Evangelicals. Jayne is somebody who has previously been part of the Archbishop’s Advisory Council which I understand from those who can translate Anglican structures and processes for me (i.e. Karl) is quite an important group. For those unfamiliar with her the interview she did with Ruth Gledhill in February is worth a watch. Readers in Kent may be interested to know she is speaking at an event in Whitstable on 6th June which was covered in an article in the local newspaper.

Keeping on the Anglican theme the facilitated conversations are underway now and there seemed to be mixed responses to them emerging from participants. Rose Grigg talked of her experience in quite positive terms on her blog. Thinking Anglicans have posted Erika Baker’s reflections which have also been positive talking of “hope”. Canon JeremyPemberton however has not been so positive in his reflection. Whilst he recognises how well the sessions have been organised and led he writes a piece which highlights the reality of the situation when some from the conservative evangelical position refuse to attend and how he found the experience to be “demeaning and infuriating”. The Changing Attitude website is a good place to look to keep informed on what is coming out of these meetings from a LGBT perspective.

Of course it is not just the Anglicans who are having important conversations at the moment in one form or another they are taking place in most of the Protestant denominations at the moment.

This week the Church of Scotland meets in Edinburgh and their General Assembly will be making important decisions regarding ministers in Civil Partnerships and in marriages which are between two people of the same sex as reported in this BBC article.

The URC has been seeking to come to a consensus and has been facilitating discussions within local congregations and more widely within the organisation about congregations being able to decide whether to conduct same sex marriage. The results of these discussions show the the division on the matter in that congregation is split between roughly two thirds being in favour of congregations being able to choose for themselves and one third against. The denomination’s council met this month and has voted to pass a resolution from a working party recognising the ongoing division on this matter and taking the discussions on at local synod level for a final decision to be made at the General Assembly in 2016 rather than recalling an emergency meeting on this issue in June according to the papers which the denomination publishes on line.

The Methodists are continuing their discussions on the matter and their discussions are due to go to conference in 2016 also. Within the denomination Outcome is the group who campaign on behalf of LGBTQI people and they continue to positively move forward in their work. They are holding their annual general meeting on 30^th May in Manchester and amongst the speakers on that day entitled ““An Inclusive Church: This year, Next year, Sometime, Never” will be Vice President of Conference Mrs. Gill Dascombe. They are also holding a fringe meeting at Methodist Conference in Southport on Monday 29^th July. The meeting on 30^th May will be important because they are also announcing their strategy and a resource to explain it to others.

The Baptists Fresh Streams Network has put up a range of resources on their website. Also within this denomination Affirming Baptists, the group working to support LGBT Baptists and their allies, is continuing to grow and develop their work. They have a bright updated website which is advertising an event on 18^th July Continuing the Conversation which is aimed primarily at those within the denomination and is “an opportunity to hear and share about engaging pastorally and in gospel mission with those in same-sex partnerships”.

Many of the groups mentioned above together with others will be part of the Christians at Pride group who are aiming to provide a positive Christian witness as part of the Pride in London celebrations next month, which will include more groups than ever. (This does provide some issues personally because Karl will be there with Santander who have been proactively developing their LGBT network and along with Facebook and others are amongst the new groups have registered to be on the parade this year and so I have to decide whether to go along with him or be part of this group). There has also been a call via face book for supportive clergy to come along wearing their clerical collars in order to counter the view many of the public, particularly within the LGBT community that the church and clergy are all anti-LGBT. If you are coming along on June 27^th to that event please try and wear purple.

On the subject of clergy who can legitimately wear purple lots of the time Bishop Alan Wilson recently spoke at the LGBT Fellowship Hulland East Riding. The Bishop of Buckingham was also one of the speakers at the recent Oasis Open Church event on Sexuality which Ekklesia reports was a positive event. Another one of the speakers at that event was Vicky Beeching who was also a speaker at the GCN conference in the USA earlier this year and her talk is available online. She has also been appointed as an advisor on LGBT issues and religion to the United Nations. It is important, though, as we think about these speakers and praise their efforts not to question where we think issues of integrity may exist and a good place to find some of these questions is on the God Loves Women website where the writer has raised some important and interesting questions.

Bishop Alan is also due to be the speaker at Two:23’s next meeting on 13^th June. Podcasts from recent speakers at Two:23 including youth worker Jo Dolby who spoke movingly and Greenbelt Festival regular Dave Tomlinson are also available on their website.

 

The LGBT Fellowship have also had LGCM’s Tracey Byrne and Stonewall’s Ruth Hunt as speakers at an event previously. Ruth Hunt is the keynote speaker at this years LGCM annual general meeting and national gathering which is happening in Nottingham on 6^th June. Stonewall is also moving forward in the development of incorporating the T into their work and is currently appointing a trans advisory group in order to help them do this. The Quaker LGBT+ group QLGF are also taking on board the T and their website advises on October 31^st they will be holding an event which will be focused around listening to the experience of trans and gender variant people.

The work of Catholic LGBT group Quest continues to grow and is encouraging to see that in the past week they have celebrated mass with Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Apparently this is not the first time that Cardinal Nichols will have met with LGBT Catholics but it is the first time that it will have been publically announced and so that is encouraging.

A final interesting developments, more generally to note, are that Inclusive Church has published two more books in their series on inclusion and by definition exclusion. Today in Guildford they are launching their Ethnicity and Gender books which go with those already published on sexuality, poverty, disability and mental health. All are published by Darton, Longman and Todd.

Two Tate Exhibitions and Two:23

One of the locations which I find to act like a thin place for me is the Tate Modern. As I wander round the space I find myself encountering the spiritual in a way I don't in many other places. When life is tough and I really need to encounter the divine I find myself heading in that direction. I also find it useful that it is within a stones throw of where Two:23 meets and so I am able to combine the different forms of worship and reflection every so often individually refilling before I go and join in corporate worship. This spiritual aspect is one reason I find maintaining Tatemembership so important......it enables me to go and fully enjoy what the gallery has to offer whilst I encounter the divine through art and space.

Recently I headed to the gallery to reflect and refill. I knew the Marlene Dumas exhibition The Image as Burden had started (it's on until May 10th) but I didn't know the Conflict Time Photography exhibition was on the same floor. Both are worth a visit.

The Conflict Time Photography exhibition is on until 15th March. It covers 12 rooms and contains work from Don McCullin, Simon Norfolk, Jo Racliffe, Pierre Antony-Thouret, Michael Schmidt, Harry Shrunk and Janos Kender, Stephen Shore and Chloe Dewe Matthews amongst others. It takes as it's theme Kurt Vonnegut Jr's Slaughterhouse-Five which is a book which seeks to look forward after war rather than looking back.

As you move around the exhibition which starts by looking at "Moments Later" you are taken around the world from the Crimea to Libya, America to Bosnia and France to Congo amongst other conflicts.

I was found the pictures of America after the American Civil War particularly interesting and the pictures from Congo most moving. The former reflected location and the latter people and this mix of geographical and physical is reflected throughout the exhibition.

One of the most striking elements of this exhibition is the Archive of Modern Conflict installation A Guide For The Protection Of The Public In Peace Time. This takes you into what essentially feels like a 1940's living room but is a space containing collages and objects from or reflecting conflicts around the world. It is thought provoking and striking.

The images show reflect horror, hope, rebuilding and resignation amongst them. They are striking and I would challenge anybody to wander round unmoved by what the exhibition shows and that is the point.

From this I moved across the third floor on to the Dumas exhibition which focuses on the body primarily. There are 14 rooms to move around, some of which are explicit and shocking. There are glimmers of hope as with the collages of black faces which are seeking to focus on the humanity of people whose bodies were the focus of the pictures which were the base for this piece. However, much of the exhibition feels dark and disturbing with it's roots in pornography. There is a tension which she acknowledges in her work between to show or not to show.

There were two paintings which were amongst the most striking to me which did not fit in with much of the rest of the exhibition and these were Solo which is based upon the crucifixion but according to the accompanying blurb moves beyond this to reflect the feelings of isolation which is felt by those who are sent by their fathers to war and death. It is a moving crucifixion which reflects the isolation which Jesus experienced on the cross. The second picture which struck me was The Wall which shows Orthodox Jews near the partition wall. It depicts them in a similar way as to if they were at the wailing wall which I found interesting.

The article accompanying this exhibition in this spring's Tate Etc magazine explains this is the most significant exhibition of her work to be held in Europe and moves from her early paintings to her most recent work on paper.

Again this an exhibition I would challenge anybody to go round without reacting to as it is striking and is one of those shows which demands some response.

After these experiences I moved up to the members room and sat reflecting with a pot of Earl Grey looking out over the river Thames and on to St. Pauls which dominates the view. I find it to be a relaxed but busy space where you can sit and meditate even though you are surrounded by a constant buzz.

From the gallery I moved on to Two:23 which continues to grow. After a vibrant and refreshing time of musical worship I listened to Greenbelt favourite and vicar of St. Luke's Holloway Dave Tomlinson talk, (now available online) of the way in which we make a mistake of trying to find God because he is everywhere around us and we are always in his presence. We have not lost the divine and (s)he has certainly not lost us according to Tomlinson whose talk was primarily based around reading extracts from his latest book The Bad Christian's Manifesto. As I listened to this I smiled and wondered. Whilst it may be true we do not have to search for God and neither we or (s)he is lost yet it is also true there are places where we are more aware of being in the presence of the divine. For me, as I've indicated, the Tate Modern is one of those spaces, somewhere where even when I am really struggling I can connect with that which is beyond me. God may not actually be any nearer to me there than elsewhere but I am certainly more aware of the presence of the divine there.

As a final aside on that occassion I took a different route to the gallery, and wandered up from Borough tube station. I found a cafe at the back of the gallery in Great Guildford Street called RoseTate where I was able to get a really tasty ham and cheese roll, a slice of cake and can of coke for under £4. As somebody who prefers plain food and so struggles in with the posh dishes that the Tate tends to offer this was a real find. Physical and soul food are both needed to replenish us and I was so pleased to benefit from both today.