Following from our first blog post about this in July, an update from the national Unitarian and Free Christian movement:

“We are starting an exciting new project called LGBT+ Unitarian Voices. The project aims to lift up the voices of LGBT+ Unitarians by recording and sharing stories that help us learn from the past and celebrate our movement’s significant contribution to LGBT+ inclusion.

We are keen that all our congregations have a chance to contribute to this project, and so we are asking whether you have any photographs, leaflets, posters, banners, newspaper stories, documents, or any other items that help shed light on our movement’s LGBT+ story. We are also interested in including written reminiscences and we invite you to send those stories to us too!

We hope to use images of these items, alongside audio recordings of LGBT+ Unitarians telling their stories, to put together a portable exhibition that can be moved around our congregations and showcased at the annual meetings, alongside a website that sheds light on our LGBT+ past. We also hope to archive everything we collect at Harris Manchester College, Oxford. We are working closely with the librarian there, Kate Alderson-Smith, to house and exhibit the collection so that future generations may better understand the role of our movement in LGBT+ inclusion.

If you have anything that you would like to see included in the exhibition and website, please fill in the attached form (also available here). Once we have your details, we will be in touch directly to discuss the most appropriate way to use the items you would like to share. This includes discussing whether we should use the originals or take copies. We are also interested in the stories behind the items you send to us and there is space on the form to add these details too.

With huge thanks, this project relies on all our congregations working together to record, share, learn from and celebrate our past and ongoing commitment to LGBT+ rights. We are proud to be working on this with you and would love to hear from you.”

The form is here:

Our congregation will think about what it wants to contribute to this. If you have suggestions, please email them to: info@newcastleunitarians.org.uk or let’s discuss them after a service (in person or online). You can also contact the organisers directly: rcastlejones@unitarian.org.uk or ekingston@unitarian.org.uk.