{"id":26064,"date":"2018-06-23T17:05:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T21:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=26064"},"modified":"2018-06-24T08:09:36","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T12:09:36","slug":"safe-spaces-now-and-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/safe-spaces-now-and-then\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe spaces then and now"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>A few years ago when I visited the Monasteries of Met\u00e9ora, I was fascinated by the murals on the walls of the narthex where new Christians had to wait before being baptised. They were graphic images of what early – and possibly prospective \u2013 Christians had to endure for their faith: dismemberment, crucifixion, crushing, flaying and disembowelling.<\/p>\n

If 14th<\/sup> century proselytes were undeterred by the sights in this safe space, they were led into the baptistry for baptism.<\/p>\n

The Diocese of Toronto has a safe space too, where transgender youth can escape homophobic slurs and other horrors of the modern world.<\/p>\n

Could this have something to do with how we have ended up with a generation of such feeble, enervated, impotent, milquetoast Anglican Christians?<\/p>\n

From here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In a conversation with his mother and aunt in 2015, Mylo Woods talked about how difficult it was to be a trans youth. \u201cEveryone was bullying me, using homophobic slurs, making me feel angry and depressed, even suicidal,\u201d he recalls telling them.<\/p>\n

During the conversation, Mylo said he wished he had a place to get away from it all. \u201cI just wanted something for me and other kids where we could be ourselves and forget worrying about those things anymore,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His comment struck a chord. \u201cIn my world, if a child asks you if you can build a safe space for them, you say yes,\u201d says his aunt, the Rev. Erin Martin, the incumbent of St. James the Apostle, Sharon, located about 50 km north of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Ms. Martin and Mylo\u2019s mother, Kit Woods, had an idea. What about creating a safe place for LGBTQ youth and their friends at the church? The women, who are sisters, asked some parishioners if they would like to help. They said yes, and in 2016 A Safe Place was born.<\/p>\n

Held in the parish hall, the twice-monthly gathering gives LGBTQ youth and their friends an opportunity to hang out together and be themselves. There is no structured program. Sometimes they simply shout out \u201cI\u2019m gay!\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m trans!\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t know what I am!\u201d It is a release for some of the kids because they can\u2019t say it at home. Often they share stories about their lives such as being misgendered or rejected because they are gay. Then they rally around each other for support. It isn\u2019t all serious \u2013 they have a lot of fun as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In case anyone thinks I am being callous and unfeeling \u2013 well, perhaps I am a little, but not as much as those who are encouraging children to celebrate their mental disorder rather than help them cure it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago when I visited the Monasteries of Met\u00e9ora, I was fascinated by the murals on the walls of the narthex where new Christians had to wait before being baptised. They were graphic images of what early – … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[1100,1562],"class_list":["post-26064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diocese-of-toronto","tag-monasteries-of-meteora","tag-transgender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}