The hashtag for this conference is #c4e19
(Photo from @Jonathan_Tallon)
The Church for Everyone conference took place at St James and Emmanuel Church in Didsbury Manchester, hosted by their vicar Rev Nick Bundock. St James and Emmanuel is part of the Withington deanery of Manchester and last year became the first inclusive deanery, with all the churches registering with Inclusive Church. It is also the church that Lizzie Lowe attended before her death in 2014. Her death has left a huge legacy for the church, both locally and nationally. More of this later.
Nick introduced the day, with a powerful message about inclusion and the church. He spoke of the criticism and opposition that they have faced for their inclusive stand, but was of the opinion that ‘nobody will get chucked out of heaven for bringing more people in.’ This focus on God and the kingdom was a big vision that took us away from church politics and brought it all back to what church is really for.
He spoke of the joy of the journey into inclusion, a joy not often found in Church of England churches! For example, telling the story of someone in their congregation with learning difficulties who wrote a prayer and came to the front in a service to read out their prayer.
For him the journey was like the Biblical story of the people of God returning from exile in Babylon. The event that started that journey was Lizzie’s death.
(Photo from @JayneOzanne)
He used an analogy of the state of the church at the moment, by comparing it to trees. The trees he referred to had branches and leaves and lots of healthy growth, but their branches were pointing in opposite directions. One may be growing towards inclusion and the other away from it. It was important to know where a church stood on issues before trying to engage with it because trying to force a church to move in a particular direction when it was not ready just leads to argument, violence or destruction because there is no clear vision to unite people to move in that direction.
He stresses how important clarity is and recommended the group https://www.churchclarity.org/ which can help to identify how clear a particular church is in its policies towards women or LGBT. He was worried about churches that put out the welcome mat and draw in the young and others, but where there is silence on where that church stands on the important issues.
Then he introduced Lizzie’s parents Kevin and Hilary Lowe.
They have set up a charity in Lizzie’s memory, called Lizzie’s Legacy. http://lizzielowe.org
For anyone who does not know the story of Lizzie’s tragic suicide, more information can be found at https://lizzielowe.org/about-lizzies-legacy/ There is also a video about Lizzie’s life on the charity’s homepage. If you do not know the story, stop and go there now.
The charity aims to create a safe place for young people where they can get support. They are funding a youth leader and a youth choir, formed after a spate of suicides among the young. They are offering mental health support and help to churches who want to be more visibly inclusive.
I have been to a lot of conferences, but this is the first time I have ever known a talk get a standing ovation. They are turning their grief into a powerful force to help other people. Their work and the lives they will save will be a remarkable legacy for their daughter.
The charity’s hashtag is #Lizzieslegacy
LGBTQ Faith UK 