New Churches, October 2024

• St Mary the Boltons, West Brompton
• Christ Church Freemantle, Southampton
• St Mary Westfield, Workington
• St Andrew's Methodist Church, Tamworth
• Burgess Hill Methodist Church
• St Laurence Falmer (with Stanmer)
• St Mary Wivenhoe
• Rodborough Tab URC, Tabernacle Walk
• St Paul's Manly, Queensland
• St Alban's Westbury Park (The Church in Westbury Park)
• Westbury Park Methodist Church
  (The Church in Westbury Park)
• St Lawrence Jewry, City of London
• Well Street United Church, Buckingham

Chantal is in the process of ensuring the list on the website is accurate for our Regional Ambassadors, whilst this is still in progress we would like to thank those have responded.

Any RAs who have not responded by 22 December 2024 will be removed from the list and assumed to no longer be active in the role. 

If there is a gap in your region and you think you’d like to know more about what being a Regional Ambassador involves, please get in touch! Chantal will begin actively looking for more to join the team in the New Year.

You can see on the website where we currently have reps.

We're now into our final month of our 'Are You In' survey and we'd love as many people as possible to have the opportunity to help shape the future of Inclusive Church. Please do fill the survey in (available on our website or via the QR link) and share it with your friends, neighbours, family, churches and communities.

Link to Survey

There is also a poster for that you can download and print, or share on social media.

The wider the net, the more voices can be heard!

If you'd prefer to participate by having a 1:1 conversation please get in touch with Chantal on NatCo@inclusive-church.org Thanks!

Blessed are the Weary: 13^th annual conference on Disability and Church

Together for the Church of England at Parliament 

On 15th October, trustees of Together for the Church of England held a briefing meeting in Parliament to which interested MPs, Lords and other supporters were invited. This was an opportunity to introduce ourselves and reflect on key issues such as Living in Love and Faith and the Church Commissioners Project Spire Fund responding to historic links to transatlantic chattel enslavement. An introduction by Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP was followed by updates from Revd Neil Patterson and Professor Helen King, and the opportunity for discussion. It was a privilege to meet with Parliamentarians such as Lord Boateng, whose talk at Greenbelt Festival 30 years ago first made an oblivious teenager aware of the importance of politics in social change.  

Alongside those from Parliament, we were also joined by several bishops and other interested parties such as members of the Greenbelt Festival management. The briefing meeting was a useful time of information sharing and making connections and we look forward to further development of such relationships in the future. We are grateful to Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP for sponsoring the meeting.  

Together for the C of E works for greater inclusion and equality in the church through engaging with its governance structures.  We have growing networks in most dioceses and you can find out who to contact in your diocese on our website - https://togethercofe.org.uk/diocesan-contacts/ 

• Personal reflective report from Kat D’Arcy-Cumber (Together trustee)

• NatCo additional comment following a recent briefing led by Together (a CofE specific request):

  Please send your bishop(s) a message of support and encouragement before December 9th - when the college of Bishops next meet.

  We know they are getting a lot of pressure and correspondence from those who are unhappy with the direction of travel in the LLF process and are trying to halt or redirect it as much as possible. Despite it being far less further forward than we would hope! The bishops need to hear that there are far more of us who are keen to see progress made.

  Staying silent is being used to assume we are opposed to inclusion and would prefer the current modus operandi be continued.

  We need to be clear that a church where LGBTQIA+ church members, clergy and young people are not ubiquitously welcomed, valued and affirmed is not acceptable. 

The Beloved Community

Around 100 people gathered at Bristol Cathedral on Saturday 5 October for the second diversity and inclusion conference: The Beloved Community – a place at the table for everyone. This year’s focus was on the positive contribution to spirituality made by those experiencing exclusion from the church, building on values of listening, learning and loving. Notably, a number of speakers were not Anglican, but from independent Pentecostal backgrounds. The keynote speaker, Dr Selina Stone, spoke about the values and practices at the heart of her Pentecostal upbringing which she now lives out in more domestic settings. In a later panel discussion, Selina was robust about the things that, for the sake of her wellbeing, she no longer does – including talking about race in the church. There was a lively reflection between speakers on the themes of staying or going, with Bishop Mike Royal, of Churches Together, speaking about his move through denominations over a lifetime. Jo Dolby, from Oasis Bath described the inclusive community church which she leads.

One of the most popular sessions was Molly Boot’s on neurodiversity in the church. Molly, and many participants, challenged us to consider the varied and different ways we might respond to the needs of people with neurodivergence. The back of the Cathedral had been transformed into a cosy sitting room to provide a safe space for those seeking quiet, or who preferred to listen while colouring or crafting. Feedback reminded us that for others it is the clarity of instructions, keeping to time, and detailed descriptions of sessions that are needed to negotiate a conference such as this.

Nik Jovčić-Sas is a Serbian orthodox Christian who is also a theologian, performer and drag artist. He spoke frankly about the struggles faced by gay men in Serbia where homophobic violence is still frequent. Nik’s activism and courage were a timely reminder of the need for solidarity and campaigning in the face of discrimination. He also spoke about the importance of ritual, particularly as he experienced it in the domestic setting as a child, growing up in a Somerset village, far from the family’s roots.

There were two tables at the heart of the conference. The Eucharist was celebrated with music from a local gospel choir including a spine tingling solo rendition of “How great thou art”. Lunch was provided by a local charity, with groups of friends and strangers gathered around tables sharing their stories and experiences.

Bristol Cathedral will follow up the conference by continuing to listen and look for opportunities to build community, and hopes that participants will visit some of our contributors in their local contexts in the future.

Next year the Beloved Community will take place on Saturday 27 September 2025.

• Report from Rev'd Canon Dr Mandy Ford, member of Inclusive Church, General Synod rep and Dean of Bristol Cathedral. Described as a 'priest, artist, theologian, cook, urban enthusiast, folkie' on X

3Generate is the annual Methodist Children and Youth Assembly. For a weekend in the autumn halls at the NEC are converted into 2 camping villages (once for children, young people and their leaders and the other for the delivery team) and the 3Gen village (which continues to grow), this is the home of the various zones which host different talks, activities and worship opportunities.

Theo (aged 10) described 3Generate as “a place where children and young people can get closer to God in the ways that they like.” 3Generate is an amazing inclusive space where children and young people are free to express themselves and where they are on their faith journey with God. It is not unusual to see a young person embracing a flag to celebrate their sexuality or gender identity as they feel safe to be fully who they are, without fear and without judgement.

At this years’ 3Generate there was a showing of the film Pride followed by a discussion and a session that discussed how Queer identities link with Christianity with local drag performers besides lots of opportunities to explore what it means to be authentically you in your worship and relationship with God and with other people too.

It has been my amazing privilege to be a volunteer at 3Generate 4 times since 2019, and it is only getting better! I love the inclusive space that it offers and the opportunity for children and young people to engage with God and the things

• Report from the Rev'd Nathan Falla, Methodist minister of an Inclusive Church and superintendent of East Mercia circuit. (NatCo: He's also a great musician!)

Eucharist at St Paul’s for 30 years of women’s priesthood

11 October 24

A few weeks back I headed to St Paul’s Cathedral for a service recognising 30 years of women’s ordination to the priesthood. It was an honest and moving time of worship together.

As we waited for the service to start, from the front and without fanfare the class of 94 began to emerge, filing to their seats with quiet dignity and grace. Should we clap? I wondered. And we did, with feeling. These women who have paved the way for those of us who came after, who have put up with far more than we shall ever know simply to follow God’s call on their lives, deserve far more than applause but it was what we could offer in that moment, and it was certainly heartfelt.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of the service, while we celebrate 30 years of women priests of course, it is also tinged with the knowledge of past and present hurts for so many, and the edge of knowing there is a way to go before we are truly equal. Joy and lament going hand in hand, something that was acknowledged by Rev Canon Peggy Jackson in her short reflection. Reminding us of the fight, that this was not and is still not a smooth path, there is still lament needed and work to do, she too earned a round of applause from the congregation.

Rev Canon Grace Thomas led us further on this journey, reminding us that for others to hear the call, they need to see people like themselves inhabiting it. She challenged us that like many who heard Jesus’ teaching, we must always be listening to those on the margins, asking the question of whose voices are still being missed out and excluded. But also that we can have hope for a church of the future that embraces all.

Indeed, amidst all the pomp and ceremony that the CofE can muster, there was a real sense of unity and diversity. From my seat I could see those sat around the altar, a range of gender, colour, experience, role and more. The service sheet acknowledged that those with roles in the service were gathered from a vast range, noting: “together they reflect the glory of God’s image among us, in this celebration of the gifts that women bring to the table and offer to the world”. Sat near me were those of vastly differing age, male clergy supporting their female colleagues, those from different traditions of church, a gay couple sat hand in hand, those with varying mobility, the neurodivergent, shiny new curates sat alongside an archdeacon, all with a real sense of unity in our purpose, or perhaps because of our shared lived experiences.

The welcome to St Paul’s blurb invites all visitors to be part of a tradition of 1400 years of worship, a simple line but one that speak of inclusivity and true welcome. This service was specifically about celebrating those who were once excluded, but the whole feel of the it was one of embrace and inclusion, modelling the way it can be when difference is embraced and diverse voices heard. Before 1994 hope was one of the things that kept campaigners going, so may it also keep us going now, as we pray with hope for a more inclusive future.

• Report from Rev Jules Middleton, author of Breaking the Mould.

• NatCo Comment: The next piece could have been in the form of a book review, and we may still get one of those down the line, but I thought it might be interesting to hear from an author themself about one of their own works. I always find it helpful to understand or gain insight into what has motivated someone to write something and it helps me understand their perspective. Helen was happy to provide the piece below about her book Immaculate Forms. It isn't subtle, but that is perhaps partly the point!

As well as being a member of the House of Laity of General Synod – where I am the chair of Together on General Synod – I’m a mostly-retired Professor of Classical Studies, but my area of research has long been the history of women’s bodies. My PhD was on ancient Greek menstruation, which was something of a shock even to my PhD supervisor! Because ancient ideas about bodies have been so influential in the history of medicine in Western Europe and beyond, even in that PhD I found I needed to think about much later historical material, especially from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

My new book, Immaculate Forms: Uncovering the History of Women’s Bodies (Profile Books), came out in September, and the US version will be out in January 2025. In it I look at the long history of how medicine and Christianity have worked together to imagine and to control women’s flesh. The four chapters focus on the breasts, clitoris, hymen and womb, moving us ever further inside the body, into the realms which, until modern imaging, could only be imagined. These body parts mean that topics like virginity, sexuality, gender identity and birth recur throughout. So do the various ways women and men have thought about the bodies of Eve and Mary, the women who bookend the story of salvation.

One of the underlying questions which keeps turning up in history concerns whether men and women are mostly similar, or mostly different. That question has been answered in many different ways over time, and it still sits at the centre of debates about complementarity as well as disagreements on gender. It’s clear that bodies have always been interpreted according to the expectations of what women should be able to do, and have always been modified, whether that means cosmetics or surgery. But who decides on those modifications? It’s also clear that binaries simply fail to capture the complexity of our bodies, and that the ideal image of the body held out to us is always arbitrary and often impossible to reach.

I knew when I started writing this book back in 2017 or so that it would speak to our current disagreements about same sex marriage and trans identities, but I had no idea it would become quite so relevant. Retail medicine – labiaplasty, hymen reconstruction – and body shaming show that we still haven’t worked out how to come to terms with our bodies.

And this is personal (what isn’t?). I was identified as male at birth, because the obstetrician who was managing my delivery knew my mother wanted a girl, and thought it would be a good joke to say she’d had a boy… Yes, how she laughed, NOT! That story also tells us something about power, as important in medicine as it is in church. Like many people, I had the experience of being told that period pains would be cured if I had a baby, and long waits for diagnosis when my pain wasn’t taken seriously. But at least, unlike some women in the nineteenth century, I wasn’t told that I should identify my pain with the suffering of Jesus on the Cross, or subjected to an operation to make me a more compliant woman. Maybe there’s some progress. Or maybe not. I’m still deciding!

• Dr Helen King, lay preacher and medical historian. (NatCo: Helen also runs the Via Media blog that is an excellent source of information and reflections on most things Anglican.)

St Mark's Church, Broomhill and Broomhall, Sheffield, are hosting Big Queer Carols again this year, on 15 December at 6pm. For more information: stmarkssheffield.co.uk

The Rustat Trust makes hardship grants for the maintenance of school-age children of clergy ordained according to the rites of the Church of England. 

There are no restrictions on the clergy who may apply including: stipendiary or self-supporting clergy, clergy in parish or non-parochial roles and the families of deceased clergy. Grants are not made towards the payment of school fees except in special circumstances. 

Applications from parents of children with disabilities or learning difficulties, single parents, clergy ministering in areas of deprivation or in other circumstances of hardship are particularly welcome. 

Further information, along with the online application form and contextual information about Tobias Rustat's benefaction, please go to: https://bit.ly/Rustat2024

Closing date for applications: 1 December 2024

St Christopher’s is an inclusive and single-friendly church in the Diocese of Guildford. Hinchley Wood is a pleasant, green, suburban village in north-west Surrey, just outside London.

We are looking for an interim priest in charge who has the vision to lead us into growth. Someone who will continue to nurture our current, faithful, older congregation but has the energy and enthusiasm to reach out to families and the schools that are on our doorstep.

Closing date 10 December 2024

Interviews 22 & 23 January 2025

More details: cofeguildford.org.uk/clergyvacancies

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