Three Cambridge University colleges are holding special new chapel services for gay and transgender Christians in an effort to be more inclusive.
The sermons aim to create a ‘safe sacred space’ and show that Christianity can be welcoming of anyone, regardless of ‘sexuality or gender identity’.
One service, held recently at the famous King’s College Chapel from where Christmas Eve carols are broadcast, involved the congregation sitting on rugs on the floor and listening to trendy relaxing music in a bid to break with tradition.
Reverend Andrew Hammond, chaplain at the college, said he believed Church teaching needed to change on controversial issues because what mattered was the ‘quality of the love, not the gender of the lovers.’
For the first time, he is holding three ‘inclusive’ services this term aimed at helping lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Christians to ‘encounter God’.
Three Cambridge University colleges, including King’s College (pictured), are holding special new chapel services for gay and transgender Christians in an effort to be more inclusive
Meanwhile Trinity and St John’s colleges have announced they are also holding similar events.
Reverend Hammond told student newspaper Varsity: ‘I wanted to do something that was very, very different, but still cohered with the general values of the place.’
He came up with the idea after being invited to perform Amazing Grace with drag queen Courtney Act at a student event earlier this year, and was moved by the positive response.
The magnificent gothic chapel at King’s dates back to 1446 and is well-known across the country as its ‘Carols from King’s’ is broadcast by the BBC every Christmas.
But Reverend Hammond said his new services were a departure from traditional choral evensongs and involved ‘what you could naughtily call spa music just doodling away in the background.’
Meanwhile, at St John’s, Reverend Carol Barrett Ford is holding an ‘Open Table’ service after identifying ‘a desire to actively promote inclusion in the Chapel’.
Reverend Andrew Hammond (pictured), chaplain King’s college, said he believed Church teaching needed to change on controversial issues because what mattered was the ‘quality of the love, not the gender of the lovers.’ He is holding three ‘inclusive’ services this term aimed at helping lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Christians to ‘encounter God’
It will be part of the nationwide Open Table organisation, which describes itself as an ‘ecumenical Christian worship community’ offering ‘a warm welcome’ to LGBT people.
She said it would be a ‘relaxed and informal Eucharistic service’ which would provide a ‘safe sacred space’ and might also contain ‘poetry, music, video clips and/or silence’.
The initiatives come after the Church of England issued new anti-bullying guidance to its schools which advised them to be more accepting of children who might be transgender.
The instructions said boys should be able to wear high heels or a tiara at school without facing criticism, while girls should be able to wear boys’ clothes.
Reverend Hammond said it was time to be ‘a little bit more vocal’ about acceptance within the Church.
Meanwhile Trinity (pictured) and St John’s colleges have announced they are also holding similar events
‘I’ve been ordained for ten years, but I’ve spoken freely in any context except in the pulpit about how I think the teaching should change, particularly on sexuality and gender identity,’ he said.
‘I finally decided to nail my colours to the mast at the beginning of this term.
‘It’s the quality of the love that matters between people, not the gender of the lovers.’
He said the service had received an ‘extraordinary’ response from most students, although some youngsters on the conservative side of Church had raised concerns.
He said they were ‘nice’ but some had views that ‘can give you the heeby-jeebies’.
Meanwhile, at St John’s (pictured), Reverend Carol Barrett Ford is holding an ‘Open Table’ service after identifying ‘a desire to actively promote inclusion in the Chapel’
He added that he had had people ‘on his sofa weeping’ after being upset by some aspects of Christian life at Cambridge – particularly on issues sexuality and gender.
On his drag queen duet, he said: ‘I had my white summer cassock on, so I was dressed like the pope, and then she [Courtney Act] said: ‘I think there’s room for more than one man in a dress up here.’
‘It was huge fun in itself, because I used to be an opera singer, so I like audiences and showing off.’
Reverend Hammond, a fan of TV drag queen series RuPaul’s Drag Race, joined King’ s in 2015 after stints in London as a parish priest and as a minor canon of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Before ordination in 2007 he worked in classical music – first as an opera singer, and then in arts management.