The Reverend John Church (born 1780-circa 1835) was an Independent minister most famous for his involvement in the homosexual scandal of the Vere Street Coterie. He is often claimed as the first openly gay ordained Christian minister in England. Contemporary rumours about this are unprovable one way or the other, though circumstantial evidence seems to suggest that his ‘inordinate affections which led me into error’ can be equated with homosexual inclinations.