Is the risk worth it?
I hope this article encourages those who have been hurt in past friendships and relationships, to stay in community with others. I suggest that committing is worth it, as we take the risk of being open and vulnerable with others.

What is emotional dependency?

Emotional dependency occurs when your emotional well-being becomes overly dependent on another person. Your emotions fluctuate from extreme highs to extreme lows depending on how they treat you or how you perceive them treating you. Emotional dependency expects more from a person than that person can give. It is not a unique experience for same-sex attracted individuals. Anyone can become emotionally dependent on another person.

In the spring of 2020, as a middle-aged single man living alone in London, I was invited by a young family in my church to "bubble” with them for the foreseeable future, while Covid restrictions began to be implemented.

When I picked up this short booklet, my interest was piqued. However, I was also somewhat sceptical of how the subject of polyamory or consensual non-monogamy (where “all parties agree that the relationship is not exclusive”) might impact me, my church and the ministry of TFT. By the time I’d finished reading the booklet, it had certainly made me sit up and take note.

“Suffering is not a question that calls for an answer. It is not a problem that calls for a solution. It is a mystery that calls for a presence.”

Friendship is a precious relationship. Over the years I have been very grateful for many friends with whom I have shared the up and downs of our lives. I am particularly thankful for those friends with whom I have grown close enough to be able to share my life-journey with same-sex attraction. When I was an undergraduate, the first fellow student I shared that with became a lifelong friend, though we now live hundreds of miles apart.