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THIS MONTH the Open Table Chester community celebrated three years of meeting. A supporter created this beautiful floral arrangement for the occasion, inspired by God's words to the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah about God’s chosen people.

SAME-SEX COUPLES will be able to have their civil partnership or marriage blessed in Church in Wales churches for the first time after new legislation was passed this week.

LAST MONTH, members of Open Table Chester met for an afternoon of fellowship at the former home of the Ladies of Llangollen, two upper-class Irish women whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Joy Kendall was the group’s guide.

ON SATURDAY 28th August 2021, the Right Revd Cherry Vann, Bishop of Monmouth and OTN Patron, shared this reflection at St John’s Church, Cardiff, for the Pride Cymru Eucharist hosted by the Faith Tent, which celebrates and gives thanks for our rich, diverse and inclusive faith communities by organising talks and a faith presence at Cardiff's Pride Cymru.

FOLLOWING the success of our recent Q&As with our Patrons (still available on our YouTube channel), in August the Open Table Network's Co-Chairs Alex Clare-Young and Sarah Hobbs had a dialogue around key issues that matter to them and the Open Table Network.

On Saturday 21st August, a special vigil was held under the Peace Doves art installation at Liverpool Cathedral. OTN Coordinator Kieran Bohan was one of the speakers, praying for justice and peace for people with minority gender identities and sexual orientations around the world, and especially for respectful dialogue in the Church of England’s Living In Love And Faith conversations on Identity, Sexuality, Relationships and Marriage.

IN AN INTERVIEW with BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme on 15th August, Open Table Network trustee Augustine Tanner-Ihm explained why he sought conversion therapy at church in north-west England a few years ago.

OCCASIONALLY a seminal work appears that becomes a defining piece, a turning point or breakthrough in a particular area. For the religious LGBTQ conversion movement, the documentary Pray Away, released on Netflix on 3rd August, could be that work.

A MEMBER of the Coordinating Group of Living In Love And Faith (LLF), the Church of England’s suite of resources on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage, has published an academic article drawing on professional expertise and lived experience to critique the LLF process.

FOLLOWING the success of our recent Q&As with our Patrons (still available on our YouTube channel), July is the sixth anniversary of Open Table becoming a Network, so we heard more of the Open Table story from Kieran our Coordinator.