Church wanted cross on Pride f lag as ‘Jesus died for trans people’
A CHURCH has been banned from displaying a Pride flag on its altar to settle a row over the use of symbols championing trans people.
The dispute flared when the rainbow flag, which originally represented gay pride, had a chevron added to it representing marginalised people of colour and trans people.
This addition caused a furore among members of the wider Church of England when it was publicised online by St Nicholas’s Church, in Leicester. Sam Margrave, a member of the General Synod, said at the time: ‘Instead of preaching the gospel, they’ve turned it into a church of woke.’ A further twist came when the church sought to make the flag a permanent addition to the altar with a petition to the Diocese of Leicester in 2022.
That petition added a cross, claiming the most revered Christian symbol showed: ‘ God in Christ has redeemed the world – including Trans people, black and brown people, and LGBT people – through the death of Christ.’
It went on to state Jesus’s suffering during the Crucifixion bore parallels to the experience of LGBQ+ people.
The petition read: ‘On this altar table, in each act of worship, we remember the death of Christ.
‘His experience of rejection and physical torture is not unknown to LGBTQIA+ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and Two-Spirit] people. This act of remembrance mediates the solidarity of Christ with the suffering of those in our community.’
Now, in a written judgment, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Leicester Naomi Gyane has denied the petition. ‘I deeply appreciate that the underlying matters raised by this petition invokes strong convictions both in favour and against,’ she wrote.
‘In order to determine the matter... I have found it helpful to focus on one aspect of this petition, that is at its core, and which in fact all agree: This petition relates to one of the most symbolic parts of the building, the altar.
‘The Progress Pride flag is not a Christian emblem. Whilst I agree it is a sign of welcome for people from the LGBTQIA+ community and although not itself political, it is a secular contemporary emblem used for many causes...’
Campaigning against the flags, Mr Margrave had argued: ‘People come to church to get away from the culture wars and find sanctuary. I want to welcome the gay and lesbian community, but there are better ways to do it.
‘My main concern is about how our pulpit and our altar table has been hijacked by political activists.’ After Ms Gyane’s decision, Reverend Canon Karen Rooms, of St Nicholas’s, said: ‘Whether or not we can use a piece of cloth in a certain way is not the centre of what the congregation is about.
‘It is a vibrant community that looks out for one another.’ While the church has not been prevented from using the flag elsewhere, it has decided not to display it for fear of causing more controversy.
The church, whose nave dates back to 879, has built a reputation over the past half century as welcoming to the LGBT+ community and has doubled the size of its congregation in recent years.
A spokesperson for the diocese said it could not comment on the chancellor’s decision because Ms Gyane was entirely independent of the bishop, adding: ‘The Diocese of Leicester cherishes a wide range of church communities in which people hold very different views, including on matters of sexuality, and nevertheless seek to live well together across difference.’
‘Hijacked by political activists’