We want to start a new series on our socials, where people who have attended our Annual Conferences share a memory. Starting with Paul Whiting:

I was 28 years old when I attended my first Forum in 1984. Just 2 years before I’d been kicked out of the Pentecostal Church. However, I was not new to gay Christian activism. I’d been volunteering with the Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement and was a co-founder of their Evangelical group. Gathering with 40 other lesbian and gay Christians on a botel in Amsterdam harbour was a dream. It was cosy. While we have since commented on the lack of women at the early meetings, maybe it should be seen in context. The Forum was, and is, a representation of LGBT groups with Christian connections. Many of these groups were male led and we were coming to terms with the devastating rise of AIDS. The next year in Antwerp I was appointed to the commission to look at a permanent structure. The proposals were accepted and I was elected to the Board, a year as member at large, two years as Secretary and after a year break, two years as Co-President. So many memories have been stirred up in recent times, but a lasting memory of those early years were pink balloons in Zurich in 1992. We tagged a balloon for everyone among our groups who had died from AIDS, releasing them to the sky. There were a lot of balloons.

I bade the Forum farewell for a new career in America. I stayed in contact through email and in 2017 had the opportunity to attend the Gdansk conference. It felt like a home coming. It was much larger with few familiar faces. I am thrilled at the Forum’s diversity, it’s ability to renew itself and the work that it has accomplished. It was an honour for me to be part of the Forum’s 40th anniversary in Zurich. I remember the closing service. We had been separated for 2 years. People hugged, and as we sang I wept with gladness and appreciation for who we had become.

Comission and board members of 1987