Sister Act. Class Act.

I must have known Rev Sr Maria Renate for the best part of a decade now, but it's been far too long since I last saw her. So I was very happy that she came along to a work meeting this morning and that we had a chance to catch up a bit.

A group of us are organising a forum entitled ‘Believe it or Not! - Sexuality, Gender, Faith and Mental Health’ as part of this year's Liverpool Mental Health Festival, and Renate is going to be one of our plenary panel members.

She's a fascinating, warm, hugely entertaining, funny and compelling woman who was born intersex and whose early life as an apparent ‘boy’ and subsequent life as a woman, a Catholic nun and, much more recently, an Anglican nun has been transformative in more ways than one!

She's been actively involved with the local LGBT+ community since the ’80s, when she worked closely with people who were HIV+ or who had AIDS, and she's remained a great activist, advocate and community supporter ever since.

I may not share her faith but I completely respect the way it informs her life and work so profoundly, and I certainly feel that we share a commitment to our community and to social justice.

She's very cool indeed and, as I told her today, she deserves to be celebrated!

Today's tune is ‘You Are My Sister’ by Antony and the Johnsons - with added Boy George! www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhYiz9FRKAc