Cambridge’s ‘safe, sacred’ space for gay Christians

THREE Cambridge University colleges are holding new chapel services for gay and transgender Christians in a bid to be more inclusive.

The sermons aim to create a ‘safe sacred space’ and show that Christianity welcomes anyone regardless of sexuality or ‘gender identity’.

One recent service at King’s College Chapel involved the congregation sitting on rugs on the floor and listening to relaxing music.

The rev Andrew Hammond, college chaplain, said he believed Church teaching needs to change because what matters is the ‘quality of the love, not the gender of the lovers’. For the first time, he is holding three ‘inclusive’ services this term aimed at helping lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Christians to ‘encounter God’.

Trinity and st John’s colleges have said they are holding similar events.

Mr Hammond told student newspaper Varsity: ‘i wanted to do something that was very, very different, but still cohered with the general values of the place.’ He came up with the idea after being invited to perform Amazing Grace with drag queen Courtney Act at a student event earlier this year.

The chapel at King’s dates back to 1446, but Mr Hammond said his new services were a departure from traditional evensong and involved ‘what you could naughtily call spa music’.

At st John’s, the rev Carol Barrett Ford is holding a service as part of Open Table, an ‘ecumenical Christian worship community’ offering ‘a warm welcome’ to LGBT people. she said it would be ‘relaxed and informal’, providing a ‘safe sacred space’.