Become an Inclusive Church trustee

Can you help us to write the next chapter?

Last year we celebrated 20 years of Inclusive Church. Now it's time to build on the past and plan for the future as we work out our priorities for the next 5 years. We're looking for new trustees to refresh the board and help us to build an inclusive church.

Read more about the role and how to apply here: inclusive-church.org/new-trustees/

Closing date for applications: 12pm Monday 22 April 2024

Rector: Loughborough Parish Church

The Patron is seeking to appoint a Rector for All Saints with Holy Trinity, Loughborough — a committed member of the Inclusive Church network, an Intercultural Worshipping Community and proud of our liturgically faithful, sacramental tradition.

For an informal conversation about the post, please contact the Archdeacon of Loughborough

Closing date 3 April. More information: leicester.anglican.org/job-vacancies/rector-in-charge-of-all-saints-with-holy-trinity-loughborough.php

Rector: Badshot Lea & Hale

Badshot Lea & Hale is an inclusive parish in north Farnham with three churches and congregations who enjoy their differences and celebrate their unity.  We are looking for a Rector who is kind, easy-going, approachable and fun who will encourage us on our continuing journey with God.

Closing date 3 April. More information:
cofeguildford.org.uk/xdb/licensedclergyva/show/rector-badshot-lea-amp-hale

Inclusive Church has a network of over 1000 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 — March 2024

St Peter-in-the-Forest, Walthamstow
St Stephen Colchester
Northcote Road Baptist Church, Battersea
Christ Church Hengrove, Bristol
St Augustine Whitchurch, Bristol
St Mark’s Church, Broadwater Down, Tunbridge Wells
Holy Redeemer Acomb, York
St Mary's Ware, Hertfordshire
Southwark Cathedral (re-affirmed, joined 2003)
Lime Walk Methodist Church, Oxford
The Linton Parishes (5):
St Mary Linton, Cambridgeshire
St Mary Bartlow
All Saints Castle Camps
All Saints Horseheath
St Mary Shudy Camps
St Thomas's Osbaldwick, York and
St James's Murton, York
St Paul Wooburn and
St Mary Wooburn (aka Wycombe Lane)

Welcome, everyone!

OBOF Memorial Service: Cardiff

With the Bishops of the Church in Wales, we are organising the second national memorial service to remember and commemorate all LGBT+ people who have lost their lives to suicide or experienced harm following exclusion from Christian faith communities. onebodyonefaith.org.uk/news/memorial-cardiff

Modern Church national conference

Finding the Sacred in the 21st Century: New Ways of Looking at Spirituality

15–17 July 2024

We live in a world where the ‘old ways’ of being religious (inherited from Christendom and western culture more generally) work only for an ever-shrinking minority of people. For the majority, they are no longer engaging, comprehensible or attractive.

Yet there is an explosion of spirituality and spiritual practices all around us, if we know where to look. As Christians, we often don’t, and fail to apprehend or attend to the fertile opportunities to engage with and understand ‘alternative’ manifestations of meaning-making, God-talk and embodied spiritual practices that are at play in our world. What can we learn if we open ourselves to dialogue with those outside religion; paying attention to what they are doing to connect with deep life themes traditionally interpreted through faith? And what can we offer back from our own Christian traditions? What do we make of it? How do we feel about it? How does it challenge us? How can we distinguish healthy spiritualities from toxic ones? Can we create a shared language and common ground?

modernchurch.org.uk/events/finding-the-sacred-in-the-21st-century-new-ways-of-looking-at-spirituality

Rest and Resistance: Iona LGBTQ+ Week

Iona Abbey, 31st August – 6th September 2024

A week of creative activities, peaceful spaces and workshop/sharing times to enable LGBTQ+ people and our allies to find space for both rest and resistance in a time of change and division. The week will include optional craftivism projects, multi-sensory prayer and worship, outdoor activities, movement and writing, enabling a time of learning, growing and caring for each-other. Facilitated by Alex and Jo Clare-Young.

True to its beginnings and the rebuilding of life in community, time staying at Iona Abbey includes time spent sharing in the practical tasks of communal living, including helping with cooking, cleaning and hosting. There is time and space to relax outdoors, explore the beautiful island with its white sandy beaches and inspiring wildlife, or simply to be quiet in the peace of the church.

For more information and to book: iona.org.uk/event/lgbtqweek/

Not Equal Yet Conference: 20 April

It's time to end discrimination against women in our national Church [of England].

St John's Waterloo on Saturday 20 April, 10:00–16:30. A poster is attached to this email.

The conference will facilitate some thought-provoking speeches and conversations about the ongoing institutional discrimination against women in the Church of England and why it is now time for this to come to an end.

the Eventbrite link to book tickets is here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/not-equal-yet-conference-tickets-806427094147

and more details are on the WATCH website

is here: https://womenandthechurch.org/news/net-equal-yet-conference-on-saturday-20-april-2024/

WInclusive Winchester Gathering: 25 April

WInclusive is an informal group set up initially on Facebook but meeting occasionally in person. It is loosely based on the geographical area of the Anglican Diocese of Winchester, but we welcome all. We come from a variety of church backgrounds, from evangelical to liberal catholic and all shades in-between! We hold in common an affirming and inclusive view of church, and meet together to support one another and discuss issues of inclusivity.  We are next meeting in person on 25th April at 3.30pm at in Winchester, and Acting Bishop of Southampton, Geoff Annas, will be joining us. All are very welcome — please email Gwilym@grstone.me for more information.

Inclusion and Beyond by Danny Brierley

Life today is increasingly LGBTQ+ accepting. There’s strong pressure for the Church to be the same. Some resist, others compromise; far more remain silent, unsure what to do or who to believe. Many Christians want to be faithful to God and the Bible but rely on what others tell them it says - especially about sexuality.

What does the Bible say about same-sex relationships and equal marriage?

What if it says more than you think, but not what you’ve been told?

Danny Brierley explores the Scriptures, addresses recent objections, and points to the Bible’s inclusive big picture, it’s metanarrative - to inclusion and beyond.

Rooted in the Bible, comprehensive, well researched, and engaging, with questions to think about, an A to Z of terms, and further resources, this is a timely and much-needed book

Available now in paperback, ISBN 979-8889406198

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