Meet our Patrons - Cherry Vann intro
Channel: Open Table Network
Date: 2020-12-23

Watch the recording of our Q&A with Bishop of Monmouth Cherry Vann, in conversation with OTN Co-Chair Sarah Hobbs here [58 minutes]: https://youtu.be/M8FxFbsSXa8

Here is Bishop Cherry's message for the Open Table Network:

My name is Cherry Vann and I am the Bishop of Monmouth in South Wales. I was enthroned on the 2nd February 2020 and the media interest in the first few weeks focused on the fact that I am the first lesbian bishop in the Church in Wales. And I have a partner too. 

I was thrilled to be invited to become a Patron of Open Table. It’s an honour and a privilege to support the LGBTQIA+ community in this way. I know from my own experience how important it is to have safe spaces where we can not only meet together but gather to pray, worship, explore faith and enjoy fellowship with others openly and without fear.  

I’ve felt very welcome in the Church in Wales, but the message that we hear all too often is that we’re a problem. We’re told that God doesn’t love us because of who we are, that we’re going to hell or that God will only love us if we change and become something different; something that fits in with the heterosexual norm. 

I want LGBTQIA+ people to hear and to know what I’ve come to know in the depths of my being. That is, we are all precious children of God, loved and cherished for who we are.  

God wants us to thrive and to shine and to rejoice in the way God has made us, not to live in fear or self-loathing as so many of us do. 

And I want the church to be a place where we can all feel welcome and accepted for who we are. Which is why I’m so pleased to be Patron of Open Table. Let’s work together to create a church that truly reflects God’s love for us all.