I first walked through the doors of Sydney’s Divine Playhouse as a teenager in the 1960s, when it was the home of the Genesian Theatre. Like thousands of Sydneysiders, I went there to enjoy live theatre. Back then, homosexuality was a criminal offence in the state of
When you picture the person who first carried the news of the resurrection, who do you see? Is it a woman? Mary Magdalene ran from an empty tomb with the most important sermon in human history burning in her chest, and she preached it to
The church’s giant step backward leaves it even more out of pace with English society Four months after the Church of England stepped back from LGBTQ+ reforms, the repercussions are only growing. The debate hasn’t faded; if anything it’s deepened, and the church — the
Celibacy isn’t any more effective a smokescreen than ‘conversion therapy’ was Sam Allberry became one of the most prominent global voices advocating for the “celibate gay Christian” within conservative evangelicalism. Through books, conferences, podcasts, and ministries such as Living Out and The Gospel Coalition, his influence shaped how
The dawn of a new year presents LGBTQ+ people with so much more than just a new page on the calendar: We have a profound opportunity to turn the page on religious narratives that have been wielded against us as tools of exclusion rather than
You can be gay, but not do gay. (Bishop Carlton Pearson, “Come Sunday”) I remember a church in which I was active during my early teen years running a kind of “deeper life/holiness” week titled “Christ is the Answer!” But I never really understood what
In what can only be described as a heartbreaking — but sadly not surprising — moment in Australian church history, Canberra Baptist Church and Hamilton Baptist Church have been officially expelled from the New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory Baptist Association. Their “offence”? Daring to fully welcome and
Pope Francis, the “People’s Pope” and one of the Roman Catholic Church’s most beloved pontiffs, who was laid to rest today after passing into the arms of God on Easter Monday at age 88, nonetheless left behind a complicated legacy on LGBTQ+ inclusion in the
There’s still a difference between accepting and affirming Last month, United Methodist Church delegates voted to repeal the denomination’s long-held exclusionary stance toward its LGBTQ+ members in church doctrine, polity, and social standing. The news was received with mixed feelings — cheers and tears. “We
Is this just a blunder, or has the Pope revealed his true colors? Pope Francis sent global shock waves when the news broke that he used the highly offensive F-word frociaggine (“faggotness” in Italian) in a closed-door conversation at the Italian Bishops’ Conference. During a