Don’t forget the next Two:23 meeting.  It will take place on Saturday 18th April at St Mary Aldermary near St Pauls Cathedral in London.  There will be a time of worship followed by our speaker, the wonderful Jo Dolby, who is a lecturer, film maker and youth worker based in Bristol.  Whoever you are, you are most welcome.  For more details, click here.

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us for the Two:23 meeting on 7th February.  160 of us joined together in worship and fellowship, and Rev Dave Tomlinson spoke fantastically. Listen to his talk here:

‘Restoring the Broken Image’ is a day retreat for LGBT Christians run by Two:23 Team member and professional art therapist Karen.  Offering an opportunity to explore our healing and identity in Christ using prayer, scripture and art, the day will include refreshments, lunch and materials.  No gift for art is necessary!  It will take place on 11th July in Milton Keynes, 10am to 4pm, and there are only a few places left.  Contact two23network@gmail.com for more information.

Two:23 has been going for over two years now, and in that time a lot has changed.  In that time, we’ve welcomed hundreds of new people to our meetings, and we’d love to know your thoughts and your ideas for things we could do next.  What could we do better? What else could we do?  How can we help you make one of your ideas happen?  At our last meeting we asked everyone to fill out a survey.  You can fill it out by clicking here.  Or just drop us a line at two23network@gmail.com.  We’d love to hear from you!

Calling all family members of LGBT people!  Two:23 isn’t just for LGBT people – we’ve started a group with our sister organisation Diverse Church for parents of LGBT people who would like to connect with others in a similar situation.  Bruce and Janet Kent host a meet-up before every Two:23 meeting, and there’s a secret Facebook group too.  For more information about Diverse Church Parents check out some more details here or email parents@diversechurch.org.uk

Our friends at Oasis are hosting a conference called ‘Open Church - The church, sexuality, mission and the future.  It’s on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th April, with amazing speakers including Steve Chalke, Vicky Beeching, Rachel Mann and Tony Campolo.  You can find out more about it here

Diverse Church is a sister organisation to Two:23.  It is a supportive community of young LGBT+ Christians in UK evangelical churches.  If you’re aged 18-30 and would like to get involved, you can find out about here, follow them on Twitter here, and watch this amazing film they made here.  Rev Sally Hitchiner, the founder of Diverse Church, spoke at Two:23 and you can hear that here:

Don’t forget you can still listen to many of our other previous talks online, including Steve Chalke’s fantastic Q&A and talk from November last year.

Listen to all of those here.

Please put all our forthcoming meeting dates in your diary!  St Mary Aldermary in central London are very generously hosting us for all of them.

7th February 2015
18th April 2015
13th June 2015
19th September 2015 

What is Two:23?

 We are a network of Christians, connected by LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, who have discovered that God loves us just as we are. This realisation frees us to unashamedly include and encourage all to discover the love of God for themselves, pursue the call of Christ and live in a way that cherishes others just as God cherishes us.

Where are we from?

We were established in late 2012, emerging from a variety of groups and individuals, who share a common experience of having had to seriously engage with personal issues of faith and sexuality. Some of us have been involved with Courage, an LGBT-affirming ministry run by Jeremy Marks. Jeremy retired in 2012 but his pastoral work with LGBT people continues – you can read his story here.

Where does the name ‘Two:23′ come from?

The name references a verse from the Old Testament prophet Hosea, who uses his own life as an allegory for God’s promise of love to the outsider, the excluded, to those who don’t comfortably fit in. Throughout the history of scripture this has had resonance for many people who feel they don’t quite belong for whatever reason.

 

I will say to those called ‘Not my people’, ‘You are my people’; and they will say ‘You are my God’.

Hosea 2:23

 

We’ve written a reflection on the passage which you can find here.

What do we do?

We hold five key meetings a year in a central London location on a Saturday afternoon. These involve some prayer and worship as well as a talk, and of course creating lots of opportunities for people to connect with new people, as well as catching up with old friends.

 

At a time when many of our churches are still sadly struggling to cope with fully affirming and including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, our vision is to create a space where absolutely everyone is welcome, whoever you are and wherever you’re at in terms of church or issues of sexuality and sexual identity. Whether you’ve been out and proud for years, or whether you’re still working through your beliefs regarding faith, gender and sexuality, we hope you will find a welcome here, with no pressure to be anything other than yourself. If you’ve never been to an LGBT-affirming event before, we hope you’ll feel especially welcome and safe.

 

Many of us are from evangelical backgrounds, but we now represent a broad church and aim to make all feel welcome.

 

Listen to some of our previous talks here.

Come along

You can find our 2015 meeting dates, as well as directions and more information about where and when here.

 

Stay in touch

We’re on Facebook and Twitter, and you can sign up for occasional email updates here, with an option to unsubscribe at any time: