Intersectionality is a way of describing how social categories (eg disability, race) combine to create overlapping systems of discrimination or disadvantage. In this 4th series of Shut In, Shut Out, Shut Up we explore the intersectional experience of disability and neurodiversity, gender, mental health, sexuality, race and poverty. What are the key issues in the context of faith? What are our calls to the church?

Since 2012 the Living Edge conference has held space for disabled and neurodivergent people to gather, to resource each other and the church. It's a partnership between St Martin in the Fields and Inclusive Church. These HeartEdge events share some of this experience, providing new space to ask challenging questions. Join us for more honest conversations.

Speakers

hosted by Fiona MacMillan with guests including:

Stef Benstead, Molly Boot, Alex Clare-Young, Lamar Hardwick, Kate Harford, Anne-Marie Kramer, Ann Memmott, Valour Nicholas, Rachel Noel, Alexis Padilla.

Topics

• 4 March - Disability & Neurodiversity
• 11 March - Gender
• 18 March - Mental Health
• 10 June - Sexuality
• 17 June - Race
• 24 June - Poverty

Access information

• Image description: Church building behind iron gates; gates are shut and locked with a padlock and metal chain.
• 90 minutes on Zoom in meeting mode. Each session combines input from speakers with time in small groups and plenary discussion.
• BSL and automatic captions are available.
• Sessions will be recorded and posted on the HeartEdge YouTube channel.
• Previous series of Shut In Shut Out Shut Up can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO43Y1gJDjYT5iOQlxc3vpRbo8EfFWU80

Speakers

Fiona MacMillan (she/her) is a disabled and neuordivergent disability advocate, practitioner, speaker and writer. She chairs the Disability Advisory Group at St Martin in the Fields, is a trustee of Inclusive Church, and leads the planning team for their annual partnership conference on disability and theology. Fiona is a member of the Nazareth community and was recently elected to the Church of England's General Synod.

• https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/politics/human-rights/calling-from-the-edge
• Calling from the Edge (2017) & Something Worth Sharing (2019) (editor). Calls, ideas & practical resources for creating change - free to download from https://www.inclusive-church.org/disability
• Fiona is on twitter @jpuddlegoose

Stef Benstead (she/her) is a researcher in disability and welfare and the author of two books on this topic. She has lived experience of disability due to chronic illness, and poverty due to being unable to work and dependent upon benefits. Stef is a trustee of Church Action on Poverty.

• Second Class Citizens (2019) and Benefit Scroungers? (2013) Living with chronic illness or disability, and experiencing the benefits system, in modern Britain
• https://www.stefbenstead.com/publications
• Stef is on twitter @StefBenstead

Molly Boot (they/them) is an autistic theologian, musician, and ordinand at St Matthew’s Bethnal Green. They write on mysticism, art, gender and sexuality, bringing together medieval wisdom for modern life. Molly is a regular presenter for BBC Radio 4 Religion and Ethics, and loves conducting, singing, and playing the violin in their free time.

• Read Molly’s chapter, ‘When did I start calling my body “it”’, in Young, Woke and Christian (2022), https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334061533/young-woke-and-christian
• Check out the Greenbelt Festival, where Molly is a Trustee: https://www.greenbelt.org.uk
• Molly is on Twitter, @MollyBoot1

Alex Clare-Young (they/them/Alex) is a pioneer minister in the United Reformed Church with a particular call towards working alongside those marginalised in church and society for social justice and equity for all. Alex’s lived experiences as a transmasculine non-binary person who is multiply neurodivergent and disabled inspires this call.

• https://alexclareyoung.co.uk/ - Alex’s website
• https://www.ionabooks.com/product/transgender-christian-human/ - Alex’s book.
• Alex is on twitter @alex_clareyoung and on Instagram @alex.clareyoung

Lamar Hardwick (he/him) (DMin, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary), also known as "the autism pastor," is the lead pastor at Tri-Cities Church in East Point, Georgia. He is the author of Epic Church, I Am Strong: The Life and Journey of an Autistic Pastor, and the award-winning book Disability and The Church: A Vision for Diversity and Inclusion (InterVarsity Press 2021).

• https://autismpastor.substack.com/p/june-5th-and-the-speed-of-justice?s=w
• A Love Letter To The Church - https://tinyurl.com/LoveLetterToTheChurch
• Lamar is on twitter @autismpastor 

Kate Harford (she/her) is a priest of the Metropolitan Community Churches, and University Chaplain and Pastoral Care Lead at Oxford Brookes University. Based on her own lived experience, Kate has a particular interest in queer theology and the faith experiences and expressions of neurodivergent people and those who live with mental illness. She lives with her wife and cat in Oxford and enjoys knitting, playing the flute, and disrupting cis-hetero-patriarchal systems.

• Kate has appeared on The Guilty Feminist podcast, including episode 65, 'Feminism and Faith'
• SCM Podcast reflecting on her experiences as a University Chaplain https://anchor.fm/scmpodcast/episodes/Chatting-with-Revd-Kate-Harford-Known-by-Name-Keynote-Speaker-ecirv4/a-a1t14dp
• Kate is on twitter @kate_elizabeth and on Instagram, @katerharford

Anne-Marie Kramer (she/her) is a queer feminist sociologist at the University of Nottingham. Her research has focussed on gender, reproductive politics and the church and the meaning of family histories in kinship and personal lives. She currently researches the politics of sexuality in the Church of England. She is active in MOSAIC.

• Anne-Marie is on Twitter @annemariekramer

Ann Memmott (she/they) is the author of the Church of England autism guidelines, and a member of the St Martin in the Fields/Inclusive Church disability conference planning team. Ann is autistic & disabled, and is a carer.  Ann works nationally as an adviser on neurodivergent inclusion, working with a variety of organisations, and has been a regular contributor to Radio 4's Prayer for the Day.

• https://tinyurl.com/WelcomingAutisticPeopleChurch
• Ann's autism blog https://annsautism.blogspot.com/
• Ann is on twitter @AnnMemmott

Valour Nicholas (he/him) is an activist, writer, postgrad researcher and trainee Lay Preacher. He sits on his Church PCC and spends a lot of time asking hard questions about inequality and faith. He is disabled, autistic, queer and transgender.

• Blog: valoursvoyage.net
• Valour is on twitter @ValourRain

Rachel Noël (she/her), known locally as the Pink Vicar, is Priest in Charge of St Mark’s Church, Pennington, a HeartEdge church in the Diocese of Winchester. Creative, colourful, enthusiastic, autistic, ADHD, bipolar, and vulnerable to covid, she is passionate about diversity and inclusion. Rachel is a member of the Community of Hopeweavers

• https://churchmissionsociety.org/anvil/theology-at-the-borders-of-psychosis-rachel-noel-fiona-macmillan-anvil-vol-38-issue-1/
• Rachel's blog: thepinkvicar.com
• Rachel is on twitter: @ThePinkVicar

Alexis Padilla (he/him) is a blind brown Latinx Scholar/activist and lawyer who holds two PhDs and is currently an independent researcher affiliated with the University of New Mexico. His publications explore emancipatory learning, radical agency and intersectional disability justice/theology in the context of decolonial Latinx theorizing and critical disability studies, emphasizing the activist/disability advocacy vantage point.

• Disability, Intersectional Agency and Latinx Identity (Routledge,2021)
• Humanizing Disability in Mathmatics Education (NCTM, 2019)
• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9655-964X