A survival guide for lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians and their friends, families and churches

We’ve been emailed to ask if we’re speaking at Greenbelt this year. Sadly we’re not speakers this time, but we are going along to the Festival as we love it!

If you’re going to be there and fancy meeting for a coffee, just drop us a line and we can swap details (if you use our online contact form, please can you double check that you give us the right email address, as we’ve had a couple of people’s messages that we couldn’t reply to because the email address was wrong). Many thanks!

I’ve been interviewed for a great website called What’s Good to Do. See what I said here! If you’re reading this before 30.7.2012 you can also enter a competition to win a copy of the book.

Got two minutes to spare on New Year’s Eve?

Watch Sarah on 4thought.tv (Channel 4, 7.05pm on 31 December 2011) talking about what Christmas means to her as a lesbian Christian. Or you can watch it online right now.

Yes, it has finally happened. Living It Out has gone global.

We’ve been selling copies around the world since the book was first published – but last week we gave our first book talk outside the UK  while on holiday in Bulgaria.

We spoke to an international audience at the British Council in Sofia. The context for LGB rights in very different than in the UK, with no equivalent to civil partnerships or legal rights for same-sex parent Although the city does host a Pride parade, being gay, lesbian or bisexual is rarely spoken about.

We were also interested to learn how different church culture is: most of the population are Orthodox, but very few are part of a local church community in the way we might see in the UK.

All in all, we felt very welcomed and had a wonderful time. And here we are pictured with Chargé d’affaires of the British Embassy,  Catherine Barber.

We have just finished all our unpacking from Greenbelt (…OK, it took us a few weeks to get the tent back into the attic…) and recovered from four nights under canvas.

Outerspace were there – flying the pink flag for LGBT Christians at Greenbelt, with a fabulous 1950s-style information stall and a programme of packed out events and talks. We were delighted to catch up with old friends, meet new readers and sign copies of Living It Out at the festival bookshop.

Sarah also chaired a panel of LGBT Christians who shared their ‘dreams of home’, experiences of church and wise advice in response to audience questions.

Now it’s time to start planning for next year …

We’re dusting off our sleeping bags, shaking the Camping Gas to see if there’s any left, and checking the weather forecast hourly (…surely it won’t rain as much as currently predicted?).

If you’d like to meet up at Greenbelt this year, we’re involved with a couple of events.

On Friday evening at 9.30pm, Sarah is chairing an Outerspace panel discussion ‘Dreams of Home’. Finding a spiritual home for LGBT Christians can seem like an unattainable dream. This panel session will be an opportunity to hear from individuals who have managed to find a spiritual space they can call home, whether that is within formalised church or without. This session will be in one of the Workshop rooms in the grandstand.

Then on Sunday afternoon at 5.30pm, we’re holding a book signing in the book shop. Don’t feel you have to buy the book (although of course, you can!) – just pop along and say ‘hi’.

Hope to see you there!

A big thank you to St Bride’s church Open Table group in Liverpool for such a warm welcome when we came to speak on 19 June. If only we lived closer, then we’d be there every month!

This glorious church building hosts concerts, art exhibitions, Sunday services and – of course – the monthly Open Table worship for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people and their friends, where all are welcome whatever denomination they belong to.

We spent the afternoon sharing stories from Living It Out and reflecting on the importance of sharing our own stories. This theme was returned to in the following Eucharist service.

Here are the final details of our forthcoming trip to Liverpool.

We’re there on Sunday 19^th June, from 4pm, at St Bride’s Church We’ll be  contributing to their regular Open Table LGBT Service.

Open Table has been running at St Bride’s for three years. The group meets monthly and all are warmly welcomed.

4.00pm Gather.

4.30pm Rachel & Sarah Hagger-Holt speak; read from Living It Out and answer questions.

Break for refreshments

6.30pm Eucharist (with Sarah preaching).

Hope to see you there!

We’re just back from Minehead and another Spring Harvest. There seems to have been a very positive shift over the past few years, from speakers who were quite overtly anti-gay to those who think far more carefully about how to support the faith of people who are lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), their families and supporters.

We especially enjoyed catching up with Andrew Marin (President & Founder of the Marin Foundation) again, and meeting Brenda Marin (Director of Business Operations at the Marin Foundation) for the first time. Andrew gave us the opportunity to talk a little about Living It Out from the front at one of his sessions, which was a great privilege.

If you heard Rachel speak and would like to know more, you can click through to find out where to buy the book, or get in touch by sending us an email.

Please come and join us on Sunday 19 June at St Bride’s Church in Liverpool. We’ll be speaking at the Open Table LGBT worship community. All are welcome – more details to follow soon.