A big ‘thank you’ to all our supporters, including these messages of support from well-known community figures.
“I am happy to support the launch of LGB Christians. This initiative is needed in the face of right wing and left wing ideologies that want to harm us. We can cherish our same-sex attraction and grounded in Christ we can discover anew our potential and gifts as LGB Christians.”
Urs Mattmann started an LGB Christian group in Switzerland in 1979 subsequently becoming involved with the European Forum of LGB Christian Groups. He is the author of Coming In – Gays and lesbians reclaiming the spiritual journey. He lives in Yorkshire.
“It’s time to dissociate struggles for women’s rights and gay and lesbian rights from the proliferation of rights-based demands to do with vaguely-defined and aggressively defended sexual proclivities and gendered identities. My concerns are: (a) serious issues to do with child protection, including children’s exposure to overtly sexualised adult behaviour; (b) trans ideologies being promoted among impressionable and vulnerable young people, sometimes leading to medication and surgery; (c) the erosion of women’s rights, including lesbian rights, by trans demands for full inclusivity and unrestricted access; (d) violently misogynistic trans activist rhetoric.”
Tina Beattie is Professor Emerita of Catholic Studies at the University of Roehampton. She began her studies as a mature student at the University of Bristol in 1991, as a recent convert to Catholicism and having moved to Bristol in 1988 from Harare with her husband Dave and four small children. Tina developed an early interest in feminist theology, but soon found in the emerging perspectives of gender theory a richer resource for analysing intricate questions of gender, desire, bodiliness, love and violence by way of reading sacramental theology through a psychoanalytic lens. Tina remains critical of many Catholic teachings on issues of sexuality, gender and procreation, but she has become increasingly concerned about recent developments relating to issues of gender identity and sexuality. She now seeks to perform a precarious balancing act between what she regards as two extreme forms of gender ideology - one emanating from the religious and political right, and the other emanating from the ever-expanding and ethically foundationless agenda of sexual rights activism.
“Any initiative that fosters faith and understanding in this field is to be warmly welcomed. This work seeks to build trust and dialogue across traditions, and thereby move beyond the impasse many groups, communities and individuals find themselves faced with. In contrast, this new initiative seeks fresh ground for developing common wisdom, thereby nurturing the costly compassion and care which characterises the authentic church.”
The Very Revd Professor Martyn Percy was the Dean (or Head) of Christ Church, Oxford, one of University of Oxford’s largest colleges, as well as being Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Oxford. He writes and teaches on modern ecclesiology, and as well as being a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, is a Tutor for the Said Business School. He is also Professor of Theological Education at King’s College, London, and was a Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of London. He currently holds two Visiting Chairs – as Professor in Theologically-Engaged Anthropology at the University of Georgia, USA, and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of Values, University of Winchester.
“Every advance in equality for lesbians and gays has always been won by creating the widest alliances in pursuit of a society we all want to and can live in. Institutional Religion has traditionally not been a friend the lesbian and gay equality. But, as the successful campaigns of Stonewall up to 2014 showed, there are many people of faith, gay, lesbian and straight who share that aim. As those who would claim to represent religion seek to wreak havoc in the lives and freedom of lesbians and gays in many countries abroad, the voices of all those who are generous in their faith are ever important.”
Simon Fanshawe is a co-founder Stonewall, and a writer and diversity consultant.
“I’m not a Christian but many of my favourite people are and I spend a lot of time in churches. There has long been a gap between the formal homophobia of Christian leadership in the UK and the tolerant, and often loving, attitudes of most congregations and clergy. In particular, the established national church remains one of the last bastions of homophobic prejudice in this country, which affects us all, Christian or non-Christian, and gives a distorted impression of the real Church. The fact that the Anglican leadership now falls over itself to embrace gender ideology, while clinging to formal homophobia, merely adds to the offence and reinforces the need for a strong LGB Christian network. I have great hopes for it.”
Simon Edge is the former editor of Capital Gay who spent many years as a national newspaper journalist and is now the author of six novels, including The End of the World is Flat and In the Beginning. He is the widower of a former Catholic priest
“I send my best wishes for the launch of LGB Christians. At a time when the debate over sexual identity has grown increasingly divisive and opponents of 'gender ideology' face threats to their livelihoods and even their lives, LGB Christians can be relied upon to offer a 'still, small voice of calm'.”
Michael Arditti is a novelist, short story writer and critic. He was awarded a Harold Hyam Wingate scholarship in 2000, a Royal Literary Fund fellowship in 2001, an Oppenheim-John Downes memorial award in 2003 and Arts Council awards in 2004 and 2007. He was the Leverhulme artist in residence at the Freud museum in 2008. His novels have been short- and long-listed for several literary awards and Easter won the inaugural Waterstone's Mardi Gras award. In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary DLitt by the University of Chester.