Meet our Patrons - Barbara Glasson intro
Channel: Open Table Network
Date: 2021-04-16

Watch the recording of our Q&A in May 2021 with Barbara, in conversation with OTN Co-ordinator Kieran Bohan here [60 minutes - includes British Sign Language interpretation]: https://youtu.be/mGM0d7FnrGA?si=PKt3JJoILb61cgmb

Here is Barbara's message to the Open Table Network: 

Hello, I'm Barbara Glasson. I'm a Methodist minister and I'm really pleased to be able to be a patron to the Open Table Network. It's a great privilege for me, so thank you. I've been a minister in Liverpool and in Bradford. In Liverpool, I met Kieran and Warren [co-founders of the first Open Table community], and was very pleased to meet a whole variety of people as we made bread together. What a joy to be able to mix with people of all different orientations, experiences and ages in a community, it taught me so much. And so, I want to say thank you to the LGBTQI community for informing my ministry and changing me and my ministry. Most recently, I've been president of the Methodist Church in Britain, and I have been the first president to be locked down and grounded. And so, it's been a very interesting year for me. And I'm currently a pastoral tutor at the Queen's Foundation in Birmingham. This is a new role for me, and be assured that I will be teaching pastoral theology in a way that includes all, because everybody's needed to transform the church. So thank you for this opportunity. And thank you for all that you do as Open Table. I don't want you to ever think you're the edge of the church. You're the beating heart of the church. You are the prophetic voice of the church, and I know that it's often difficult to be different, to feel different and to feel as though you're not included, but please know that the church needs you and we are impoverished if you are not included. Thank you for all the network and for all the expressions of church that you're exploring. And of course, Open Table is the clue to how the church should be. It should be a table that's open for all, that all are welcome, and we find there the hospitality of Jesus who opens his arms wide for us and wants us all to be loved and included. So, thank you, and I look forward to meeting you in person soon.