Lily Melville is a member of Parklands Baptist Community Church in Ōtautahi Christchurch. With a heart for justice and learning Lily loves to explore faith deeply and reflect on how we can embody it more fully. She is currently working as a freelance Communications and Content Creator working with organisations focused on social good.
In June 2026, over 230 people gathered in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, for the first-ever national gathering of Open Table New Zealand. It was a weekend that was both challenging and encouraging, as people from diverse Christian faith and identity backgrounds connected through shared conversations, learning, and reflection.
The Open Table is a community that centres on connecting people drawn to a thoughtful, generous Christian faith. It focuses on sharing a space where there is room for diversity, questions, and compassion, with value placed upon justice, humility, and curiosity. This kaupapa emerged from the desire to bring people together for expansive faith conversations within an Aotearoa context. Gatherings like Open Table have taken place across the world, so the heart of this kaupapa was to create a space for us to gather in Aotearoa.
The 2026 National Gathering, taking place over two days, invited people in through combined sessions, workshops, spoken word and shared kai. The Friday evening session opened with a panel discussion where the Open Table hosts shared their heart for the space; to bring together people navigating an expansive faith and explore the questions collectively. This collective exploration was a key part of the gathering that resonated with me. Over the years, I have held many questions and uncertainties about faith, and with that, a longing for a richer embodiment of faith through justice and community. It can often feel like we don’t know how to hold space for doubt and longing within our faith communities, so gathering with others who are wrestling with similar questions was deeply encouraging.
Alongside combined sessions, the gathering explored questions through workshop sessions covering topics such as Te Tiriti justice, politics, rainbow identity, psalm writing, doubt, sexuality, and church. To explore these, perhaps uncomfortable themes, within a safe, faith context was both challenging and encouraging. These topics are undoubtedly prevailing conversations within the Church in Aotearoa, so, although it can be hard to open up a dialogue where you know not everyone will agree, it was deeply needed. By discussing these topics, we didn’t reach a collective agreement, but that wasn’t the intention. The hope in having these conversations was that people would feel listened to and acknowledged and maybe even challenged, regardless of their beliefs, and that we would learn from a variety of experiences and perspectives.
As the Open Table Gathering wrapped up on Saturday evening, everyone had an opportunity to reflect on what had landed for them. Most of all, people felt encouraged by the conversation and connections they had shared. With this encouragement, there was also a sense of heaviness. As one of the Open Table and The Changes Ahead Podcast hosts, Cathy Marston, put it, “we are all in an in-between space.” A space in which we hold the hope of Christ alongside our doubts, questions and longings.
As Open Table dreams about what might unfold, discussions are underway about future gatherings and how we can continue to draw our communities into this important kaupapa. And so, I want to invite you to join us in this in-between space. Open Table is not about aligning with certain views but about embracing an expansive faith that allows you to hold your questions and longings. It is about everyone bringing their own diverse experiences and beliefs and holding space for each other in that. Through this, everyone has a place at the table.
If you would like to find out more about Open Table NZ or get connected, check out the Open Table website: theopentable.nz
Photo credit: Andy Dickson
