Stories by Charles Lacey

Drew

[A story in 5 chapters and Epilogue]

Love from A to Z

[A story in 8 chapters]

Toby's Book

[A story in 10 chapters]

The Queen's Footman

[A story in 5 chapters]

Short Stories

Echoes

[A story in 9 chapters]

In Spite of Everything

[A story in 13 chapters]

This is a story about prejudice, and how two young men dealt with it. As a Christian myself, it breaks my heart that some people who profess and call themselves Christians consider that they have a right to sit in judgement upon other folks and dictate how they shall live.

In my experience, it is generally the ones at the extreme ends of the scale of Churchmanship who are the most prejudiced. Fortunately, my late partner and I experienced nothing but friendship and kindness from the three Anglican Churches (two in England and one in Wales) which we attended but I know of many churches, Anglican and others, where LGBT+ people would not be welcome.

I was delighted beyond measure to hear that the great and saintly Pope Francis (on whom be peace) opened doors to LGBT+ people. Poor man, he had centuries of accumulated dogma and tradition to shift, and the process of acceptance and inclusion won't be finished in our lifetimes. But he made a start. At the other end of the scale, people like the equally saintly John Bell of the Iona Community have shown the way.

Both Paul and Aiden are invented characters. Most of the other main characters are based, very loosely, upon people I have known. Sadly, the characters of Paul's mother and the Reverend Hodges have kept fairly closely to their originals.