Meet our Trustees - Yin-An Chen
Channel: Open Table Network
Date: 2024-04-07

We've updated the 'Meet our team' page on the Open Table Network website with videos of new trustees appointed in March 2024. Here is the text of Yin-An's introduction: 

Hello, I'm Yin-An Chen 陳胤安. I'm very excited to join the Open Table Network as a trustee. I am currently a curate in St Oswald's Church in Oswestry, Shropshire in the Diocese of Lichfield. Alongside my parish ministry, I am a lecturer in the Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan, my home Diocese. I teach a wide range of subjects including mission and evangelism, Anglican theology, practical theology and reflection, and contemporary theological issues.

I came to live in the UK in 2014. I did research degrees in theology and started my priesthood training in Cambridge in 2019. My research interests include the interrelation between spirituality, political theology, and queer theory (especially Michel Foucault and Judith Butler). I am also actively involved in campaigning for indigenous people’s rights and anti-racism. My current research project is on the reception history and critical interpretation of Sodom in the Hebrew Bible concerning the social context of oppression.

As a queer activist, I have a real and strong passion for preaching and teaching the theology of inclusion, the unrestricted grace of God, and radical hospitality. I believe that full acceptance and recognition of LGBTQIA+ people as who they are and what they are called to be is - and should be -  the litmus test for the true welcome of everyone in our faith community. This is a journey of learning from each other and being transformed by embracing human diversity.

I hope my role in the Open Table Network is to amplify our prophetic voice of proclaiming radical hospitality and to present our visible testimony. Everyone is more than welcome because we are loved queerly as who we are.