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IN POLAND, dozens of small towns have declared themselves free of ‘LGBT ideology’. Politicians' hostility to LGBT+ rights has become a flashpoint, pitting the religious right against more liberal-minded Poles. And LGBT+ people living in these areas are faced with a choice: emigrate, keep their heads down - or fight back. Andi from Open Table Warrington shares a Polish film-maker’s response.

TWO of the founders of the first Open Table community in Liverpool were re-commissioned as lay leaders in the Diocese of Liverpool last Saturday.

LAST MONTH Methodist Conference, the governing body of the Methodist Church in Britain, passed a vote to allow same sex marriages conducted on Methodist premises or by Methodist office-holders, making it the largest denomination in the UK to make this change. Former President of the Methodist Conference, Barbara Glasson shares a personal response.

YOU CAN HELP to make online church more inclusive and accessible. Open Table Network, Inclusive Church and OneBodyOneFaith, have come together to produce a consultation on inclusive online church.

ON INTERNATIONAL Non-Binary People’s Day, The Times released a sensitive and beautifully-shot mini-documentary about Alex, a transmasculine non-binary minister in the United Reformed Church.

Prompted by a friend's question about her experience as a gay Christian who instantly felt excluded from her (then conservative evangelical) church community and large parts of her (also evangelical) family when she revealed her sexual orientation to them at the age of twenty, Dr Anneke Schmidt writes: For LBGTQIA+ Christians, the line between active exclusion and passive withdrawal from Church can be thin.

LAST WEEK Methodist Conference, the governing body of the Methodist Church in Britain, passed significant resolutions with far-reaching consequences for its members, and the wider Christian community.

THIS MORNING BBC Radio Merseyside spoke to Bishop of Liverpool Paul Bayes about his speech last week advocating a change to the laws of the Church of England to permit same-sex marriage. In the same week, Bishop Paul announced his retirement. He plans to step down in February 2021.

THIS WEEK's Church Times has a summary of our research into the impact on the well-being of Open Table communities on the well-being of LGBTQIA+ Christians.

OTN TRUSTEE Augustine Tanner-Ihm, who has trained for ministry in the Church of England but faced challenges in finding his first ordained ministry role, has been granted a UK visa just in time for his ordination this weekend.