Our 2022 conference was held online on 15 October 2022.
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Our theme this year is about embracing the intersection of faith, LGBTQIA+, and ethinicity
We will be addressing some key questions:
- What is intersectionality?
- How does intersectionality affect us as individuals?
- How do we respond to other people’s identities?
- How can we raise awareness of intersectionality?
Pre-conference video
In this video, Revd Dr Augustine Tanner-Ihm poses the question What is intersectionality? as an introduction to the Gathering Voices 2022 theme.
Keynote talks
The keynote speakers for our 2022 conference are Ruby Almeida and Savi Hensman
Ruby Almeida What LBTQIA+ Women Feel
Ruby presents a personal journey through a very male landscape at a local and global level.
Ruby Almeida (she/her) is an LGBT rights campaigner and lecturer.
Ruby set up Rainbow Catholics India and Bridge and Embrace, India, Catholic LGBT groups in India.
Savi Hensman Identity, faith and belonging: a personal perspective
Drawing on personal experience, Savi will explore some of the benefits and challenges of addressing issues of racial, and other, difference in LGBTQIA+ circles and beyond, in church and society.
Savi Hensman (she/her) was born in Sri Lanka, lives in London and has long been active in LGBT+ and other movements for equality and inclusion in church and society and on human rights in South Asia.
Savi is Anglican, lesbian, a writer and also coordinates involvement in health and social care research.
Videos of the discussion panel session will be available on YouTube soon.
Resources
Books
Here are some book suggestions that are relevent to our discussion of the intersectionality of faith, LGBQIA+ identity, and ethnicity.
Savi Hensman’s book Sexuality, Struggle and Saintliness: Same-Sex Love and the Church, examines the major shift in thinking on sexuality among Christians that has taken place over the past hundred years. It explores the groundbreaking work of theologians, church historians and other writers. Delving beneath the surface of recent ecclesiastical conflicts, the book looks at how churches can, and do, live with disagreement. It proposes a positive way forward in handling divisions over sexuality.
Sexuality, Struggle and Saintliness is available from Ekklesia
Transgender Christian Human is the story of Alex Clare-Young‘s life as a transgender child and adult. Trans is an imperfect label but labels are, to some extent, necessary – especially when we choose them for ourselves. For me, being trans means moving towards a gender that varies from my sex assigned at birth. It also means moving between genders and critiquing the rigidity of gendered systems.
Transgender Christian Human is available from Iona Books.
Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer: The Church and the Famine of Grace by Jarel Robinson-Brown argues that there is deeper work to be done if the body of Christ is going to fully accept the bodies of those who are black and gay.
Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer is available from SCM Press.
Ethnicity: The Inclusive Church Resource (Inclusive Church Resources) by Michael Jagessar (former Moderator of the United Reformed Church) offers personal experiences together with theological and practical resources. It aims to be the ideal handbook for churches seeking to be welcoming and open to all.
Ethnicity: The Inclusive Church Resource is available from Church House Bookshop
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