Changing Attitude Ireland Newsletter, October 2013

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IDAHO address by Professor Michael O’Flaherty

Chief Commissioner for Human Rights for N Ireland

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Paul Rowlandson address at IDAHO 2012 in Derry

Much progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go. The IDAHO service developed out of a historic step in progress made nearly 40 years ago. It now seems incredible that homosexuality was ever considered a mental disorder, but that was the case before the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders back in 1973, quickly followed by the European Psychiatric associations and psychological societies. The World Health Organisation was a bit slower, but it removed homosexuality from its list of ‘disorders’ in 1990. [Continue Reading]

IDAHO 2012 Derry Liturgy

Welcome to our service for IDAHO 2012 – International Day Against Homophobia. We join with those throughout the world who are concerned about the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individuals. We recall the many places where to be LGBT is a crime punishable by imprisonment or death. We gather in Belfast*, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and L’Derry in welcoming and accepting our family members and friends whose sexual orientation is different from our own. The theme of our service is —“No more Them and Us.” (or “Moving Forward Together”). [Continue Reading]

Revd. Sandra Pragnell’s sermon in Dublin for IDAHO 2012

For over 20 years, Southwark Diocese in south London was my spiritual home, in particular the parish church of St John the Divine in Richmond. It was both a formative and a transforming time for me – nurtured by a succession of superbly pastoral, non-judgmental and godly clergy (married, single, divorced, gay, partnered, celibate, male, and latterly female too). I confess I had been strongly anti the ordination of women, and hanging on to particular biblical texts as if my life depended on it. And yet finding myself in 2001 ordained in this cathedral proves that people can change, and that God indeed has a sense of humour. [Continue Reading]

IDAHO 2012 Posters

Dublin: Christ Church Cathedral, 3.30pm
Cork: St. Anne’s, Shandon, 11.00am Eucharist
L’Derry: St Columb’s Cathedral, 4.00pm
Limerick: St. Mary’s Cathedral, 7.00pm
Waterford: Christ Church Cathedral, 7.30pm [Continue Reading]

Changing Attitude Ireland Update, October 2011

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Canon Hilary Wakeman’s IDAHO 2011 sermon in Cork, “We are all different”

The Bible – or at least, certain passages of it – is used to defend discrimination against same-sex relationships, regardless of the fact that those writings are thousands of years old, coming from a time and a culture that was also against the eating of shellfish and the trimming of beards. It is odd that such Old Testament injunctions would appear to have more power over some Christians than the clear example that Jesus sets of total inclusivity, accepting all people and even giving preference to those whom others have rejected. Jesus never mentions same-sex relationships. One of Paul’s epistles does, but it is clear that Paul believes all people are heterosexual, and so if they are engaging in homosexual activity they are only doing it out of naughtiness. [Continue Reading]

IDAHO service 2011: “Challenging homophobia at home and abroad”

Welcome to our service on IDAHO Day 2011 – International Day Against Homophobia. At this time each year we join with brothers and sisters throughout the world who are concerned that Christian conscience cannot accept that God’s love embraces only heterosexuals. This afternoon in St George’s we are united with others in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick in welcoming and accepting our family members and friends who are gay or lesbian. The theme of our service is —“Challenging homophobia at home and abroad.” [Continue Reading]

Canon Ginnie Kennerly’s IDAHO 2011 sermon in Dublin

That’s because as today’s New Testament reading reminds us, “Christ has abolished the law – (that’s the law regarding the division of Jews and Gentiles) – so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, to reconcile both groups to God in one body, putting their hostility to death through the cross”. Divisions between human groups and communities and factions are not of God; divisiveness is against the teaching and practice of Christ; so let us strive not to define ourselves as against but for other human beings, however badly they may have behaved, however different their culture and traditional values are from our own. [Continue Reading]