Changing Attitude Ireland

07/06/2026

Changing Attitude Ireland is delighted to announce the release of a new resource, Pride in Prayer and Worship: LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Resources and Themes for Pride Season.

Edited by Dr Scott Golden, this new booklet has been produced to support the Church’s pastoral imagination by providing prayers, readings, music suggestions, symbolic actions and service templates that honour LGBTQIA+ people, couples, families and communities with dignity, theological seriousness and joy. It is offered as a practical and prayerful resource for those involved in leading worship, and for families and communities who wish to mark Pride Month in language that is both faithful and affirming.

The resource is anchored by two texts of particular importance: the CAI Prayer and the CAI Hymn. Together, they express something of CAI’s liturgical heart, calling us to relationship, bridge-building, love of neighbour, and the generous breadth of divine mercy that refuses every attempt to narrow God’s welcome.

CAI’s own phrase, “Open hearts for an open Church,” gives simple and generous expression to that calling. This booklet has been prepared in that spirit.

The booklet is available for download from our website here: https://tinyurl.com/CAI-Pride-in-Prayer or you can scan scan the QR code.

We hope these resources will open hearts, deepen faith, honour LGBTQIA+ lives and widen the welcome of the Church.

For further information, please contact [email protected] or visit www.changingattitudeireland.com.

06/06/2026

Jesus said ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’.
What he tells us is this: If religion is only concerned with pietism and ‘being proper’, if worship simply becomes a matter of outward sacrifice or ‘show’ then it bears no fruit, and if worship bears no fruit, it is worthless.
But tragically how often can we point to people who claim to be Christian, and yet there is little, if anything, distinctive in their words or behaviour, that honours the faith they so loudly profess to espouse.
Worst still, how all too obviously, there are countless numbers of people declaring themselves to be Christian, but who have appropriated warped teachings of the faith to justify hatred, bigotry, prejudice against minorities and different races, which clearly have far, far more, to do with extreme social and political views, shot-through as they are with anger, violence and fear.
By all means, they say, worship guns and violence, espouse prejudice and discrimination, define yourself by who you hate rather than who you love, and condone cruelty, corruption and lies, just so long as the most extreme politics and fierce nationalism are professed.
In certain places and countries, the faith has become so debased, that people of kind and generous hearts are now almost ashamed to call themselves Christian. So dishonoured and debased has that name frequently become…..

Jesus said ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’.What he tells us is this...

30/05/2026

There is evidence that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were ideas in circulation in the early part of the second century, but it wasn’t until the third century that agreement was reached, after competing factions had wrangled over Jesus and his precise relationship to God, and had labelled each other heretics for their theories.
But all this begs the question, if Jesus had been so clear about precisely who he was, then why was the intervention of the emperor needed in the first place? Why did a disputed explanation of Jesus and the divine exist in the first place?
The answer is that Jesus hadn’t been clear, or at least that he hadn’t claimed for himself, what others later came to believe of him.
Jesus had spoken of himself as the Son of Man, or a Son of God, but these titles could be applied at the time to others of holiness and devotion.
Certainly, others asked him whether he was the Messiah, and his answers were enigmatic,
What the early church was struggling to make sense of, was what the theologian Marcus Borg termed the pre-Easter and the post-Easter Jesus.

There is evidence that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were...

29/05/2026

Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, one of Dublin’s most historic places of worship and the diocesan cathedral of The United Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough welcomes the community for its annual Pride Service, taking place on Thursday 25 June 2026 at 6.00 p.m.

The Very Revd Dermot Dunne, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, will preside and preach at this year’s service, one of his final official acts before his retirement in September.

Changing Attitude Ireland will also be present to celebrate Pride and mark this historic occasion, having partnered with Christ Church Cathedral in this wonderful service of welcome and inclusion since its inception in 2021.

Readers for the service will include Oisín O’Reilly, CEO of Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre; Kieran O’Donovan, CEO of Belong To Youth Services; and Dr Scott Golden, Convenor of Changing Attitude Ireland. Music will be provided by Christ Church Cathedral’s choir, under the direction of Tom Little.

A reception and celebration will follow, honouring charitable partners BelongTo Youth Services and Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre.

All are warmly welcome.

Further details: https://bit.ly/ChristChurchPride

18/05/2026

The Revd Dr Brian Ammons and The Revd Brian Stewart pictured at the service yesterday. Thanks to all who attended and organised the event and to Brian for preaching.

17/05/2026

Today!!! 5pm!!!

CHURCH OF IRELAND
Service of Evensong
ALL WELCOME

International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia

Sunday 17 May 2026, 5.00pm
St. George's Church, High Street, Belfast

SERMON ΒΥ REV. BRIAN AMMONS FIRST CHURCH BELFAST

16/05/2026

Planning for Pride? Whatever you're planning with your congregation, we've got some ideas for you.
This mini guide to prayers for Pride season drops next week - watch this space!

09/05/2026

Thank you to a those who took the time to talk to us, find out more and support our work. We have a lot of work to do. The important thing is that there continues to be dialogue, listening and understanding of different viewpoints. We will aways remain focused on inclusivity for LGBTQIA+ members of the Church, but the Church also has a responsibility to listen, understand and be open to dialogue. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

06/05/2026

We will be at General Synod tomorrow, Friday and Saturday at the Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle, Co Down. Come and visit our stall, chat with us, and say hi!!

02/05/2026

Jesus called and calls upon us to love, unreservedly, boundlessly, without restraint, without limit, abundantly.
Jesus didn’t say love one kind of Christian more than any other, they didn’t exist at the time. He most certainly did not say love Jews, his own people, a little less; that would truly be a bizarre sentiment for a devout Jewish rabbi to advance.
He didn’t call upon us to hate anyone, Muslims, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, or any other of the variety of human creeds that seek to share compassion and forgiveness.
The Trinity is not a closed loop, it is not a self-absorbed or an inward-looking and exclusive company of three.
The Trinity is an invitation - to inclusion and participation, with arms that are open, welcoming and gathering-in.
The journey to unity with God, the divine, transcendent reality, is ultimately a journey within ourselves, to discover at our heart the essence of Jesus and the spirit that inspired him.
To find deep within ourselves the love that God is, and the love that Jesus showed and shared.

Love without boundaries - 5th Sunday after Easter 2026