Home is where the heart is
05/06/24 10:56 Filed in: Christianity
For such a long time I have wanted to unite my faith and my sense of who I am. Now I have found the gold at the end of the rainbow.
It happened in a roundabout way. One of my friends on the Palestine WhatsApp group told me about St James’s Piccadilly (SJP). This is an inclusive church, and my friend used to attend herself before relocating to Yorkshire. She advised me to contact the Associate Rector, Ayla Lepine.
So I did. I explained that I was getting nowhere with the Surrey LGBT Christians and asked whether SJP could help. Ayla told me about Sanctuary Eucharist: an evening service once a week with a contemplative element. Every quarter this is taken by their LGBT group, Pride of St James’s.
I went to this service as Ariane last night. I took Penny and Paul with me for support. So we took the train to London. Then they insisted on getting a taxi to the church to save the wear-and-tear of a bus or tube journey. We arrived in time for the silence at 6.00pm in advance of the service itself at 6.30pm.
There were about 30 people present for the service (I later discovered there were usually more). The order of service was basically eucharistic with Taizé chants. For the communion, everyone formed a large circle round the altar before the distribution. This was a lovely together way of doing it.
The overall theme of the service was to validate the LGBT Christian community. I had the impression that most of those present would regard themselves as LGBT; many had been out for a long time; and some had experienced rejection in other Christian churches.
This has not been my experience. All the people I have told – leaving aside family members, who are a special case – have responded in a sensitive and affirming way. But then I am not out as some people are out. The rejection I have experienced has been on personal rather than gender grounds.
There were several high points for me:
- The SJP music scholar this year, a Portuguese man named António, has an amazing voice. He is a counter-tenor. He led the sung responses and also performed a solo of Climb Every Mountain (from The Sound of Music) to piano accompaniment. This was so moving. The words are inspirational.
- I gave the sung responses everything, particularly the Taizé chants. At one point the women in the row in front turned to me and said: You have a beautiful voice! No one has ever said that to me before. It’s like when someone says to you for the first time, I love you.
- Afterwards everyone stayed on for a buffet supper. This featured the finest canapés I have ever tasted, all home-produced by one of the church members. I managed to speak to most people. Most were regulars. Everyone was very welcoming.
- Penny and Paul also mingled and were made welcome. They said afterwards how special the service had been for them too.
I think I will leave it at that, because belonging to two churches is all I’ve got time for.