A LAWYER who supported Canon Jeremy Pemberton in his discrimination case, and a young man who makes rainbow cakes for his church as a sign of welcome, are among those listed in the inaugural Rainbow List of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM).
It was announced in response to the list produced by GAFCON last month, which named Anglicans it deemed to have deviated from the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution which described homosexual practice as “incompatible with scripture” (News, 18 November).
The LGCM’s chief executive, Tracey Byrne, said this week that she had been “overwhelmed” by the response to the organisation’s request that people nominate LGBT Christians and “straight allies”.
”We were completely unprepared for the number of people who wanted to nominate themselves, and to tell us what they’re doing to bring inclusion, justice, and compassion to their own communities and relationships,” she said.
”One young woman nominated every one of the friends who had supported her when she came out and was rejected by her church. Contacting everyone to get their consent to be named publicly on the list has been quite an undertaking. There really are some extraordinary individuals out there.”
Among those listed were Iain Lee, who left his job as a presenter on BBC Three Counties Radio after calling a Christian Concern lawyer, Libby Powell, “bigoted” and “homophobic” (News, 20 November, 2015). Helen Trotter, a lawyer who supported Canon Pemberton in his employment-tribunal claim, is also named (News, 12 September, 2014), as is the leadership of St James and Emmanuel, Didsbury, who spoke out after a young worshipper took her own life, (News, 25 November), Dr Richard Edwards and Matthew Leverwas, churchwarden and treasurer of St Paul’s, in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, who married this year (News, 17 June).
The list also includes a young man in Portsmouth who makes rainbow cupcakes for his church, as a sign of welcome, and the Community of St John the Divine, in Birmingham, nominated “for their kindness and compassion in looking after and supporting a woman after her gender surgery”.
Ben Bradshaw MP will host a reception for the nominees in Westminster, on 14 February.
www.lgcm.org.uk/news/list.