A church has been banned from draping a ‘Pride Progress’ flag featuring a Christian cross from the altar after campaigners warned it ‘politicised’ the place of worship.
St Nicholas’s Church, in Leicester, had hung the rainbow LGBTQ symbol on the altar and later replaced the flag with one featuring chevrons.
The black and brown chevrons represent marginalised LBGT people who are also ethnic minorities and people lost to or living with HIV/AIDS, and those currently living with AIDS. The white, blue and pink chevrons represent those who do not identify with their biological sex.
An application was then made for a faculty, meaning when the church seeks to undertake more than just minor work, for a white Christian cross to be added to the chevroned flag.
In the petition the St Nicholas’s Church argued Christ’s “experience of rejection and physical torture is not unknown to LGBTQIA+ people” and that “this act of remembrance mediates the solidarity of Christ with the suffering of those in our community.”
Rejecting the bid, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Leicester Naomi Gyane, wrote it realted to the “one of the most symbolic parts of the building, the Altar.”
She continued: “The Progress Pride flag is not a Christian emblem. Whilst I agree it is a sign of welcome for people from the LGBTQIA+ community and although not itself political, it is a secular contemporary emblem used for many causes and contemporary discourse.”
The Mail Online reports campaigners had claimed the flags had meant “our alter table has been hijacked by political activists”.
In 2022 when the petition was first made for the flag, Sam Margrave, a member of the General Synod, said: “People come to church to get away from the culture wars and find sanctuary.
“I want to welcome the gay and lesbian community, but there are better ways to do it.”
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Leicester said: “We cannot comment on the Chancellor’s decision as the Chancellor is entirely independent of the Bishop and the Diocesan Advisory Committee structures, and our churches are responsible for their own conduct in relation to contents of their buildings.
“The Chancellor’s decision is not related to the wider Living in Love and Faith process in which the Church of England as a whole is engaged.
“The Diocese of Leicester cherishes a wide range of church communities in which people hold very different views, including on matters of sexuality, and nevertheless seek to live well together across difference.”
