Lessons on Belonging from a Gay Catholic

​Join us for Lessons in Belonging from a Gay Catholic, a thoughtful evening with theologian and priest James Alison, known for his compassionate and faithful insights on faith, identity, and community. He will be joined in conversation by Ben Schilaty, an openly gay Latter-day Saint who has written and spoken widely about creating belonging within the Church. Together, they will explore how discipleship, humility, and love can help us build Christ-centered communities where everyone feels valued and included.

​Free Admission. Donations appreciated.

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​James Alison (b. 1959) is a Catholic theologian, priest and author. He has studied, lived and worked in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Spain and the United States as well as his native England. James earned his doctorate in theology from the Jesuit Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1994 and is a systematic theologian by training.

​His principal claim to fame is as one of those who has done the most to bring the work of the great French thinker René Girard to a wider public. In addition, he is known for his firm, but patient insistence on truthfulness in matters gay as an ordinary part of basic Christianity, and for his pastoral outreach in the same sphere.

​James was brought up in an Evangelical Anglican family and became a Catholic at the age of 18 in 1978. He was ordained priest in 1988. Having lived with the Dominican Order between 1981 and 1995, James now works as an itinerant preacher, lecturer and retreat giver. He is currently a Fellow of Imitatio. He accompanies a wide variety of public, through academic lectures, undergraduate, postgraduate and professors’ seminars, adult catechesis courses, retreats for priests, parish groups, and Catholic and ecumenical gay and lesbian retreats.

​Learn more at https://jamesalison.com/en/about/