Queer Places:
St John the Baptist with Our Lady and St Laurence, Watling St, Thaxted, Dunmow CM6 2PE, UK
Peter Elers (1930-1986), Vicar of Thaxted, Essex, was the 1st President of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. His paternal family, originally from Germany, were confirmed for use in England by the College of Arms in 1836.
Jack Putterill (1892-1980), the previous Vicar of Thaxted before Elers, son-in-law and successor of the "Red Vicar", Conrad Noel, was a morris-dancing Christian Socialist and amateur astronomer, who prompted a walk-out of parishioners when he led prayers for the soul of Stalin in 1953. But Putterill was, himself, among the objectors in the 1970s when his successor, Peter Elers, a married father of four, caused controversy in 1976 by coming out as gay at a conference, and by allegedly blessing two lesbian partnerships in Thaxted Church. The following year he again declared his homosexuality on a BBC TV documentary. Thaxted was a parish celebrated for its radical Christian socialist tradition, but gay liberation was a cause too far for many parishioners, who campaigned to have Elers removed as their vicar. Peter Elers kept his job, but the episode led conservative evangelicals like Raymond Johnston to become increasingly insistent that the Anglican hierarchy distance itself from the demands of gay rights protesters. The battle between supporters and opponents of gay rights in the Church of England has been going on ever since.
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