Inclusive Church newsletter

Inclusive Church Newsletter Summer 2023

The Inclusive Church Newsletter is a digital publication produced every month. It aims to provide supporters and members with the latest news and information from the life of Inclusive Church and our partner organisations.

From the National Coordinator

Dear IC members, churches, partners and supporters,

My time at Inclusive Church has come to an end. I have been working with IC for nearly 6 years and will now move into lay ministry in a specific church context, as well as keeping on my tutoring role at Northern Baptist College. I am excited for the future, but I also want to express the deep sense of privilege I feel to have had so many great experiences at Inclusive Church, visiting churches all over the country and even going to Sweden in my first year!

I have worked hard with the trustees to build a new website and database, to create a new sustainable model for donations and church sign ups, to implement training for our volunteers, and to encourage diversity and inclusion across the charity, among other things. We want to model at IC central office what we want to see in all our churches — love, inclusion and the flourishing of all God's people.

Thank you to each and every one of you for making my time as National Coordinator so interesting and fulfilling. On to pastures new! Farewell, all!

Ruth Wilde, National Coordinator (outgoing)

From the Chair

Farewell, Ruth.

This newsletter is the last before our National Coordinator, Ruth Wilde, leaves us after more than five years in post. People always seem to be surprised that Inclusive Church has only one part-time member of staff, because we achieve so much together as a network. Since 2018, Ruth has been the public face of the network, while also working very hard behind the scenes to keep the show on the road. During the years, she has travelled far and wide visiting member churches and representing us all; she has edited our new 20th anniversary book, and overseen a complete overhaul of our website and database — and a lot more besides! For good or ill, our only member of staff is often the one person who has to get done the tasks which no one else will; and this was an especial challenge during the height of the CoViD pandemic. Yet our network is still growing, still shining Christ’s love in communities throughout (and beyond!) these isles; and we are very well-placed to continue our work into a new era. While Ruth’s departure gives the trustees a rare opportunity to pause and assess our staffing needs, for now I only want to say: thank you Ruth! We wish you all the very best and we know we’ll see you around.

Pob bendith, (Every blessing,) Fr Dan Barnes-Davies SCP Chair (on behalf of the board of trustees)

IC Story: Stella Wiseman

I came across Inclusive Church in an odd, roundabout way. I was working for the Church of England and one of my roles was to put together a newsletter about church events in a particular area. One of the events was an Inclusive Church day in a church in the south of England. I added this to the list, along with the Inclusive Church statement.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when someone complained. The part of the church I worked in was pretty conservative. The complaint was along the lines that Inclusive Church’s stance on sexuality did not fit with what the complainant viewed as orthodox. I was told by those in charge to remove the listing. Clearly Inclusive Church was an organisation to be reckoned with!

Obviously I had to find out more. I discovered a church in Southampton celebrating inclusion, in particular LGBT+ inclusion. I signed up to join an event and on the day was struggling with anxiety over my elder son who was feeling heartbroken following a break-up with his boyfriend. “I need sanctuary!” I told the man behind a table, rather dramatically. “You’ve found it here,” he said and placed a garland round my neck. It was true. I felt welcomed, safe and soothed.

Peter — the man behind the table — and I became friends, I joined the LGBT+ Christians in Southampton group which he led, and would often travel there for continued sanctuary and grace. I also found that Surrey needed an Inclusive Church rep and somehow I became it. This is the sort of thing that happens to me! When Peter stepped back from leading the Southampton group I became something of a facilitator, but then came Covid and we haven’t managed to reconvene. I regret this.

In the meantime, I have been ordained deacon in the Church of England and will shortly become a priest. I am a part-time curate as well as a church administrator and I am continuing to learn about inclusion and exclusion. Churches, like many organisations, are good at excluding people; sometimes on purpose, sometimes with no realisation that this is what we are doing. One of my growing areas of interest and is that of neurodivergence, and how this affects the church and inclusion. It’s an interest that has been stimulated in part because, at the grand age of 58 I received a diagnosis of ADHD. I have masked and criticised myself for years because of it and I am not alone. It’s an area I truly hope we can continue to investigate and support each other in.

Inclusive Church stands out because of its determination to embrace those of us who sometimes feel othered or that we don’t fit, or can’t actually access church as we would like to. Inclusive Church is about bringing the church to the margins not finding ways of accommodating the margins. Thanks be!

Rev'd Stella Wiseman is Assistant Curate in the Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale in the Diocese of Guildford, and an Inclusive Church ambassador for Surrey.

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The IC Annual Lecture and AGM 2023

The Venerable Dr Rachel Mann, Anglican priest, poet, writer and broadcaster — and great friend of the network — gave this year's annual lecture on the topic of 'Finding Hope in the Fragility of God.' Rachel's lecture was part of our 20th anniversary celebrations, and we are thrilled she has also written the foreword to our new book.

The lecture and AGM were both in hybrid format - on site at St John's Waterloo and online on Zoom. You can watch Rachel's talk or read the paper it is based on here.

New Book!

One of the main bits of work Ruth undertook over the last year was pulling together and editing some of our Annual Lectures into a new book celebrating 20 years of the Inclusive Church network. We're thrilled to announce that the new book is now real, actual and tangible, and can be pre-ordered from the publisher and from other responsible book shops: SCM Press.

How to Build the Church of the Future: 20 Years of Inclusive Church

Whilst things have arguably moved on in the last decade, the church continues to discriminate against people on the grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, learning disability, mental health, neurodiversity, or sexuality. Drawing from ten years of lectures and essays from leading figures associated with the movement such as Loretta Minghella, Anthony Reddie, and Michael Jaggesar, this book marks the 20th anniversary of the Inclusive Church network. Together the essays offer a unique and inspiring account of what an inclusive church is, why it matters, and where it is going.

Officers of the IC board

At their first meeting after each AGM, the trustees elect the charity’s officers from among themselves. This summer, Dan Barnes-Davies was re-elected Chair and Mike Bishop re-elected Treasurer. The trustees thanked Fiona MacMillan for serving a one year term as Vice-Chair and elected Evie Vernon as our new Vice-Chair. The board has been unable to elect a new Secretary for a second year running; we are planning to add these duties to our staffing needs unless someone comes forward who is willing to be co-opted.

If you might be willing to be co-opted as Secretary, please email Dan to discuss what's involved: chair@inclusive-church.org

Regional Ambassadors and New Churches

Inclusive Church has a network of 800+ churches, and a list of the new ones who have just signed up can be found below.

We also have a network of voluntary Regional Ambassadors around the country. The Ambassadors act as a point of contact between a region (especially the inclusive churches in that region) and Inclusive Church nationally.

Please get in touch if your church would like to join the network, or if you would like to be an ambassador (if your region already has one or more, don't worry - you can work together!) If you need to get in touch with any ambassador on our list, please just find their email address here.

The role description for Regional Ambassadors was updated during the annual ambassador training in 2022, in collaboration with the ambassadors themselves. It can be read here.

More information on becoming an inclusive church can be found here.

New Churches — September 2023

St James's, Weybridge
St James's, Woodhall and Waterloo
St John the Evangelist, Friern Barnet
Loundsley Green Church
St Martin & St Hilary, Kirklevington
All Saints', Worsall
St Mary's Old Basing & Lychpit, Basingstoke
New Road Baptist Church, Oxford
Bromsgrove Parish (St John's Bromsgrove; St Godwald's Finstall; All Saints' Bromsgrove; St Andrew's Charford; St Michael and All Angels, Stoke Prior; St Michael's Upton Warren; St Mary de Wyche, Wychbold; Christ Church Catshill; Holy Trinity and St Mary's Dodford; and St Luke's, Marlbrook)
Chapel Royal, Brighton
Thornbury St Margaret's, Leeds
St John's Shirley, Croydon
All Saint's Cyncoed, East Cardiff
Sherwood Methodist, Nottingham
Boultham Holy Cross, Lincoln
Hub Church Beeding, West Sussex
Springdale Methodist Church, Wolverhampton
Parish of Effingham with Little Bookham
Edale Parish Church
St Stephen's, Great Haywood
St John's, Little Hulton
Paul Church, Cornwall
St Peter's Hale, Altrincham
St Mildred's Addiscombe, Croydon
St Michael and All Angels, Stowe

Welcome, everyone; croeso and dynnargh!

Blogs and News

Action: send a card to your bishop

Equal (the Campaign for Equal Marriage in the Church of England) is asking our Supporters, and all who want the Church to treat LGBTQIA+ people fairly and equally, to take part now in this simple Campaign Action.

Why now? Throughout this autumn, all the bishops serving in the Church of England are meeting to discuss how to progress the decisions of the February General Synod – the prayers of blessing and new pastoral guidance. We want to encourage the bishops to press on despite all the long letters they’ve had from conservatives demanding they turn back on what Synod has agreed.

What we want you to do

So we want people, lots of people, to send the bishops a greetings card encouraging them to keep going for positive, inclusive change. We don’t need more long letters, a simple card with an encouraging handwritten message is all that’s needed.

Here’s what we’re asking you to do:

Buy or make an appropriate card (rainbows optional)
Write a short encouraging message, for example something like:
- “We’re looking forward to using the Prayers of Love and Faith in our church, we hope that our bishops will commend them soon.”
- “We will be praying for you and the College of Bishops as you meet, we want to encourage you to keep going with positive change for LGBTQIA+ people through Living in Love and Faith.”
- “Looking forward to celebrating our marriage in church soon, we will be praying for the College of Bishops and General Synod to help the church be more inclusive.”
- “We know that Living in Love and Faith has been difficult for many, but we want to assure you that we are fully supportive of the positive changes welcomed by General Synod in February. Keep going!”
Sign the card, and encourage others to sign it as well.

Post it to your bishop(s) to reach them as soon as possible. You should be able to find their postal addresses on the diocesan website.

Thank you! Please encourage others (clergy and laity, churches and individuals) to do the same – share this document with them to explain what needs doing.

Finally, do pray for our bishops and the General Synod. They will have some big decisions to make in the next few months and it’s important to hold them all in prayer so that they can discern the most loving and faithful path.

Affirming Christianity launch

Launching September 2023: a new small group course from the Student Christian Movement & OneBodyOneFaith.

Affirming Christianity is a new series exploring the life of faith in Christ, written by and for people who have shared progressive values.

We're launching our first course in the series, 'How to Be A Good Christian Ally', this September in partnership with OneBodyOneFaith. If you affirm LGBTQ+ folks in principle and want to do more to demonstrate that support, this is the course for you!

Sign up to our mailing list at tinyurl.com/GoodChristianAlly to be one of the first to get access to this exciting new resource.

Events

Rolling Down Justice, our 12th annual conference on Disability & Church

Saturday 14 October, online by zoom (with BSL and captions)

At time of writing there are only 17 spaces remaining at our upcoming conference, so book fast! https://rolling-down-justice-tickets.eventbrite.com/

The flyer is attached to this email.

Celebrate Neurodiversity in Walsall

On Sunday 29 September at 3pm, at St Martin's Church, Walsall, WS5 3DQ, there will be a 'Celebrate Neurodiversity' service, being delivered by a Neurodivergent team headed by the Rev'd Zoe Heming, the 'Enabling All' advisor for Lichfield Diocese. Our regional ambassador for Staffordshire and north Shropshire is part of the team. For more information, please email enabling.all@lichfield.anglican.org

A marvellous melody of endless love: Retreat day exploring Julian of Norwich

Saturday 7 October, 10am to 4pm Cenacle Convent, Lance Lane, Liverpool L15 6TW

2023 marks the 650th anniversary of Julian of Norwich’s book, Revelations of Divine Love. This day offers an opportunity to explore this ‘ahead of its time’ work. The day costs £10. Bring something vegetarian to share for lunch. Subsidies available for people on low wages. Please ask. Booking is essential. For more details and to book, please email liverpool@opentable.lgbt or call 07768 808 768. Presented by the Team Parish of St Luke in the City and Open Table Liverpool.

The wonder of our being: LGBT+ Christian weekend in north Wales

Friday 3 to Sunday 5 November St Beuno's Jesuit Spirituality Centre, St Asaph, North Wales

A WEEKEND seeking to affirm and encourage LGBT+ Christians of all traditions in their faith and identity as beloved by God. Places limited - BOOK NOW.

Confounding the Mighty: Stories of Church, Social Class and Solidarity

Thursday 9 November, 7:30pm, livestreamed on YouTube.

A roundtable discussion with Luke Larner and friends, chaired by Alison Webster, General Secretary of Modern Church.

It is long past time for the church to talk seriously about social class. Like the book of the same name (SCM Press, 2023), this panel discussion will explore what role class plays in the life of churches, education establishments and social justice movements in 21st Century Britain and Beyond’. What does it tell us about the need to connect across difference to work for justice based on ‘deep solidarity’?

Luke Larner is a Church of England priest and former bricklayer serving a parish in the post-industrial town of Luton. He is passionate about weaving parish ministry with theology and social justice, and is engaged in Community Organising and studying/teaching theology alongside his parish life.

Further details from www.modernchurch.org.uk or gensec@modernchurch.org.uk

office@inclusive-church.org

07375 392285 (Chair)

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The content of the newsletter is drawn from a number of sources including individuals and partner organisations. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect a 'formal viewpoint' of the Inclusive Church trustees, individual members of Inclusive Church or registered inclusive churches.

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