Changing Attitude Ireland – Annual General Meeting 2023

Changing Attitude Ireland was delighted to welcome Jayne Ozanne to speak to us on Saturday 25 March 2023, before we held our AGM. Following the AGM, CAI are delighted to announce that Mark Bowyer has been elected chair in succession to Scott Golden, who has stepped down after many years of service on the committee. Mark has been on the committee for a number of years and is an openly gay man, a Diocesan Lay Minister in the Church of Ireland and who is committed to the work of CAI. Speaking after his election as chair, Mark Bowyer said, “it is important now, more than ever, that we continue to be the voice of those who feel marginalised in their own church and communities because of their sexuality. We risk losing a generation of LGBT+ people who are turned away from the Church because of this.” [Continue Reading]

Chairperson’s Address 2023 at Changing Attitude Ireland’s AGM

Changing Attitude Ireland’s chair, Scott Golden, gave his final address before stepping down at the AGM on Saturday, 25 March 2023. “For groups such as ourselves to be successful in addressing these injustices we need the support of our members. We are only as strong as our membership base and only as active as we have members to help us in the work. I am therefore appealing to you to get involved, we have urgent need of people to assist with administration, website maintenance, fundraising and pastoral care. We desperately need committed committee members. If you can help, please let us know. If you know of a friend who would be interested in joining, put them in touch with us: our contact details are on our website ChangingAttitudeIreland.com and any of the executive committee will be delighted to hear from potential new members.” [Continue Reading]

April 15th Belfast Event: From Exclusion to Embrace

The Third Order Society of St Francis, (TSSF) an Anglican Tertiary Order, is pleased to organise its annual symposium, with support from Changing Attitude Ireland, (CAI) on Saturday 15 April from 10.00am to 3.30pm, to give voice to deep concerns we all share at the exclusion of LGBTQ+ people from church life & leadership in Northern Ireland and Ireland. [Continue Reading]

March 25th Changing Attitude Ireland Annual General Meeting, with Jayne Ozanne

Our first AGM since 2019 will take place on Saturday 25 March 2023 at Molesworth Hall, St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin 2, from 2pm until 4:30pm. Our guest speaker will be Jayne Ozanne, a well-known speaker and broadcaster and is frequently approached by the UK national media for comment on sexuality and gender related issues. [Continue Reading]

Changing Attitude Ireland Newsletter, March 2014

The Church of Ireland committed itself to a “Listening Process” on (homo)sexuality in the motion passed at its General Synod in Dublin in May 2012. Changing Attitude Ireland is endeavouring to ensure that the Church lives up to this public commitment. [Continue Reading]

Talk by Malcolm Macourt at the Church of Ireland Tripartite Diocesan discussion on sexuality

Talk by Malcolm Macourt at the Church of Ireland Tripartite Diocesan (Limerick, Clogher, Tuam) discussion on sexuality held in Claremorris, County Mayo on 15th February 2014. [Continue Reading]

Irish Times: Ireland is continuing to fail its gay teachers in the classroom

It is to be hoped that following their impassioned speeches in the Dáil last week about the cruel realities of life as gay men in Ireland that TDs Jerry Buttimer and John Lyons will hold their seats at the next election. What they said prompted the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, to say on RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week programme last Sunday that “the gay community in Ireland has suffered enormously. When I heard the debates in the Dáil . . . what do I say when I hear somebody spat at them? That’s a horrendous thing to happen to anybody.” [Continue Reading]

Address at the Memorial Service for the Revd Mervyn Kingston

This was one of three adresses celebrating the life of the Reverend George Mervyn Kingston at a memorial service held at St George’s Church, Belfast on 8 February 2014. Mervyn was a wonderful priest, a loyal friend and an unlikely prophet, whose prophetic ministry was particularly concerned with reconciliation between Northern Ireland’s churches and communities. He co-founded Changing Attitude Ireland with his husband and partner, Dr Richard O’Leary. [Continue Reading]

Video: Panti Bliss’ Noble Call at the Abbey Theatre

“My name is Panti and for the benefit of the visually impaired or the incredibly naïve, I am a drag queen, a performer, and an accidental and occasional gay rights activist.” [Continue Reading]

Church of Ireland Gazette: Suicide among gay people

As the Director of Cara- Friend, an LGBT mental health organisation, it was with particular interest that I noted the recent letters of the Revd Andrew Rawding and the Revd Patrick Burke (Gazette, 8th and 22nd November). In May 2013, I gave a presentation to a well attended fringe meeting of the Church of Ireland General Synod in Armagh which discussed the particular evidence for Church influenced poor mental health amongst many LGBT people. [Continue Reading]