Blessed Imp
  • Home
  • About
    • why blessed imp?
    • community at PItt Street
    • pen and ink reflections
    • transgender journeying
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
    • why blessed imp?
    • community at PItt Street
    • pen and ink reflections
    • transgender journeying
  • Blog
  • Contact

IDAHOBIT is 30 - but when will Churches also mature, fully affirming LGBTIQ people?

11/5/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
I first formally joined the (UK) Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement in 1990, the year that the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, and IDAHOBIT - the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia - began.  May 17 (IDAHOBIT) marks the anniversary of that significant WHO change, and since then considerable advances have been made by LGBTIQ people across the world and in many key sectors of life.  The original gay and lesbian focus has also been widened and deepened to acknowledge the rich diversity of human sexuality and gender: IDAHOBIT thus started as IDAHO, without bisexual, intersex and transgender engagement, just as the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, to which I still belong, has broadened as One Body One Faith.  The need for IDAHOBIT is still nonetheless massively apparent, particularly in many countries of the world.  Under the cover of the COVID-19 crisis, some, such as Hungary and Poland, are also moving backwards in respect and affirmation.   In countries such as Australia, understanding and support of bisexual, intersex and transgender people still lags behind progress for gay and lesbian people.  As the International Day reaches 30 years old however, it is also a time for appropriate celebration of remarkable positive developments in so many places and areas of life.  When, and how, however will Churches, and other religious groups grow up to their own mature humanity, 'to the measure of the full stature of Christ' (as Ephesians 4.13 puts it)?...

 religion - the last refuge of the scoundrel?

As a priest, transgender person, and long time advocate for life-giving change, it has been depressing to experience the slowness of positive response by Churches to the movements of growth in relation to sexuality and gender.  As official bodies, they have typically not only been resistant to the light of LGBTIQ experience and scientific knowledge - seemingly, as Jesus put it, lacking 'eyes to see and ears to hear' the ever clearer demands of love, justice and humanity.  They have even become leaders in reaction.  Sadly this has included continued refusal to honour their own sexually and gender diverse members, whose gifts are so vital for their own survival and growth.  Indeed, in this respect it seems at times that, to adapt Dr Johnson's phrase, religion has become 'the last refuge of the scoundrel'.  Thus, even within parts of comparatively 'mainstream' religious bodies in society, things are able to be said, and done, about LGBTIQ people which would not now be countenanced in so many other quarters.  The current moves to enshrine the 'right' to religious discrimination are symptomatic both of attitudes and approaches stuck in a previous century, and of regarding sexually and gender diverse people as if we were a virus to be avoided, contained, and, if possible, eliminated.

stuck in the 20th century?

Church leaders and others frequently tell us that more scholarship needs to be done and/or we need more time to discuss the matters involved.  Yet reviewing recently my own not inextensive library of Christian LGBTIQ books and other publications, I was struck by how long LGBTIQ people of faith, and key allies, have been shedding light and campaigning for change.  Not only have the so-called 'clobber texts' been examined ad nauseam, but, much more importantly, for decades religious scholars have highlighted vital gifts and perspectives which sexually and gender diverse people bring to faith and life.  Yet, like rabbits in headlights, otherwise well-meaning Churches remain typically frozen to the spot in the face of the death-bearing vehicle of fundamentalist reaction.  Actions, and even limited engagements with the real issues, continue to be postponed.   For many Anglicans across the world for example, it seems as if we are perpetually stuck in the 1990s, perhaps in 1998 to be more precise, as if the Lambeth Conference of that year was the limits of possibility. 

reactionary advance

The Churches' situation has sometimes worsened from 1990.   To continue the Anglican example, I thus vividly remember a bishop from the USA coming to speak in my, then English, parish before the 1998 Lambeth Conference.  He spoke confidently of the likelihood of a global Anglican process of reception for LGBTIQ people, similar to that achieved, not without much time and tears, in the reception of women's ministry and leadership in the Church.  Such North American and progressive hubris was however devastatingly exposed at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, as a Resolution (1.10) was passed, vigorously affirming that the Communion:

in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage. 

To be fair to the Lambeth Conference bishops, the Resolution also:

calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals.

That latter part however has had far less attention than the first.  US and other progressive bishops were, as they saw it, 'ambushed' in 1998 by an alliance of conservative Western Anglicans with growing numbers, seeking to flex their muscles, from the Global South.  Such forces have consolidated since in the powerful Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).  The effects have been increasingly destructive to reasoned discussion, Church unity, partnerships and mission with others beyond the Church, and, critically, participation of LGBTIQ people.   Thankfully, some Churches have moved forward, including parts of the Anglican Communion.  Yet even some positive developments have been hedged about with reservations.  Thus, for example, the 2018 decision of the Uniting Church in Australia to allow the celebration of marriage equality is greatly to be welcomed.  Yet it came with a reinforcement of 'the rights of ministers and congregations who remain committed to the traditional understanding of marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman' (see further Uniting Church Past President Andrew Dutton's nuanced explanation of this in relation to UCA 'diversity' here).  Hence the Uniting Church's strong stand against other enduring sins such as sexism and racism is not fully replicated when it comes to issues of sexuality and gender identity.     Of historic ecclesial bodies in Australia, only the Society of Friends (Quakers) have joined the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), and some smaller independent churches, in full LGBTIQ affirmation as Churches for the 21st century.  

silence, concealment and abuse

The negative consequences of refusing to engage the gifts and faith experience of LGBTIQ people have been, and remain, staggering.  This is nothing new, so Churches cannot plead ignorance.  Back in 1990, for example, in the year IDAHOBIT began, renowned spiritual writer and Anglican priest Kenneth Leech wrote the following words which are sadly still true today.  Commenting on the already well-established need for pastoral reorientation, recognised by the WHO and IDAHOBIT that year, he said (in Care and Conflict: Leaves from a pastoral notebook (DLT) p.17):

In many ways, however, the church is still caught in the position which prevailed in society as a whole before the reforming legislation and the emergence of the gay liberation movement.  Hence the terrible atmosphere of dishonesty and doublespeak which makes serious discussion of this issue virtually impossible in many church circles.

Rowan Williams, later Archbishop of Canterbury, made a similar point, two years before IDAHOBIT began, in his fine Jubilee Group contribution Speaking God's Name.  In words I know are so true, for so long to the cost of my own gender identity, he rightly identified, within Churches:

We have helped to build a climate in which concealment is rewarded - while at the same time conniving in the hysteria of the gutter press, and effectively giving into their hands as victims all those who do not manage successful concealment.

This year's IDAHOBIT call for Breaking the Silence is therefore particularly signifcant for Churches.  The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse painfully exposed the appalling record of Churches in failing in the past to put into place, and administer, protocols and awareness training to avoid abuses and affirm vulnerable members of its body.  Without similar attention to LGBTIQ needs, Churches will however persist in further abuse and failures to affirm.  For, as we have learned in the COVID-19 crisis, without attending to reason, considered policy, determined will, and communal participation, we cannot avoid unnecessary destruction, never mind nurture a healthier and more flourishing society together.

homo/bi/inter/trans phobia as a virus in the Body of Christ

One way of looking at the religious problems LGBTIQ Christians face is to see it as a manifestation of a pervasive virus within the Body of Christ.  Certainly today, as down the centuries, LGBTIQ people are treated in many religious circles as pathological.  Of course responses differ to this viral diagnosis, some of which are unconscious.  Even where they are not fully affirming, not all religious spaces seek to exterminate, expel, or exorcise.  Yet wariness and suspicion, if not worse, are endemic in most religious groups.  Ecclesial social and theological distancing is encouraged, if not enforced.  Ecclesial social isolation and quarantining of 'queer' people and ideas of faith is widespread.  Sexually and gender diverse people and our 'infections' are still considered necessary to be closeted and denied fresh air and expression.  In my own Australian Anglican Church, this was powerfully symbolised for me in the production last year of a national Doctrine Commission document on marriage.  Not one fully affirming openly sexually and/or gender diverse person was engaged as a contributor, and our three decades and much more (!) of rich faith, relationship, and  theological experience were almost completely ignored (see further my critique here).   It was a clear example of how little has changed since 1990, and how the key principle of 'nothing about without us' is typically ignored by Churches for fear of infectious results.  Elsewhere in the world, such exclusions are not always so obvious.  The Church of England's Living in Love and Faith process for example does display a commitment to genuine seriousness in theological breadth and depth, and, importantly, to involving LGBTIQ Christians.  Yet the experience of notable transgender and intersex contributors, leading to their dismayed withdrawal, has not been happy - see further, for example, the Revd Dr Christina Beardsley's incisive article Why I left the BIshops' sexuality project.  As IDAHOBIT challenges us, if we are serious about affirming our common humanity, we need to delve much deeper and take much greater care to engage those whose lives and bodies are on the line, valuing them fully.

does religion and the religious deficit matter to LGBTIQ people?

Now, as some secularists volunteer, one answer to the religious deficit on healthy sexuality and gender diversity might be to leave religion aside altogether.  Believe me, that is something to which many of us who have striven hard for change have sometimes been tempted!  However my sense is that is not only to fall in line with the manifestly false fundamentalist assertion that God and religion are fixed.  It may be difficult for Churches to respond quickly to the pace of change today but history amply shows that Christianity, like other great religious traditions, has always adapted to changing contexts.  More importantly, for all LGBTIQ people, and serious allies, to quit religion is to hand its power over to others. This is because, in a deep sense, the religious battle is vital to everyone.  For legal and other external progress has also been hard to attain but is always vulnerable to being rolled back if wider inner attitudes and values are not transformed.  Unless the spiritual virus of homo/bi/inter/trans phobia is addressed, we will all suffer.  Whilst it can still be uncomfortable at times to be a person of faith in some LGBTIQ spaces, it is therefore encouraging to see the active inclusion of sexually and gender diverse people of faith in more and more contemporary LGBTIQ settings and campaigns.  Indeed, it is hard to see how the campaign against unhealthy proposed religious discrimination laws can be fully successful without the involvement of LGBTIQ people of faith who are both themselves at greatest risk and who can share vital alternative perspectives to those loudly asserted by religious bigotry.  Perhaps some of us may need to change our particular form of religious allegiance but the invitation is to create something more life-giving.. 

ending 'russian roulette'

The experience of LGBTIQ people in entering most Church spaces has helpfully been characterised as 'playing russian roulette'.  For even where churches appear, or assert themselves, to be 'welcoming', or even 'inclusive', we can never be entirely sure that a bullet may not be fired at us, from the pulpit, or elsewhere, in 'loving Christian fellowship'.  That is why Equal Voices (the Australian national network of LGBTIQ Christians and allies) is so clear that 'welcoming'  and 'including' are insufficient.  Individual congregations or other religious entities need to be at least seeking to be (fully) 'affirming'  in order for us to recommend churches as safe places.  In this we require strong evidence of resolutions and active measures of education and practical change.   Sometimes this seems hard to some sympathetic Church leaders.  Some Anglican bishops have said to me for example that they believe more of their churches are LGBTIQ positive than Equal Voices will allow.  The realities tend to be otherwise.  An empathetic priest or section of a church community is not enough.  LGBTIQ people have come painfully to learn that we must trust the experience of our own community.  As with theological, pastoral and other initiatives towards us by the wider Church, we, in God. are the real experts on our own lives and bodies, our safety and our flourishing.  

Where then do we go in breaking the silence, transforming the phobic virus, and ending russian roulette within religious circles?  Three aspects - better connecting, communicating and creating -  seem increasingly necessary to me...

connecting

Firstly, there is an outstanding need for better connections both between LGBTIQ Christians themselves, and also between LGBTIQ Christians and serious allies, Church leaders and structures, and the much wider LGBTIQ community.  The principle of divide and rule, or be divided and suffer, is central.   The foundation of Equal Voices in Australia was a vital step in this.  For, just in Australia, there are some wonderful denominational groups in existence, such as the affirming Catholic network Acceptance and Uniting Network.  Yet, without also working closely together, LGBTIQ Christians are always likely to be frustrated by internal denominational forces and being overly 'family selfish' focused.  Such networks also need to be well resourced and sustainable.  This is far from the case in Australia, where Equal Voices and other groups work on a shoestring and where more LGBTIQ people and allies need to offer financial and other active support.  The usually greatly under-recognised strains on LGBTIQ people working in the religious sector can be extraordinary and burn out is a common feature among those who are most active.  Better connecting with others is also vital.  Partnerships with key, genuinely serious LGBTIQ supportive, church leaders and public figures has been, for example, a key feature of successful and outstanding work by the Ozanne Foundation in the UK.   In Australia, closer and more effective collaborations with other civil society bodies and LGBTIQ leading agencies, such as Equality Australia, need to be nurtured.  LGBTIQ Christian groups such as the Brave Network in Victoria, and the survivors of SOGICE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts) are positive models of such development.  In each case, whilst eshewing the frequently proferred pathways of false unity and cheap grace, they display a fresh clarity and openness to working with others constructively.

communicating

Secondly, breaking the silence, dispelling the homo/bi/nter/trans phobic 'religious' virus, and transforming ecclesial russian roulette will be greatly furthered by improved and more imaginative communications.  This begins by withdrawing further from the stale and deeply debilitating battles over 'clobber texts' and the framing of issues by hostile or resistant Christians.  As I seek to say to leaders and opinion shapers in my own Christian tradition, we need to take a leaf out of the way in which healthy schools treat children expressing the need for gender transition.  Best practice here involves person-centred care and expression, drawing in carers and professionals as appropriate, and working out ways forward.  It does not involve going straight to the most trans-suspicious members of the school community and asking them for their involvement, and even direction, in process and outcomes.  Yes, such people may need to be duly informed at a later stage, but not until substantial safe conversations and ways forward have been established.  LGBTIQ Christians also need assistance from others in opening up space for our stories and faith insights to be expressed.  Media has often been unhelpful in this respect in the past, particularly when it has reported on controversial issues, such as religious discrimination, by reference mainly to the same highly conservative Church leaders, not drawing on a wider spectrum of opinion from across the country, not least LGBTIQ Christians themselves. 

creating

Thirdly, and most challengingly, greater creativity is essential if Churches are to rise to the opportunties for new life offered by IDAHOBIT to enter the 21st century and foster fullness of life for all.  'Business as usual' will simply not work.  Reactionaries, such as GAFCON in the Anglican Communion, know this only too well.  They  therefore constantly push the envelope of established order and break ranks and the boundaries of protocol and received expectations.  This is also part of the effective, though highly bounded, creativity of conservative Evangelical religion.  In contrast, far too much LGBTIQ Christian and allies' expression is too polite, too little, or too late.   Allies need to be more like accomplices, not mere cheer-squad members who quickly evaporate for other interests or when things become tough.  LGBTIQ Christians also need to find ways to deepen our courage and creativity.  For a major block to religious progress is our own inability to come out, speak out and act out.  As someone who took so many years to live fully into my own gender identity in a religious space, I know how hard that is.  For priests and pastors, and others with personal stakes in established institutional religion, we risk our livelihoods, families, relationships and futures,   Yet until more of us stand up and say 'no more' we have little chance of change.  Only then will leaders in religious spaces begin to realise that healthy 'risk management' of our issues demands engagement and affirmation, not continual evasion and denial.

IDAHOBIT and Church beyond 30

Across all areas of life, the current COVID-19 crisis offers us opportunities to move forward, if we would take them.   We can choose simply to try to 'snap back' to 'business as usual', or we can seek a much better, much healthier, society and set of embodied religious values, than we had before.  As we mark the 30th anniversary of IDAHOBIT this year, my sense is that many Churches will prefer to resume their inherited patterns, saturated with homo/bi/trans phobic assumptions and practices.  Perhaps the alternatives just seem too hard.  As a result, they will remain troubled, and incapacitated by their inability to grow up into mature humanity and engage with the divine gifts of diverse sexual and gender identities offered to them.  As the years pass they will then increasingly become ever more stubborn and shrill.  Already their children and grandchildren have been giving them a wide berth.  Even 'good children', like myself, who have sought ways to stay with them, are now finding the struggle hard to maintain.  That pathway of refusing to face relationship and reason can only lead to futures of desperate denial, depression and destruction.  Or the Churches can choose to turn around (repent) and face the wonder of our rich human variety, opening up their hearts, minds, and structures to those they suppress and deny.  LGBTIQ people of faith will not be disappearing but we will not be waiting around for ever.  We, if not our Churches, will not waste all our years.  We are not a virus but an antidote and a source of new life.  We exist in the 21st century and we have living to do. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    My main sermon & spiritual reflections can be found here

    My main transgender website is here

    Author

    Jo Inkpin is an Anglican priest serving as Minister of Pitt St Uniting Church in Sydney, a trans woman, theologian & justice activist.  These are some of my reflections on life, spirit, and the search for peace, justice & sustainable creation.

    Further sermon & spiritual reflections at:
    penandinkreflections.org


    My main transgender website is at:
    transspirit.org

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    1 John
    2 Corinthians 5
    2D
    360
    ABC
    ABM
    Aboriginal
    Abuse
    Acland
    Activism
    Adnate
    Advent
    Affirmation
    Affirming
    Affirrming
    Aidan
    A.J.P.Taylor
    Alan Webster
    Alex Pittaway
    All Saints
    Ancestors
    Angel
    Anger
    Anglican
    Anglicanism
    Anglican Overseas Aid
    Anglicansim
    Anglicare
    Angligreen
    Anna
    Anne Askew
    Ann Loades
    Anthony Venn Brown
    ANZAC
    Aotearoa
    Apology
    Apostolic
    APSA
    Archbishop Of Canterbury
    ARRCC
    Art
    Artist
    Asylum Seekers
    Athanasius
    Attention
    Augustine
    Aunty Mary MItchell
    Aunty Rose Elu
    Australia
    Australian Collaborators In Feminist Theologies
    Australian Women Preach
    Authority
    Avrom Satzkever
    Azim Khamisa
    Baghdad
    Baha'i
    Baptism
    Barnard Castle
    Basis Of Union
    Battle Of One Tree Hill
    BCP
    Beach
    Beauty
    Bendigo
    Berlin
    Bernie Taupin
    Bible
    Bidjigal
    Billy Bragg
    Bio-technology
    Birth
    Bisexuality
    Bishop
    Blackadder
    BlackLivesMatter
    Blessed Imp
    Blessing
    Bob Dylan
    Body
    Bonhoeffer
    Border Crosser
    Bouddi
    Breath
    Brene Brown
    Brexit
    Bridge Building
    Briisbane
    Brisbane
    Britain
    British
    Brittany Higgins
    Brixton
    Brooke Prentis
    Bruce Boase
    Buddhist
    Buderim
    Bunnings
    Bunya
    Burstows
    Calvin
    Cameron Venables
    Campfire
    Canberra
    Candlemas
    Candles
    Canoe
    Carnival Of Flowers
    Cathedral
    Catholic
    Catholicity
    Celebration
    Celtic
    Central Coast
    Chalice
    Chalsie Van Wyngaardt
    Chanel Contos
    Change
    Chaplain
    Charles
    Charles Gore
    Chartres
    Chequerboard
    Children
    Chipping Camden
    Christ
    Christian
    Christian Feminim
    Christian Feminism
    Christian Socialist
    Christina Beardsley
    Christmas
    Chumbawamba
    Church
    Church Of England
    Civil War
    Clergy
    Climate Change
    Collar
    Colonialism
    Colour
    Columba
    Coming Of The LIght
    Coming Out
    Communion
    Community
    Community Of Aidan And Hilda
    Compassion
    Comprehensiveness
    Conflict Resolution
    Congregationalism
    Congregationalist
    Conscience
    Consecration
    Contemplative Prayer
    Contemporary
    Corinne Ware
    Coronavirus
    Country
    County Durham
    Courage
    Courtney Act
    Covid 19
    Covid-19
    Creation
    Creativity
    Cromwell
    Crook
    Cross
    CSG
    C.S.Lewis
    Culture
    Cunnamulla
    Cuthbert
    Dadirri
    Dales
    Dangerous Women
    Darkness
    Data
    David Brown
    David Jenkins
    Death
    Deaths In Custody
    Deborah
    Democratic
    Development
    Dialogue
    Discrimination
    Diversity
    Dolphin
    Dorothy McRae McMahon
    Dorothy McRae-McMahon
    Dragonfly
    Drama
    Dream
    Dreaming
    Durham
    Earthweb
    Easter
    Easterfest
    Ecology
    Ecopella
    Ecumenical
    Ecumenism
    Eddie Izzard
    Education
    Elder
    Elenie Poulos
    Elizabeth Stuart
    Elton John
    Emigration
    Emmaus
    Empathy
    England
    English
    Enlightenment
    Equal Voices
    Eric Hobsbawm
    Erin McBean
    Ethics
    Eucharist
    Europe
    Evangelical
    Evangelism
    Experience
    Faith
    Faithfuily Me
    Faithfully Me
    Family
    Fasting
    Father
    F.D.Maurice
    Fear
    Female
    Feminine
    Feminism
    First Nations
    FIve Lands Walk
    Flag
    Flag Washing
    Flesh
    Flourishing
    Football
    Footwashing
    Forgiveness
    Formed Faith
    Foucault
    Francis
    Franciscan
    Frederick The Great
    Freedom
    Friendship
    Fundamentalism
    Funeral
    Future
    Gadigal
    Gallipoli
    Garden City
    Garnet Lehmann
    Garry Worete Deverell
    Gary Worete Deverell
    Gateshead
    Gay
    Gayby Baby
    Gender
    Generosity
    Generous Love
    Geoff-garner
    George-monbiot
    George-tyrrell
    Georgie-stone
    Gerard Manley Hopkins
    German
    Germany
    Giabal
    Gift
    Gilbertines
    Gkchesterton
    Glebe
    Glennie
    Glenn-loughrey
    Glory
    God
    Godmother
    Good-friday
    Goodwill-committee
    Gosford
    Gospel
    Government
    Grace
    Grace-jantzen
    Grace-tame
    Grafton
    Grandparents
    Gratefulness
    Great-dividing-range
    Green Faith
    Greening
    Grief
    Guardian Australia
    Gutierrez
    Handyman-blues
    Haniff
    Harari
    Harmony
    Healing
    Heart
    Heather-johnston
    Hell
    Henry-viii
    Hills-hoist
    History
    Hitler
    HIV/AIDS
    Holding-the-man
    Holiness
    Holly-zwalf
    Holy-saturday
    Holy-spirit
    Holy-week
    Home
    Homophobia
    Hope
    Hospiltality
    Hospitality
    Humanism
    Human Rights
    Idahobit
    Idahot
    Iftar
    Imagination
    Incarnation
    Inclusive
    Inculturation
    Indigenous
    Insights
    Interfaith
    Inter-faith
    Intersectionality
    Intersex
    Iona
    Iraq
    Irealnd
    Ireland
    Isaiah
    Islam
    Isobel Bishop
    Jacob
    Jacobs-ladder
    Jamaica
    Jan-berry
    Janice McRandal
    Jan Morris
    Jantzen
    Jarowair
    Jellurgal
    Jennifer-herrick
    Jerusalem
    Jesus
    Jesus Christ
    Jewish
    Jim-thompson
    Joanna-macy
    John-17
    John-arlott
    John Ball
    John-donne
    John-main
    John-maynard
    John Odonohue
    John-seed
    Jonathan-sargeant
    Joseph
    Joseph Brodsky
    Josephine-bedford
    Josephine Butler
    Journey
    Joy
    Judas
    Judith
    Julia-baird
    Julian-of-norwich
    Justice
    Jyllie Jackson
    Kader-attia
    Kaleidoscope
    Kate Gleeson
    Kathe-kollwitz
    Kathy-galloway
    Keir-hardie
    Kenosis
    Kingdom-of-god
    Kings-cross
    Kookaburra
    Labyrinth
    Lambeth Conference
    Lament
    Land
    Lansbury
    Laughter
    Laura Marling
    Laurence-freeman
    Law
    Lazarus
    Leadership
    Lent
    Lesbian
    Les-rub
    Leveller
    Lgbt
    Lgbti
    Lgbti174c3e037c
    LGBTIQ
    Liberal
    Liberation
    Liberty
    Life
    Light
    Lilian-cooper
    Lincoln
    Lincolnshire
    Lindisfarne
    Lismore
    Liturgy
    Lock-the-gate
    London
    Loss
    Love
    Love Of God
    Luke
    Lust
    Mabo
    Macculloch
    Macquarie University
    Magna Carta
    Magnificat
    Male
    Mamabishop
    Maori
    Mardi Gras
    Margaret-mayman
    Marge-piercy
    Mark-copland
    Market Rasen
    Marriage
    Marriage Equality
    Martin-luther
    Martin-luther-king
    Martyr
    Mary
    Mary Follett
    Mary-magdalene
    Mary-oliver
    Masculinity
    Maude Royden
    Maundy-thursday
    Mavis Rose
    May-day
    Mcc
    Mcdonnell
    Mcg
    Medieval
    Meditation
    Megan-defranza
    Meiling
    Melbourne
    Melinda-tankard-reist
    Men
    Meredith Knight
    Messy-church
    Methodist
    MIchael Ramsey
    Middle Ages
    Middle Axioms
    Middle-east
    MIdnight Mass
    Milton
    Mining
    Ministry
    Minster
    Mission
    Monarchy
    Monk
    Mosque
    Mother-eagle
    Movie
    MOW
    Multuggerah
    Mural
    Muslim
    Mystery
    Mysticism
    Myth
    Naidoc
    Nandjimadji
    Nathan Tyson
    Nation
    Natural Law
    Nauru
    Needlework
    Neighbour
    Nepal
    Newcastle
    Newcastle Upon Tyne
    New-creation
    New South Wales
    New-year
    Non Binary
    Non-binary
    Nonviolence
    Norman
    NSW
    Nsw Ecumenical Council
    Nun
    Nunc Dimittis
    Oikoumene
    Olive Schreiner
    Onebodyonefaith
    Onlyness
    Oprah-winfrey
    Ordination
    Ordination Of Women
    Orlando
    Orthodox
    Oscar-romero
    Oscar Wilde
    Owl
    Oxford
    Pacific
    Pacifism
    Pain
    Palestine
    Palm Sunday
    Pankhurst
    Parents
    Paris
    Parish
    Parliament
    Passion
    Pastoral-care
    Patrick-cheng
    Paul
    Paul-kelly
    Peace
    Peace Day
    Peasant Rebellion
    Penny Jones
    Pentecost
    Peter Catt
    Peter Coleman
    Peter De Waal
    Peter Maher
    Pethick Lawrence
    PFLAG
    Philippines
    Pilgrim
    Pilgrimage
    Pilgrim College
    Pitt Street
    Pitt Street Uniting Church
    Play
    Poet
    Poetry
    Poland
    Polarisation
    Police
    Politics
    Pope Francis
    Pope John Paul II
    Positive Life
    Post-Enlightenment
    Potsdam
    Power
    Prayer
    Prayer Book
    Preaching
    Presbyterianism
    Presbytery
    Presence
    Pride
    Priest
    Principle
    Privilege
    Promise
    Prophetic
    Proselytism
    Psalm
    Pure Land
    Puritan
    Queensland
    Queer
    Qu'ran
    Race
    Rachel Lane
    Racism
    Radical
    Rain
    Rainbow
    Ramadan
    Rangeville
    RAP
    Reconciliation
    Reformation
    Refugees
    Religion
    Religious Freedom
    Remembrance
    Renewal
    Repair
    Reparation
    Repentance
    Republic
    Resilience
    Resistance
    Restorative Justice
    Resurrection
    Rhett Pearson
    RI
    Ritual
    Robin Hood
    Rodney Croome
    Roman
    Rome
    Rosa Luxemburg
    Royal Commission
    Royalism
    Running
    Sacrament
    Sacrifice
    Salvation
    Sandra King
    SBS
    School
    Science
    Scotland
    Scottish
    Scripture
    Season Of Creation
    Secularism
    Seder
    Segregation
    Service
    Sexism
    Sexuality
    Shakespeare
    Shame
    Shannon Novak
    Sharon Roberts
    Shelley
    Shelley Argent
    Shoah
    Sibyls
    Silence
    Simeon
    Simplicity
    Sin
    Singapore
    Singing
    Sister Angela
    Social Justice
    Society Of Friends
    Solidarity
    Solomon Islands
    Songline
    Sorel Coward
    Soul
    Spiritual Direction
    Spirituality
    Spirituality Wheel
    Spong
    Sport
    Stanhope
    State Library
    Statement From The Heart
    St Brigid's
    Steffan Van Munster
    Stewardship
    St Francis College
    St Hilda
    St John's Cathedral
    St Luke
    St Luke's
    St Mark's
    Stonewall
    Story
    St Paul's
    Straightsplaining
    Streets And Lanes
    Stroud
    St Thomas
    Stuart Soley
    Subversive Memory
    Suffering
    Suffrage
    Suffragette
    Sufi
    Surgery
    Susan Cottrell
    Sydney
    Sydney Carter
    Symbol
    Table Top
    TACAPS
    Taize
    Talitha Fraser
    Tea
    Teacher
    Terrorism
    Thanksgiving
    The Glennie School
    The Green House
    Theology
    Thomas Berry
    Thomas Merton
    Toowoomba
    Torres Strait
    Tradition
    TRAMS
    Trangender
    Trans
    Transfiguration
    Transformation
    Transgender
    Transition
    Trasnition
    Treaty
    Trees
    Trust
    Truth
    T.S.Eliot
    Uluru
    Uncle Colin Isaacs
    Uncle Darby McCarthy
    UNESCO
    Uniting Church
    Unity
    Ursula Le Guin
    USQ
    Ut Unum Sint
    Vancouver
    Venerable Master Chin Kung
    Veriditas
    Vicar Of Bray
    Violence
    Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
    Vocation
    Voice
    Voluntary
    Volunteers
    Waiting
    War
    Warriors Chapel
    Warsaw
    Water
    Watershed
    WCC
    WCCM
    Wedding
    Weird
    Welcome
    Wellspring Community
    Welsh
    Whitby
    White
    Whitechapel
    Wild Goose Publications
    William Bartholomew
    William Blake
    William Temple
    Winter
    Wisdom
    Witness
    Women
    Women In Harmony
    Woods
    Word
    World Council Of Churches
    World Pride
    Worship
    Woy Woy
    Young People
    Youth
    Yuggera

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly