The Open Table Network (OTN) is celebrating a record-breaking fundraising milestone thanks to the Big Give Christmas Challenge. OTN raised an incredible £11,785 in just seven days, exceeding its £10,000 target and doubling the impact donations will have in 2026.

We’re delighted to introduce Sarah Elizabeth Jones, who supports the Open Table Network on a freelance basis as our Funding and Governance Advisor. Sarah brings a wealth of experience from a lifetime of working with and within the voluntary sector.

The Open Table Network welcomes treasurer Natasha Gonsalves, guiding our charity’s finances to grow inclusive, affirming faith communities across the UK.

ARE YOU a member of an Open Table community? If so, we’d really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete a short survey about what your Open Table community and the Open Table Network mean for you.

ON THE LAST evening of this year’s Greenbelt, around 60 people gathered for an event co-hosted by the Open Table Network (OTN), OUT@Greenbelt (the festival’s LGBTQ+ volunteer team), and Inclusive Church. Hope-making around an open table was a chance to pause, reflect, and share stories of hope before the festival drew to a close.

THE CHURCH IN WALES has elected its first female archbishop - Bishop of Monmouth Cherry Vann, who has been a Patron of the Open Table Network (OTN) since 2020. When she became Bishop of Monmouth in south Wales in 2020, media attention focussed on the fact that she was the first lesbian bishop in the Church in Wales, and that she has a civil partner.

ARE YOU an experienced finance professional looking to make a real difference? Join us as the Volunteer Treasurer for the Open Table Network [OTN] - the national charity dedicated to creating safe, sacred, and supportive spaces for LGBTQIA+ people and allies in UK churches.

IN RESPONSE to a recent wave of legal challenges to transgender rights, Christian community leaders have launched Transfigured Mission, a campaign urging UK churches to educate themselves, take action, and create truly inclusive congregations for trans people. The campaign is a response to the April 2025 UK Supreme Court ruling that under equality law ‘sex’ must be understood as the gender assigned at birth.

LIFE is incredibly tough for so many people at the moment… we all need access to psychologically (and physically) safe spaces where we can feel loved unconditionally. OTN’s Funding & Governance Advisor Sarah Jones argues that this should be the primary role of the local church. Where church falls short of this, that’s why Open Table communities where LGBTQIA+ people are not just welcomed but truly belong are needed.

ON PALM SUNDAY 2025, Craig Bailey from the Open Table Chester community was baptised, and confirmed. The next day, he set out on a pilgrimage for the duration of Holy Week. Here Craig reflects on his experience of becoming a Christian and committing to this journey of faith.

ON WORLD AIDS DAY, 1st December, since 1988, communities across the globe have come together to show strength and solidarity against HIV stigma and to remember lives lost to the HIV pandemic. At this year’s vigil in Liverpool hosted by Sahir, the region’s largest and oldest HIV and LGBTQ+ charity, Revd Cate Jacobs shared this reflection on the role of faith in both causing stigma around HIV and challenging it.

LAST MONTH, King Charles III joined nearly 300 armed forces veterans, serving personnel and guests for the dedication of the LGBT+ Armed Forces Community Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Sue Jack from our Open Table Northallerton community reports on the event.

EACH YEAR, on 20th November, Transgender Day of Remembrance [TDOR] is observed in memory of trans people who have lost their lives through prejudice and violence during the past year. Last Saturday, as part of his training for ordination in the Methodist Church, Open Table Network Director Kieran Bohan shared this reflection for TDOR in the chapel at the Queens Foundation for Ecumenical Education in Birmingham.

LAST SATURDAY members of the first Open Table community in Liverpool and friends from other Open Table communities in the region gathered at St Joseph’s Prayer Centre in Formby for a retreat day. Warren Bohan, LGBTQIA+ Ministry Facilitator at St Bride’s Liverpool, shares their creative reflection on our images of God.

AS BLACK HISTORY MONTH comes to an end for another year, we’re delighted to share this reflection from our Open Table Liverpool community on why racial justice matters all year round, not just for this month, and why it’s everyone’s business.

IN THE FIRST of a new series of blogs highlighting stories from our LGBTQIA+ siblings in other countries, journalist André Aram reports from the largest country in South America and the fifth largest nation in the world. Content warning: Brazil has a high incidence of transphobic violence.

DURING the Chester Pride parade on Saturday 16th August, dozens of members of the city’s Wesley Church Centre marched with a Christians At Pride banner. This Methodist congregation, which has hosted the Open Table Chester community since 2018, received a huge amount of support from the public and other churches in Chester. Church member and Centre Co-ordinator Kate Matthews explains what happened next.

LAST MONTH, the governing body of the Church of England, General Synod, finally decided to shelve the 1991 document Issues in Human Sexuality. OTN Co-Chair Carol Joyner reflects on what it meant for her and other bisexual Christians.

LIVERPOOL’S PRIDE on Saturday 26th July included a vigil at Liverpool Parish Church to remember LGBTQ+ people who are no longer with us - including those lost to violence, illness, social isolation and the long-term impacts of discrimination and exclusion. OTN Trustee Sue Say offered this reflection in solidarity with our LGBT+ siblings around the world, whose rights, safety, liberty and even their lives, are often at risk.

ON SUNDAY 6th July 2025, our Open Table East Cardiff community celebrated two years with a simple Communion service. Revd Ruth Greenaway-Robbins offered this reflection on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, also known as the Beatitudes (from the Latin beatus, meaning both ‘happy’ and ‘blessed’.

What may appear to be a simple question encompasses many components such as chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, and reproductive capacity. For most people, these are in alignment and so we could formulate a definition. But any simple definition could not include the rich diversity of human biology. OTN trustee and biologist Revd Jayne Taylor explains.

ON SUNDAY 15th June 2025, the Open Table Liverpool community celebrated 17 years since its first meeting with a thanksgiving communion service. Revd Dr Barbara Glasson, a Patron of the Open Table Network and former President of the Methodist Church in Britain, shared this reflection on Jesus meeting Nicodemus (John 3:1-17).

LAST MONTH OTN Director Kieran Bohan shared a reflection on news reports of his civil partnership - the first to be registered in a place of worship in the UK - on our ‘This Is My Story’ podcast. This response is by Moon from our Open Table Liverpool community.

OTN Patron Right Revd Cherry Vann celebrated Pride Month with our community in Cardiff on 1st June. She has preached at several Pride events, including one last September in Newport Cathedral, when she offered this reflection on how love that is truly inclusive casts out fear - especially the fear LGBTQIA+ people experience in the face of rejection, hostility, and exclusion from the Church.

A COMMITMENT to inclusive language often has a weakness when it comes to the language we use when we speak about God. Sadly, this is especially true of the scriptures we use, explains Michael Hampson, a published author devoting his early-retirement from parish ministry to producing practical resources for busy clergy and lay-led congregations, beginning with the weekly lectionary resource Sunday Scriptures for Reading Aloud: ssra.uk.

A MOVING and thought-provoking play in Liverpool last month invited us to imagine Jesus coming back to Earth now as a trans woman. Here playwright and performer Jo Clifford reflects on the impact of her return to Liverpool and her Queen Jesus performance.

ON PALM SUNDAY, 13th April, Craig Bailey was baptised and confirmed as a Christian at Open Table Chester. Craig says the Open Table communities in Chester and Nantwich ‘have inspired me on my spiritual journey, through challenging homophobia, championing inclusivity and promoting the word of the Lord and embodying the ethos of “come as you are, all are welcome”. Here is Craig’s testimony from his baptism service:

ON SUNDAY 15th DECEMBER the first Open Table community in Liverpool hosted the parish and the city’s LGBTQIA+ community for its largest gathering yet! Open Table member Sue Say gave this reflection for her favourite service of the year, inspired by John 1:1-5.