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- News This Week - May 11, 2008
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Embodying Our Faith
Bishop Gene Robinson on NBC's Today Show
Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson knows he is inviting death threats by entering into a civil union with his gay partner on the eve of his church’s biggest ecclesiastical conference. And he says it is worth it, because he is doing what God asks of him.
- New England cable news interview
- PBS interview with Kim Laughton
- NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross Interview
Faith in Action
GAY METHODISTS PROTEST REJECTION BY CHURCH
Protestors draped in black placed their bodies on the sidewalk outside the convention center in Fort Worth, Texas, where United Methodists had passed anti-gay resolutions at the General Conference the day before. Delegates had to walk around or over the bodies.
Inside, during its Wednesday morning session, it was not business as usual as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of faith, in a negotiated interruption of the proceedings, processed into the auditorium draped in black to represent their grief and the brokenness of the church in response to the church’s refusal to recognize gay people as anything but “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
For more articles about LGBT actions at the United Medothist General Conference, click here.
Presbyterian Highest Court Clears Spahr of Censure
Tiburon, CA – Today the Presbyterian’s General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) reversed the two-year-old Synod decision to censure Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr for her role in marrying same-gender couples. Today’s decision held that the Presbyterian constitution contains no prohibition against marrying same-gender couples.
LGBT-RAN Moving to Center at Pacific School of Religion
As LGBT-RAN completes its sixth year of operation, it is in the process of affiliating with the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. CLGS, the largest existing research center on LGBT persons and religion, oversees myriad programs such as Outfront Workshops, the Center for Scholars, Certificate in Sexuality and Religion, a lecture series, a book series, Racial Ethnic Roundtables, and an archive project. LGBT-RAN adds a valuable component to CLGS' services for scholars and researchers. In turn, LGBT-RAN will benefit from the administrative support of the much larger CLGS staff and operations.
"LGBT-RAN has grown into such a valuable resource for historical study that it now needs an institutional affiliation that will sustain its long-term development," notes LGBT-RAN coordinator Mark Bowman. "Over the past year LGBT-RAN staff and Advisory Committee members have explored a number of prospective institutional homes for LGBT-RAN. We concluded that CLGS is the best match for LGBT-RAN at this time."
Because LGBT-RAN's information services are primarily digital, this change will be largely transparent to you. The web site will remain the same. LGBT-RAN will function as it does now with its ongoing projects, activities and staff.
LGBT-RAN is most grateful for the support of the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) that dared to be the seed bed of the ideas and dreams that has grown into this major electronic resource on LGBT religious history. The work of CTS faculty and staff and its support as fiscal agent has brought LGBT-RAN to where it is today.
Article of Faith: In the Papal Pocket: Benedict XVI and the Press
Article of Faith by Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D.
National Religious Leadership Roundtable
ReligionDispatches
Press coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States — his first as pope — acts like a mirror reflecting the media’s complicated role in reporting religious news as a whole. What could be more television-friendly than the sights and sounds of institutional Catholicism? Its colorful costumes, ancient rituals and contemporary savvy at getting its message out are a producer’s dream. If the kind of coverage in 2005 that accompanied the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of his successor, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) is any indication, we can expect a great deal of air time and print space, very little if any critical analysis and a lot of free press for the Roman Catholic Church.
Other Ecumenical and Multi-Faith Collaborations
Upcoming Training Opportunities
- LaVerne, CA — Towards a Welcoming and Inclusive Church
June 6 - 8, 2008
LaVerne Church of the Brethren
La Verne, CA - Columbus, OH — Welcoming Church Program Training
August 7 – 10, 2008
Lord of Life Lutheran Church
Columbus, OH - Milwaukee, WI — Welcoming Church Program Training
August 21–24, 2008
Martin Luther Lutheran Church
Milwaukee WI - Glendale, CA — Welcoming Church Program Training
September 19-21, 2008
Glendale, CA - Winston-Salem, NC — Towards a Welcoming and Inclusive Church
September 19 - 21, 2008
Wake Forest Divinity School
Winston-Salem, NC - Goshen, IN — Towards a Welcoming and Inclusive Church
Oct 24 - 26, 2008
Assembly Mennonite Church
Goshen, IN
Join Us for our Next Conference
September 4-7, 2008
Equipping the saints
for the ministry of
God's extravagant welcome
Many Stories
We come from many different contexts. We are Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Anabaptist. We are African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, Latino/a, First Nation People, European American. We are queer, questioning, intersex, lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, heterosexual. We are a diverse mix of theological and political beliefs: progressive, moderate, conservative.
One Voice
And we are drawn together into Christian Community. As we come to genuinely know one another, we are invited to challenge the world to these same kinds of just, loving and genuine relationships across race, class, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and ability. We are devout in our faith and committed to a just society that discriminates against no one. We are drawn together to speak with one voice the truth of God’s extravagant welcome.
Sharing Our Stories
Towards a Welcoming and Inclusive Church
National Field Organizer Project
February Training
An ecumenical group of 25 gathered February 15-18 in Minneapolis for grassroots organization training sponsored by the National Field Organizer Project.
New & Timely Resources
- In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God
- The God Box
- Out of the Extraordinary - a compilation album project to raise visibility of the issue of ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer (GLBTQ) pastors and raise funds for scholarships and debt relief for the GLBTQ pastors that have chosen to be or have been forced outside of the ELCA roster of pastors.
- What Every 21st-Century Parent Needs to Know: Facing Today's Challenges with Wisdom and Heart
- Would Jesus Discriminate?: The 21st Century Question
- The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation
- God Comes Out: A Queer Homiletic
- For the Bible Tells Me So - a film offering healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity. Now available on DVD! Purchase at 25% off through the Human Rights Campaign's Religion and Faith Program
Liturgical Resource
A Place in God's Heart...
A Place at Christ's Table
Worship Resources for the
Welcoming Church Movement
Blogs
- The Christian Agnostic
Candace Chellew-Hodge, founder/editor of Whosoever: An Online Magazine for GLBT Christians - A Christian Voice For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights
Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker - Crossing the T
Life at the intersection of Church and Trans with Rev. Allyson Robinson - Faith Matters
Community of Welcoming Congregations (Oregon & Washington) - Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
Author Alvin A. McEwen - An Inch at a Time: Reflections on the Journey
Integrity President Rev. Susan Russell - MoSAIC
Methodist Students for an All-Inclusive Church - Network of Spiritual Progressives
A project of the Tikkun Community - OutSpoken
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force - Peterson Toscano's A Musing
Musings of Peterson Toscano an ex-gay survivor. - Philocrites
Commentary by Chris Walton on Unitarian Universalism, liberal Christianity, American religion, and liberal culture - Religion Is A Queer Thing
Rev. Tiffany Steinwert, pastor of Cambridge Welcoming Ministries - Sexuality and Religion: What's the Connection?
By minister and sexologist Rev. Debra Haffner - Two World Collision
Being Gay and Christian by Eric - Wake up and LIVE
Thoughts and musings of a lesbian Episcopalian, by Susan Gage - Walking With Integrity
The official blog of Integrity USA
