[gview file=”https://changingattitudeireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CAI-newsletter-Oct-2013.pdf”]
The Irish News: Lives remembered – Rev Mervyn Kingston
August 24, 2013
If there was a theme that resonated throughout Mervyn Kingston’s Church of Ireland ministry, it was ‘reaching out’. In parishes across Belfast, Down and the Armagh/Louth border, the gay cleric stretched out a hand of friendship and understanding wherever he went. In south Armagh, the east Belfast Protestant developed a love of the Irish language – he would often recite the Lord’s Prayer as Gaeilge – as he worked to bring communities together. [Continue Reading]
Revd. Mervyn Kingston, R.I.P.
August 3, 2013
Revd. Mervyn Kingston, co-founder of Changing Attitude Ireland, died peacefully at home in North Down, on Friday 2nd August, 2013, after a long battle with cancer. From Pink News: “Rev Kingston was a pioneer of the gay Christian movement in Ireland since the early 1980s as well as a member of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA). He served in a number of parishes in the Church of Ireland, his final one being as rector of the Creggan and Ballymascanlon (1990-2003) which he retired from in 2003 following a diagnosis of cancer. In that same year he co-founded Changing Attitude Ireland (CAI).”
[Continue Reading]
Changing Attitude Ireland stall at the General Synod
May 30, 2013
Alison Finch and Canon Charles Kenny at the CAI stall, General Synod, May 2013 [Continue Reading]
International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia
May 1, 2013
Changing Attitude Ireland services for the 2013 International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia. [Continue Reading]
Guardian: Unionists defeat Northern Irish gay marriage bill
April 29, 2013
Unionist politicians have defeated a Sinn Féin bid to create marriage equality for gay couples in Northern Ireland. The votes of the Democratic Unionist party and Ulster Unionist party in the Stormont Assembly helped defeat a Sinn Féin motion backed by the SDLP, Alliance and the Green party. But their defeat of the proposed bill sets the scene for a legal challenge in both the British and European courts against the continued ban on gay marriage in part of the UK. [Continue Reading]
Photo: Memorial service for gay rights activist, PA Mag Lochlainn
April 14, 2013
Revd Chris Hudson, Dr Richard O’Leary and the Revd Mervyn Kingston at the memorial service for PA Mag Lochlainn, 14th April 2013, All Souls Church, Belfast. [Continue Reading]
Irish Independent: CoI group weighs in behind gay marriage
April 13, 2013
A Church of Ireland pressure group says marriage should be extended to same-sex couples. Changing Attitude Ireland (CAI) has also said that children being raised by same-sex couples “need the protection of marriage”. The CAI, formed in 2007, has told the Irish Independent that it is “quite indignant” that it was not afforded the opportunity to make oral submissions at today’s Constitutional Convention, which is debating whether same-sex marriage should be voted on in a referendum. [Continue Reading]
Irish Examiner: Church and State – Division need not be destructive
April 3, 2013
Another fault-line issue was raised when the chairman of the Catholic bishops’ Council for Marriage and the Family, Bishop Christopher Jones, reiterated his Church’s opposition to same-sex marriages. To muddy the waters further the Church of Ireland Changing Attitude Ireland group has strongly supported the extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples. Again this week lobby group Social Justice Ireland published a critique of Government economic policy suggesting that it is creating a fractured society, a weak economy and persistently high unemployment. SJI also warned that Ireland has seen the single biggest transfer of resources in history from low- and middle-income people to the rich and powerful. [Continue Reading]
‘Those texts’ and the sanctity of life: a contribution to the debate on human sexuality
April 1, 2013
By Sandra Pragnell, SEARCH 36.1, Spring 2013—The Gospel and practice of Jesus is radically inclusive. In his life and teaching he models the acceptance and affirmation of outcasts. He says nothing about homosexuality. Yet the Church’s attitude to homosexuality, in its traditional understanding, appears exclusive and homophobic, contrary to the kingdom values we profess to uphold. Christian gay men and lesbians have been described as “exiles: banished from the family, from the church, and from creation.” [Continue Reading]
