About QTC

Contact details:

 email: terence@queerchurch.com
mobile: (+44) 755 217 6051
Postal: 14 Chatsworth Avenue, Haslemere, GU27 1 BA, Surrey, United Kingdom

About Terence Weldon:

Catholic, gay, partnered; a father and a grandfather.

 

Me

I’m a cradle Catholic, educated entirely in Catholic schools at the time of Vatican II (high school years), and lived for over half a century in South Africa, against the background of the rise and fall of apartheid. Between them, these two have given me a perspective on the church and the Gospels with a definite emphasis on equality, justice, and full inclusion for all. This directly colours my views on justice, equality and inclusion for all inside the church, as well as outside it.
The central irony of my life is that as a young man, I attempted to live entirely in compliance with church teaching – which led to an early marriage and two daughters soon after. The marriage gradually broke down, both my wife and I drifted away from any religious practice or even (in my case) belief. After the final split, I was able to do what for years I had avoided, and accepted finally that I am gay. After coming out and settling down with a man in a shared home and committed partnership – it was he who gradually led me back to full and active participation in the Catholic Church.
Since coming to the UK nine years ago, I have been heavily involved in the Soho Masses, and in view of my own experience of reconciling the apparent conflict between my orientation and my faith, have made it my business to learn as much as I could about the intersection of these two issues, faith and sexuality. As I began to learn, I felt a desire (or calling?) to share what I had learned, with others, and so started the blog over Christmas / New Year four years ago. Maintaining it, together with continuing to think and learn, and  direct involvement in LGBT ministry wherever I find it, has become an obsession, and in effect a full-time job – most regrettably, entirely unpaid.
I live in South West Surrey with my partner, Raymond, and also participate actively in my local Catholic parish, where I make no attempt to hide or downplay either my sexuality, or my involvement with LGBT Catholic activism (and have had an extremely supportive response from fellow parishioners and the two local priests).
When not working on the blog or other ministry, I deliver pizzas evenings to generate a very basic income. In between whiles, I try to spend a day once a fortnight or so with my daughter and granddaughter in West London. I also have a daughter and two grandchildren in Johannesburg – but get to see them far less often).
Other than LGBT inclusion in church, my other passion as a blogger is that of marriage equality and queer families, arising from my own experience as a father and grandfather. I am immensely proud that one of my daughters is on record as saying, based on her experience, “Gay parents? I recommend them“. She has also told me that when she says a child with two daddies, her automatic and routine reaction is to think “lucky kid”.

About this site:

As gay Catholics, we have often found ourselves double outsiders. As a sexual minority in a world where heterosexuality is routinely taken for granted, and even suffered ridicule, discrimination, violence or worse, we have often felt excluded, left out - or even invisible. Typically, we have felt even more rejected in the churches than in the secular world, with widespread condemnation of the ‘sin’ of homosexuality. This hostility from the religious establishment has led to a counter-reaction from many in the LGBT community, who see religion as the architect and driving force behind our ‘oppression’, and consequently refuse to have any truck with organised religion. The result for gay Catholics is too often, exclusion by both camps. I have often heard the observation from my gay Catholic friends, that it can be as difficult to be out as Catholic in the gay community, as it is to be out as gay in the world at large.

Me at ride Stall, 2008

Me at Pride Stall, 2008

However, in the secular world at least, things have changed. Ever since Stonewall, may of us have discovered the power of coming out publicly. At a personal level, affirming, not hiding, our identities has been personally liberating for our mental and even physical health; at a public level, the increasing visibility of persons of diverging sexual identities has played a big part in breaking down stereotypes, prejudice, and increasingly, discrimination. For young (and not so young) people who are beginning for the first time to face the idea that they do not fit inside the sexual roles their social conditioning has led them to expect, this increased visibility of public role models also makes it easier for own coming out, than it was for earlier generations.

This increased visibility has not yet significantly reached our parishes, cloisters, or ecclesiastical parishes, partly because so many of those who are most comfortable identifying as gay, refuse to identify as churchgoers. But in parallel with the secular world, the more we are indeed out in the church, the easier it will be for us, and for those who follow.

So, to all you who are gay Catholics or lapsed Catholics, a plea and invitation: come in and come out. If you have lapsed, come back in to the Church, and hep to make a difference. If you remain a regular churchgoer, come in deeper – take on more active ministry. Let there be no doubt of your credentials as Catholic. Then, cautiously and gradually, come out as gay. If you can not trust your parish to be accepting, find one which will (welcoming communities do exist. This site will help you to find one.) Or, if you prefer, seek out a special Mass for an LGBT congregation. These too exist in many bigger cities, even if not on every Sunday. For most people, coming out in the secular world was not easy. You probably needed help and support from LGBT friends, and may have deliberately sought out explicitly gay public venues as much for affirmation as for the objective services offered (I know I did. Why else pay higher prices for a pint in Soho than in your neighbourhood local?) Coming out in the church will be more difficult, so you will need even more support. I hope that this site will help you to find a suitable support network for face to face contact and discussion. But the virtual society of the blogosphere can also represent support of a kind – and that, we definitely aim to provide.

qtc-logo

More about me:

My Journey in Faith

My Homoerotic Retreat: 6 days that changed my life

My Experience as “The Bridegroom of Christ”

A New Year – A (Double) New Beginning, and a Personal Appeal. 

A Strictly Personal Reflection

 

 

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2 comments for “About QTC”

  1. Queer
    July 14, 2012 at 4:30 pm

    Please provide some way for people to contact you. There is misinformation being disseminated from your site, and it is to your detriment. When I, as an author you discuss, have tried to contact you to let you know about these problems, I find no way to let you know apart from posting. But I also don’t particularly want to publish my real email here either. Your pages are being whited-out, either from a bug in software or, more discomfiting to think about, intentionally by some self-appointed censor. But unless you provide a way to contact you, I can’t really have a discussion with you about the problem.

    signed: an author you actually like…

    Reply
    • Terence Weldon
      July 14, 2012 at 4:41 pm

      I am sorry to hear that there is misinformation on the site. I am always happy to correct any errors pointed out to me. Feel free to write to me at terence@queerchurch.com

      Reply

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