About this Event
My journey towards becoming fully myself in Christ
This is a story of grace and unexpected reconciliation. I will be telling something of my own journey: from recognising that I was gay at an early age, through years of believing that my sexuality was something I needed to overcome, involvement in the ex-gay movement and a marriage to a woman which ultimately proved painful for both of us. I will talk about what gradually led me to question beliefs I had once held with great conviction, why I eventually became affirming, and what I have learned from recognising the harm that sincere but mistaken Christian teaching can cause.
Today I am happily married to a man, while remaining on loving terms with my former wife and her husband. Most importantly, the journey has not led me away from Christian faith but much more deeply into it. I have come to see Jesus increasingly as the clearest revelation of what God is like—a discovery which eventually became the heart of my recent book, If You’ve Seen Me, You’ve Seen the Father. I hope to share something of how losing one understanding of Christianity ultimately enabled me to discover a faith that has become more spacious, truthful and deeply rooted in Christ.
Short biography
Jeremy Marks is a writer, speaker and spiritual director who has spent much of his life exploring the relationship between Christian faith and sexuality. In 1988 he founded Courage, originally as a ministry seeking to help gay Christians live a celibate life or even become heterosexual. But in 2000 he publicly acknowledged that this approach was causing harm and that he could no longer support it. Since then he has worked to encourage a more compassionate and affirming understanding of LGBT people within the Church. He is the author of If You’ve Seen Me, You’ve Seen the Father, which explores how Jesus has transformed his understanding of God, Scripture and the Christian life.
There will be time for questions and answers.
Event venue & nearby stays
St James's Church, Piccadilly, 197 Piccadilly, London, United Kingdom
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