Matt Drapps Profile picture
Oct 3, 2023 10 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Right let's start a deep dive, love read on THAT homophobic sermon from St Aldates Church, Oxford, shall we?

#oxford #students #lgbt #church Image
What do we know? We know it was a Sunday Sermon at St Aldates Church, Oxford.

According to #ChurchNearYou: "We are a welcoming church in the heart of Oxford".

Wikipedia says St Aldates is Church of England, with a staff team of 30. They are responsible for #LoveOxford Image
St Aldates Church has links to the @alphacourseuk @AlphaCourse. Not only were they filmed running am Alpha Course as a unique Channel 4 documentary called "Revelations - How to find God", but also Stephen Foster who "leads St Aldates" is listed as a Director. Image
@alphacourseuk @alphacourse Look, I'm not saying resign immediately, but this Homophobic Sermon is going to need addressing ASAP

@alphacourseuk @alphacourse St Aldates Church is heavily linked with New Wine, with multiple shared speakers, including, Simon Ponsonby himself in 2022, possibly 2023.

Something ELSE to address @NewWineEngland?

@NewWineLondon Image
@alphacourseuk @alphacourse @NewWineEngland @NewWineLondon New Wine sells talks, teaching packs, boks, etc, by Simon Ponsonby.

How do they feel about his Homophobic Sermon?

#newwine #newwinelondon
@alphacourseuk @alphacourse @NewWineEngland @NewWineLondon Simon Ponsonby is considered a "friend of the movement" of Vineyard Churches, listed as such here alongside @nickygumbel and @PeteGreig

How do they feel about his Homophobic Sermon? Image
@alphacourseuk @alphacourse @NewWineEngland @NewWineLondon @nickygumbel @PeteGreig I posted some highlights (lowlights) of the sermon yesterday here:

@alphacourseuk @alphacourse @NewWineEngland @NewWineLondon @nickygumbel @PeteGreig I have run out of time to jump into detailing the transcript of the talk today. I'm off out to see a show! But I will be back.
@alphacourseuk @alphacourse @NewWineEngland @NewWineLondon @nickygumbel @PeteGreig @threadreaderapp Can you Unroll for me please?

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Matt Drapps

Matt Drapps Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @MattDrapps

Jun 23
A year ago, Living Out dropped a secret project - - now they are ready to roll it out.

"For over a year, the Emerging Generations team here at Living Out have been beavering away on a top-secret project..."

That project was Keleidoscope - an explicitly anti-gay kids project... Kaleidoscope is our series for youth groups, available for free here on our website.  The series is all about giving young people the space to explore big questions about sexuality, gender and faith.  Giving young people the space to explore big questions about sexuality, gender and faith.
If you don't know, Living Out is a Christian organisation in the UK which is based on the "celibacy" model of Conversion Therapy Practices, encouraging people to suppress their same-sex attraction in order to follow "God's" design for marriage Image
They used to be endorsed by Mike Pilavachi, including a quote from him on their website. Mike modelled their celibacy model. They swiftly removed his endorsement after his fall from grace, as they explained to me, they were coincidentally thinning the website at that time Dear Matthew,     Thank you for your recent email.     We recently took the decision to reduce the number of commendations on our website. Given the recent allegations against Mike Pilavachi, his was one of those we removed – pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation.   At Living Out we are always reviewing our own lives, the material on our website, and the content of our events and training, to check they are consistent with the life to the full that Jesus promises, and the Bible teaches.   Like others, we want to commend all those that have the courage to speak out about abuse – y...
Read 22 tweets
Jun 12
I'm back because I want to do a long form here on Mountain of Fire and Miracles and talk about Conversion Therapy Practices not being just a white story with white survivors, white queer culture and Church of England assumptions
I was recently sent this horrific book of Healing and Deliverance Prayers for Gays and Lesbians (@ The Midnight Gate) by Anthony O. Akerele. Also known as:

Homosexuals: People Paying for what They Did Not Buy! Copy of the very brightly coloured book
This anti-gay book is published (2011) by Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Virginia. But I've been shown evidence of it being used in the UK as a form on Conversion Therapy Practice in MoFM churches
Read 41 tweets
Dec 26, 2024
A very brief history of Megachurch Branding, given by Lizzie, in the LESSER LIGHT, Boxing Day chapters:
"It was branding, wasn’t it? All of it. Morgan needed a theory of Christianity he could brand as his own. Christianity is always being rebranded...
... About every forty years the whole system changes. Did you know, in the early 1900s, there were streams of Christanity laser focused on maintaining white supremacy by any means, and a bunch of proof texts were dragged out of context to ‘protect’ against interracial marriage.”
She made air quotes. “Preachers and politicians greased each others palms with arguments that backed one another up. In America, being antisegregation was considered anti-church...
Read 40 tweets
Nov 8, 2024
I'm reading the Makin Report. I'm not planning a detailed live read after the Soul Survivor Report tweets really took it out of me. I will make comment as I go. I'm confident the report speaks for itself, and recommend reading in full and digesting the implications for all
The opening points 1.1-1.12 alone are enough to lead to mass resignations. This Report is truely heartbreaking and I'm on page 2 of over 200.
Calls for an independent organisation, if only one had already been set up and not disbanded by the House of Bishops, hmmmmm

"...the development of a wholly independent body, free from direct influence by senior Church officers..."
Read 82 tweets
Oct 13, 2024
Ok, I'm diving into the next bit of the Soul Survivor Report. Wish me luck.
When we were last here, we were looking at the nature of the report and the nature of the organisations, and noting the writers had made choices which minimised the Active choices made by Mike Pilavachi, and implied a Passive oopsydaisey things happen approach to Spiritual Abuse.
Read 52 tweets
Oct 8, 2024
Alright, let's go then.

I've got time.

#soulsurvivor
#scoldingreport
#pilavachi
#exposeChurchAbuse
#churchabuse
#spiritualabuse Independent Review into Soul Survivor
"He was ebullient, generous-hearted, kind to many, and an inspirational figure. But alongside that, hiding in plain sight, was someone who manipulated and controlled others, bullied and sought to abuse his power over those whom he worked alongside in the church" He was ebullient, generous-hearted, kind to many, and an inspirational figure.  But alongside that, hiding in plain sight, was someone who manipulated and controlled others, bullied and sought to abuse his power over those whom he worked alongside in the church and those who came to learn alongside him.  That abuse of power has caused deep psychological harm to many with whom he worked closely over 30 years.  This report seeks to explain why he was allowed to accrue such power, what he did with it and why and how this could have happened.  Mr Pilavachi’s behaviours around young men and youn...
"That abuse of power has caused deep psychological harm to many with whom he worked closely over 30 years."
Read 65 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(