A veteran Church of Ireland cleric has backed David Cameron’s calls for same sex marriage – saying homophobia has become Northern Ireland’s “new sectarianism”. Canon Charles Kenny has spoken out about the attitude to the gay community from within his own Church, claiming that bias was distorting the Christian message. Canon Kenny, who retired from Belfast’s St Anne’s Cathedral in 2000, told the Belfast Telegraph: “The same failings of the Christian Church, and the presentation of the Gospel, which led to sectarianism in the past are playing again now in relation to homophobia.” [Continue Reading]
Rt. Revd. David Kerr sermon for IDAHO 2011, “Challenging Homophobia at Home and Abroad”
May 15, 2011
Thank you for the invitation to speak at this annual IDAHO service; I count it a great privilege to share in the worship today and to address you. Our theme this year is a very broad ranging one and while it is a very important one, it seems almost too great for us to be able to respond to in any meaningful way. When we contemplate the range of vicious and violent homophobia around the world in Uganda, Nigeria, certain parts of America and indeed in many other places it seems impossible to challenge. Yet all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. [Continue Reading]
The Irish News: Gay Pride parade attracts thousands
August 4, 2008
Changing Attitude Ireland, a new organisation representing gay Christians in Ireland, said they had decided to join Pride in response to the MPs remarks. “This is the first time our banner has been displayed at Pride in Belfast because it was important to increase our visibility and to show people that there are alternative Christian views than those espoused by Iris Robinson,” retired Church of Ireland minister, the Rev Mervyn Kingston, said. Organisers claimed the large turn-out was in response to the controversy stirred up by Mrs Robinson, who recently called homosexuality “an abomination”. [Continue Reading]
The Observer: Pride marchers mock anti-gay MP
August 3, 2008
Changing Attitude Ireland, a new organisation representing gay Christians throughout the island, said they had decided to join Pride in response to the MP’s remarks. ‘This is the first time our banner has been displayed at Pride in Belfast because it was important to increase our visibility and to show people that there are alternative Christian views than those espoused by Iris Robinson,’ said a retired Church of Ireland minister, the Rev Mervyn Kingston. He said there was growing support within the Church of Ireland for equality for gay people inside the Anglican Communion. ‘At the Church of Ireland synod in Galway last May we had a stall for the first time and I counted only three delegates who refused to take our leaflets and only one who objected to our presence,’ Kingston said, holding up a poster with the words: ‘Iris We Love You.’ [Continue Reading]
