Although we appreciate that many people, both Catholic and Protestant, have issues regarding the forthcoming visit by the Pope, we also recognise that many LGBT Catholics are loyal to the Pope as their leader and having him in the UK is an occasion for celebration.

The Pope holds a unique position in being both the head of the Catholic Church and also a head of State.

In the past few years there have been a number of communications from the Pope and the Vatican that LGCM has felt the need to challenge. We make no secret of the fact that we do not agree with the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexual orientation and consequently LGCM has spoken out regarding these issues. The Vatican has also been vociferous in its opposition to LGBT rights and equality legislation in the UK, all of which is particularly offensive to LGCM including our Catholic members.

Cardinal Newman, whose beatification by the Pope should be the highlight of the visit, offered to drink a toast to the Pope – but to conscience first, and the Pope second. We agree completely. Therefore whilst we wish for the Pope to recognise the effect of his statements on the lives of real people and will continue to challenge anything that is in opposition to our Statement of Conviction, we hope and pray that our members will be blessed by his visit.

On Thursday 19 August the Charity Commission announced its decision to not give consent to the charity Catholic Care to amend its charitable objects to restrict its adoption services to heterosexual prospective parents only. The independent regulator of charities in England and Wales has considered the evidence and the relevant law and concluded that it would not be justified in the circumstances for the charity to discriminate in this way.

Rev Ferguson said: “For too long public opinion has been influenced by the notion that lesbians and gay men cannot be good parents and that they would influence the child’s sexual orientation. This unfounded belief is homophobia, pure and simple, and therefore LGCM congratulates the Charities Commission in its ruling today.

“It is sad and regrettable that Christian adoption agencies have to be forced to enter the twenty-first century. Agencies like Catholic Care should be more concerned to place children in loving, stable, and committed homes, than with hanging on to homophobic ideas.”

10th Michael Harding Memorial Address

Rowan Williams outlines his theological position on same-sex relationships

“If we are looking for a sexual ethic that can be seriously informed by our Bible, there is a good deal to steer us away from assuming that reproductive sex is a norm, however important and theologically significant it may be.”

“If we are afraid of facing the reality of same-sex love because it compels us to think through the processes of bodily desire and delight in their own right, perhaps we ought to be more cautious about appealing to Scripture as legitimating only precreative heterosexuality.”

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The magazine is free to members, but can also be purchased for £4.50 including P&P if sent to a UK postal address. For non-UK addresses, an additional £1.50 should be added to the price and it will be sent via surface mail.

Purchases can be made in one of the following ways:

1. Call the office on 020 7739 1249 and we will take your debit or credit card details. We accept the following cards: Maestro, Solo, Visa, Electron, Mastercard and JCB.

2. Send a cheque or postal order made payable to ‘LGCM’ to the National Office: LGCM, Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, LONDON, E2 6HG, UK.

3. By using the secure online payment system, Paypal.



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We are delighted to announce a new central London location for this year’s Carol Service which will be held at St John’s Church, Waterloo on Saturday 11 December 2010 at 3pm. The service will be followed by a reception where mince pies and mulled wine will be served.

The address of St. John’s Church is:
Waterloo Road
LONDON
SE1 8TY

It is situated at the south end of Waterloo Bridge, opposite Waterloo station. British Rail Waterloo and Waterloo East Underground: Waterloo Buses: 1,4, 26, 68, 77, 149,168, 171, 171A, 176,188, 381, 501, 505, 507, 521, D1, X68.

All are welcome!

For the first time in its almost 35 year history LGCM has been awarded external funding – in the form of a Government grant – to produce an educational resource to challenge the religious roots of homophobic bullying in schools.

LGCM was awarded the Government funding in late 2009 to produce an educational resource for use in lower secondary school (Key Stage 3). The resource is intended to look at the three monotheistic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and the more positive thinking and attitudes within these traditions, which can be employed to challenge homophobia.

Because the focus of the resource is religion, it will be used in Religious Education rather that Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education or Citizenship where much anti-homophobia work is now carried out. That this is a resource that moves beyond these more obvious areas of the curriculum has been welcomed as broadening the effectiveness of anti-homophobia education.

The funding was awarded by the previous administration and came from the Communities and Local Government department rather than what was then the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education). It is intended to further the ‘communities and social cohesion’ strand of (ex-) Government policy. This has now become a feature of the curriculum, an entitlement for all pupils.

Sharon Ferguson, Chief Executive of LGCM was of the opinion that the religious dimensions of homophobic bullying are not being adequately addressed in work already taking place in schools. Perhaps because teachers are wary of how to tackle head-on religious homophobia and uncertain how to do so without disparaging children’s personal faith and family and cultural values. Sharon gained a positive response to this concern in the form of the grant from Communities and Local Government. The money will enable the research, writing, design, print, promotion and distribution of this resource to schools who express an interest.

The Faith and Sexuality resource aims to address its subject matter in a constructive way. All three monotheistic faiths (the focus of this resource) promote, in their essence, tolerance and acceptance of people even when lifestyles are not in accord with faith principles. All have clear teachings which are anti-violence and anti-discrimination in their tone.

So what’s the brief? The resource will:

• Enhance the notion of cohesion within school and outside in the wider community
• Target Lower Secondary pupils (Key Stage 3, ages 11-14) who are beginning to be aware of, and explore questions of, their own and others’ sexuality
• Examine the three monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
• Explore positive teachings/attitudes within these religions with regard to human sexuality and homosexuality in particular
• Focus on challenging homophobia, homophobic bullying and hate crime rather than endorse or promote same-gender relationships

At this age it is not yet too late to engage pupils in a positive consideration of the issues around gay people, homophobia, prejudice and the role that religion in particular plays in this – as well of course as the role religion can play in overcoming prejudice and hatred and so on.
National Guidelines for RE encourage the exploration of faith principles in the light of contemporary living. General guidelines for Key Stage 3 contain the following strands: knowledge, skill and understanding (see sidebar).

So you see, there is much there that enables the kind of work we want to see taking place in RE. One does not have to fully endorse same-sex relationships to reject homophobia and seek positive approaches and attitudes towards gay people. This resource starts and ends with an assumption that many people in faith communities are not going to overnight change their basic thinking on these matters. But one does not have to accept everything about homosexuality and same-sex relationships in order to fight prejudice, bigotry, hatred and violence, and indeed to affirm, from a religious perspective, the human rights and dignity of all people, the right to protection, the rejection of violence and hatred and so on. Even in faith schools, where unsurprisingly the problems are greater, there are pockets of truly enlightened thinking.

The project is in its early days (Spring 2010). Tony Green an ex-RE teacher is putting the resource together, with support and advice from Colin Midlane. Next issue we shall report on the nitty-grity of the process, the many very interesting groups and individuals that LGCM is working with as a result of the project and details of the launch which should likely be towards the end of the year.

After it was leaked that Dr John was one of the candidates for the post of Bishop of Southwark, conservative opponents wasted no time in denouncing him, claiming that his appointment would cause schism, and threatening to seek leadership from overseas for dissenting churches within Southwark.

This is agonising news to all those who support this gifted and enlightened cleric. His appointment to Southwark would have brought with it compassion, enormous expertise and wisdom. The diocese is the worse off because of this sad decision to remove Jeffrey John from the shortlist.

LGCM is saddened by the way the Crown Nominations Commission has appeared to cower and backtrack in the face of those homophobic elements within the Church of England opposed to progress towards inclusion and equality which are at the heart of the Gospel.

LGCM sees it as deplorable that the God-ordained ministry of Dr John is again questioned and vilified by elements within the Church who fail to demonstrate justice, wisdom or compassion in their attitude.

Rev Sharon Ferguson said: “Once more the Church of England will be seen to be an anachronism by people who do not understand why Christians appear to be at the vanguard of hatred and homophobia. The Church had an opportunity to consider Jeffrey John on his merits and, whether he had been selected or not, send out a message that the Church of England is a place of welcome and affirmation in the love of God.”

Unfortunately there are a number of inaccuracies in this piece that have been brought to our attention by Savi Hensman, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of LGCM. For reasons of fairness and to comply with our legal obligations, we include below a full statement of the inaccuracies and links to sources that correct these.

The errors are the responsibility of the editor. While it is not always easy to check every fact we have a duty to be fair and accurate.  As Savi says: ‘While I have been publicly critical myself of Drexel Gomez, Rowan Williams and Church of Uganda leaders among others, I think it is important to try to be just even to those who are not always just to us.’ LGCM shall always aspire to this.

It is important to say however that, notwithstanding the errors contained, we stand by the essential anger and passion of the article. It remains the case that some leaders of the Anglican Communion have been guilty of untruth and injustice towards LGBT people; sometimes appallingly so and at great cost to innocent people.

Tony Green
Editor ‘All God’s Children’

Savi Hensman writes:
It is not correct that the ‘Archbishop of the West Indies was, and still is, the Most Reverend Drexel Gomez’. Gomez retired in December 2008 and has been succeeded by John Holder, whose position is very different.  Though Drexel Gomez did not do nearly enough about homophobic violence, it is not true that:

‘Dr Gomez cannot claim with any semblance of probability to know nothing of these crimes; yet no one has ever heard a word from him, not merely of reproof but even of misgiving about them’.

To quote the Province of the West Indies report on the Listening Process web pages:

‘The Province of the West Indies understands the commitment to marriage as between a man and a woman as being alongside the Church’s commitment to “continue the dialogue with and pastoral care of homosexual persons”…Within the eight dioceses of the Province, there is a common cultural position which views homosexuality in a very negative light… The Archbishop has identified that in most of the dioceses, a strong homophobic mindset is firmly in place.’

He has also supported decriminalisation of gay sex in the Caribbean on human rights grounds:

‘I would find it difficult not to support that [decriminalisation] from a human rights perspective, while at the same time disagreeing with the homosexual lifestyle and its agenda.  I don’t feel they should be harassed and persecuted’

With regard to the Ugandan Bill, the author asserts that:

‘when we find that a bishop of the Anglican Communion – Bishop Joseph Abura from the Province of Uganda – has not only expressed support for the Bill but justified its murderous intent with an utterly crazy condemnation of homosexuality, and that his words have met with a deafening silence from the rest of the Communion, then we must all not only feel besmirched with his malignity, but also scandalised by the apparent connivance of other bishops of our Communion’.

But Abura explicitly condemned the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada which have indeed done much to advance full inclusion.  A couple of days later, the Anglican Church of Canada’s House of Bishops denounced the Bill and a week or so after that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church issued a strong criticism of the Bill, and mistreatment of LGBT people in general.

Later that month the Church of Brazil, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Archbishop of York condemned the Bill, and hostility to lesbian and gay people.

Some Anglican leaders have been explicit about their distaste for Joseph Abura’s views (‘It is with deep regret that we learn that one bishop, Joseph Abura of Karamoja, actually supports the proposed law: goodness only knows what Bible he is reading or what Jesus he is a disciple of!’ to quote Tim Ellis, Bishop of Grantham, and many have distanced themselves from his views.

It should also have been mentioned that the Church of Uganda, after coming under a lot of pressure, in the end distanced itself from the extreme position taken by the Bill’s supporters such as Abura.

Many LGBT people have a deep faith and desire to express their spirituality in spite of the anti-homosexuality rhetoric of fundamentalist Christians.

This year (2010) on Saturday 3 July the various LGBT Christian groups that meet in London have come together to organise a united presence in the parade, staff a stall in the communities section and hold a service of celebration in St Martin-in-the-Fields Church.

Rev Sharon Ferguson, Chief Executive of LGCM and Senior Pastor at MCC North London initiated this collaboration and commented, ‘From the start the main emphasis from all the groups involved has been to get the message across to the LGBT community that it is possible to be both LGBT and Christian. We are proud of our faith and our sexual orientation/gender identity and we want the world to know that. Much of the time when homosexuality is linked to faith in the media it is from a negative perspective – this must change. God’s love is for us all.’

To find out more then stop and speak to someone wearing a purple T shirt saying ‘Christian and Proud’ on Saturday or go to www.christiansatpride.com or visit LGCM’s page showing the details.