This sermon was given by Mr Warren Hartley, LGBTQIA+ Ministry Facilitator for the Open Table Liverpool community hosted by St Bride's Church Liverpool, UK for our annual Glitter Ash Wednesday Service. The reading was Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.Glitter+Ash exquisitely captures the relationship between Ash Wednesday and Easter -- which is the relationship between death and new life. We do not live in fear of ash - of death - we place it on our foreheads for the world to see. We know that fear will rise, cramping our hearts.We also know that God specifically calls us not to project that fear onto the Other, the alien, the stranger in our midst. God insists that we look for the spark of life, of hope, in ourselves and one another. This Ash Wednesday, we will make that spark easier to see. As Christians, we will witness to the gritty, glittery, scandalous hope that exists in the very marrow of our tradition.

Liz Edman, founder of the initiative says "what I was imagining with glitter + ash...the glitter from a drag queen's makeup falling to the floor, being swept up with the dust as that same drag queen walks home on darkened streets, risking life and limb by being their full self in view of others. This courage, this embrace of abjection, this determination to find joy while making queerness and beauty visible, audible -- all of this is the history and the conviction that I hoped we would smear on our foreheads for the world to see"For more about the initiative visit www.queervirtue.com/about-gaFor details on the Open table Liverpool community visit ⁠www.stbridesliverpool.org.uk/lgbtqia⁠Open Table is a network of ecumenical Christian worship communities which offer a warm welcome to people who are: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer / Questioning, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA) and all who seek an inclusive Church. The first Open Table community began at St Bride’s Liverpool in June 2008. Now Open Table communities gather across England and Wales, hosted by inclusive churches in four denominations (Anglican, United Reformed Church, Baptist, Methodist). To find out when and where you can 'come as you are' visit ⁠www.opentable.lgbt⁠