Welcome for all at Rainbow Table
Minister’s invite to the LGBTQ+ community
A Crieff minister is inviting members of the LGBTQIA+ community to take a seat around the Rainbow Table with her.
Rev Gennie Evans of Strathearn Episcopal Churches has set up the safe space for all who seek an inclusive church, where they can explore their faith and what it means to them no matter who they are.
Rev Gennie, as she is known, took up the post with Strathearn Episcopal Churches – which encompasses Crieff, Comrie, Lochearnhead and Killin – just over two years ago but, with 18 months of that in lockdown, it has been a slow process getting to know parishioners.
But now the churches’ services, meetings and other social events are returning to normal.
And one of the new group’s Rev Gennie has set up is the Perthshire Rainbow Table.
Openly gay and with a background in mental health work, the 59 year- old has seen at first-hand the negative effects of discrimination and has been the victim of a vicious hate crime herself.
She has set up the all inclusive safe space at St Columba’s Church in Crieff where members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their friends can meet to discuss their faith.
Rev Gennie worked in inner city areas of London and Birmingham for 30 years as a mental health social worker.
She has also been a nun and a vicar in the Church of England.
She told the Herald: “I fell in love five years ago, although I’ve known I was gay since age 20.
“In the Church of England you are not allowed to stay a vicar and get married. We were fed up of not being able to be open. It was difficult for us. I knew I had one more job in me, so we had to decide where do we want to go.
“I have always loved Scotland and spent a lot of holidays here. The Scottish Episcopal Church had voted to accept gay people as ministers.
“And when you are inclusive everything else follows. For example, people who were divorced were often put off going to church because they felt judged or, where I come from, if you were black you were pushed out, so making the decision to be inclusive, which is how Jesus was anyway – he welcomed everybody – was a good one.
“So when I saw the job advertised I applied, and I have been made to feel so welcome here.
“We love our churches in Crieff, Comrie and Lochearnhead – and sometimes I am in Killin. The people in the Strath are great.”
Now Rev Gennie is extending a welcome of her own.
She explained: “Some people who are gay or transgender haven’t been able to accept who they are because of the judgment. They have been told they are a sinner and are bad, and they have tried to live with that.
“In an ideal world you would be able to go to a church or a place of worship and not have to mention it. A lot of people have been forced to choose between their own identity and their spirituality and that creates mental health problems. It creates splits but actually they are both the same – being able to be who you are.
“Our Rainbow Table is a service, a coffee and a chat, and saying how things are going. People come from quite far to attend. I don’t think there is anything else like the Rainbow Table in Perthshire at the moment.
“It is nice to have a safe space where you can just come and be.
“Most people may know a few gay folk but they may not know many trans people, so it’s a little bit more to provide that safe space for them as well and their families and friends.
“How we see it is that in the Bible it does say that God made people – made humanity – in his image, so whether you are gay or straight, or chubby like me, you learn something of God because we are made in the image of God, and that’s all of us. “At the Rainbow Table we worship God with a standard liturgy but we also get the chance to chat and laugh and offer support.
“There are many people of the LGBTQIA+ community who have been out of church for many years because they have felt judged or have wounds because they have been told they are a sinner because of who they are.
“But they come to the Rainbow Table and we tell them it’s alright to be who you are and still worship God.”
The next Perthshire Rainbow Table is at St Columba’s Church in Crieff at 7.30pm on Thursday, November 18.
A lot of people have been forced to choose between their own identity and their spirituality and that creates mental health problems
Rev Gennie Evans