September 4-7, 2008

Equipping the Saints
for the Ministry of God's Extravagant Welcome

Presented in partnership with:

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.

Many Stories, One Voice

Designed as a leadership development event, this conference offers rich Bible study, challenging and profound worship and praise, genuine relationship-building across and amidst our differences, concrete skills-building, reflective and incisive theological analysis, and strategic action. Our goals are threefold:

• Personal Transformation
  Given the gender-phobia, homophobia and heterosexism of our culture and our churches, far too often LGBT Christians experience themselves as powerless victims. In order to build strong leaders, our movement must help individuals move from a sense of disempowerment to one of agency, empowerment and action.
• Intersectionality
  It has been said that Sunday morning at 11:00 am is the most segregated hour in America. If our movement toward God’s Extravagant Welcome is to be successful and faithful to the gospel, it is incumbent upon us to engage issues of race, class, ability, age and embodiment as we talk about gender identity and sexual orientation. We will explore the ways in which anti-oppression work is at its best and most effective when it engages the intersections of oppressions.
• Concrete Skills-Building
  As a movement of pro-LGBT Christians, we need leaders who have the tools and training to act proactively and strategically. We will offer new tools and training in the areas of faith-based community organizing, media training, board development, fund-raising, research, Biblical studies, theology, capacity-building and other concrete skills.

A word of welcome for our multi-faith friends and our friends without religious affiliation: while this conference is rooted in Christian tradition and draws heavily on the languages and cultures within Christianity, ALL are welcome.

Come join us as we joyfully equip the saints for the ministry of God’s Extravagant Welcome!

For a summary of the conference, click here.

Top

Speakers

	Archbishop Desmond Tutu Archbishop Desmond Tutu has agreed to record a brief greeting to the conference. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is one of the towering figures of 20th century history, having played a central role in the defeat of apartheid in South Africa and in the reconciliation process that followed. Archbishop Tutu was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1960. In 1975, he was the first black appointed Dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg. He later became Bishop of Lesotho, and later still, the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. International recognition for his work against apartheid came most notably in 1984 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Two years later, he was elected Archbishop of Cape Town, becoming the first black African to serve in this position. After the release of Nelson Mandela and the fall of apartheid, Tutu supported the inclusion of full LGBT civil rights in the new South African constitution. In 1994, President Mandela appointed Tutu as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the body charged with examining the human rights abuses of the apartheid years. Internationally known for his efforts to expunge racism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression from the Church and our world, earlier this year he received the Outspoken Award from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).
	Dr. Peter Barbosa Peter was raised in Añasco, Puerto Rico. After moving to Texas he received his BS and PhD degrees in Biochemistry. He pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut Pasteur in Paris for training in HIV research. Following his relocation to San Francisco, he worked as a scientist and immunology professor, specializing in HIV and AIDS. During his tenure in San Francisco, he completed cinematography studies. As a filmmaker he served as producer and director for the award-winning documentaries De Colores and I Exist, exploring homophobia in the Latino and Middle Eastern cultures, respectively. His current film project, entitled A Kingdom Divided, explores the issue of homosexuality within the context of American Christianity. Peter currently works as a Professor of Biochemistry and Immunology at the California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College in Oakland. Peter is passionate about justice issues and an active member of the United Church of Christ.
	Angel Collie I'm just a simple southern guy with a passion for Jesus and Justice. I'm on staff with MCC as a Program Assistant as well as Co-Lead of the Transgender Resource Team where I serve with Melanie Martinez. Additionally, I am a Junior in the Religious Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During my free time I enjoy going to church, getting inked, and, doing social justice... all in the same day if possible. I draw my inspiration from Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Troy Perry, Nancy Wilson, Cindi Love, Jay Bakker, and the Team that beats with one heart.
	Rev. Angela Denise Davis Rev. Angela Denise Davis is an ordained minister interested in religious issues located at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Her ministerial focus was born out of her own social location as a blind, African American, lesbian clergywoman. Her ministry is to facilitate conversation and theological reflection at the fence line of various differences. She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University (B.A.), and Vanderbilt University Divinity School (M.Div.). She served as Director of Extension Education at American Baptist College in Nashville, and later as Director of Admissions at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She currently lives in Columbus, Georgia.
	“Widening the Circles of Inclusivity” Bible Study with Rev. Dr. Miguel De La Torre In ever-expanding circles, the early Christian community grappled with "who was in and who was out." In each instance, the Holy Spirit found ways to break through the artificial barriers that the believers created. In each experience, the community re-learned the lesson of God's extravagant welcome. Today's Christian community is in desperate need of such "Pentecostal" moments; of re-learning the lessons of God's extravagant welcome. Each morning at Many Stories, One Voice, Rev. Dr. Miguel De La Torre will guide us through the Acts texts and offer us insight, guidance and inspiration for the work of the day and for the future of our pro-LGBT Christian movement. Acts 2: 1-15 Acts 8: 26-39 Acts 10: 1-48 Rev. Dr. Miguel De La Torre is Associate-Professor of Social Ethics & Director of the Justice and Peace Institute at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. The focus of his academic pursuit has been social and political ethics within contemporary U.S. thought, specifically how religion affects race, class, and gender oppression. An ordained Southern Baptist minister, he has served as a local pastor, on the boards of several justice and arts organizations and has authored a number of books, most recently: Liberating Jonah: Toward a Biblical Ethics of Reconciliation (Orbis Books, 2007) and Lily Among the Thorns: Imagining a New Christian Sexuality (Jossey-Bass, 2007).
	Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder serves as Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship and Senior Pastor of City of Refuge United Church of Christ. Flunder is a graduate of the Certificate of Ministry Studies and Master of Arts programs at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California. She earned her Doctor of Ministry degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo California. In June 2003, Bishop Flunder was consecrated Presiding Bishop of Refuge Ministries and The Fellowship, a trans-denominational fellowship of 60+ primarily African-American Christian leaders and laity representing churches and faith-based organizations from all parts of the country and Africa. Her highly regarded published work, Where the Edge Gathers, was published by Pilgrim Press in 2005.
	Rev. Dr. Horace Griffin Horace L. Griffin teaches Pastoral Theology and directs the Field Education program at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York, NY. An ordained priest in the Episcopal Church USA, he also serves as the Associate at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Glen Rock, New Jersey. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Religion degree from Morehouse College, the Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Religion and Personality from Vanderbilt University Graduate Department of Religion. His first book, Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black Churches (Pilgrim Press 2006) was awarded the 2006 Lambda Literary Award.
	Rev. Debra Haffner The Reverend Debra W. Haffner is the director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing. She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. Rev. Haffner was the chief executive officer of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, from 1988 through May 2000. Rev. Haffner is the author of From Diapers to Dating: A Parent's Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Children, Beyond the Big Talk: Every Parent's Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Teens, and What Every 21st Century Parent Needs to Know: Facing Today's Challenges with Wisdom and Heart.
	Amber Hollibaugh Amber Hollibaugh, senior strategist for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, came to the Task Force from SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) where she served as the director of education, advocacy and community building. (SAGE is the first national organization dedicated to providing services and advocacy for LGBT seniors.) For many years, she created innovative National HIV and AIDS programs and was the first director of the Lesbian AIDS Project at Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). A well-known activist, artist, writer and community organizer, Hollibaugh has been working on cutting edge issues of the LGBT liberation movement since its beginnings in 1969. She is author of My Dangerous Desires: a Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home. She also co-produced and directed The Heart of the Matter, a documentary about women's sexuality and HIV risk, which won the 1994 Sundance Festival Freedom of Expression Award and ran on the PBS series, P.O.V. Hollibaugh is on the advisory panel of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, is a board member of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) and is a founding board member of Queers for Economic Justice.
	Harry Knox Harry Knox joined the staff of the Human Rights Campaign in July 2005. Under his leadership the HRC Religion and Faith Program has seen the creation of a national speakers' bureau that reaches more than 10 million Americans monthly and a weekly preaching resource that provides scriptural commentary to ministers and lay people interested in an ecumenical gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender perspective on the Bible.
	Rev. Dr. Erin Swenson The Reverend Dr. Erin Swenson is an ordained Presbyterian minister (PCUSA) and a licensed marriage and family therapist. In 1996 she became the first known mainstream Protestant minister to make an open gender transition while remaining in ordained office. She provides counseling for individuals with gender identity issues and their families from her office at the Morningside Presbyterian Church in midtown Atlanta and lectures nationally on issues of gender and faith. Erin serves on the national board of More Light Presbyterians and is co-founder of the Southern Association for Gender Education, Inc.
	Rev. Rebecca Voelkel The Reverend Rebecca Voelkel, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, is the program director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Institute for Welcoming Resources, a national, ecumenical collaboration of the welcoming church movement. Before coming to the Task Force/Institute for Welcoming Resources, she served as interim national coordinator for the United Church of Christ Coalition for LGBT Concerns, as pastor of Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ and as program staff for the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence. She is the author of Preventing Sexual Abuse: A Course of Study for Teenagers (Pilgrim Press, 1996) as well as numerous articles and sermons that have appeared in such journals as Spirit Currents, The Journal of Religion and Abuse, and Parenting for Peace and Justice. She is a graduate of Earlham College and Yale Divinity School and is currently working toward a doctor of ministry at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.
	Rev. Elder Nancy L. Wilson Rev. Wilson was elected to the position of Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches in 2005, following the retirement of the Founder of MCC, Rev. Elder Troy Perry. Her office is in Sarasota, Florida. She was elected Elder of MCC of 1976 and served as Vice-Moderator from 1993 to 2001. She served as pastor of Church of the Trinity MCC in Sarasota, Florida from 2001 to 2005 and was previously pastor of MCC Los Angeles from 1986 until 2001, the church founded by Troy Perry in 1968. Rev. Wilson joined MCC as Associate Pastor of MCC Boston in 1972 at 22 years of age. She served as Pastor of MCC Detroit from 1975 to 1979. Her published works include: Our Tribe: Queer Folks, God, Jesus and the Bible (Alamo Press); with Fr. Malcolm Boyd, Amazing Grace; and her prayers and poems are included in Race and Prayer edited by Malcolm Boyd and Chester Talton (Morehouse Press). She is a popular preacher and speaker; has been honored with the first “Lazarus Award” from the Presbyterian Church and was invited to preach at the Earl Lectures at Pacific School of Religion in 2002. SPECIAL APPEARANCE: Following the conference, Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson will be preaching in New Orleans at The Big Easy Metropolitan Community Church at 5.00 pm on Sunday, September 7th. The Big Easy MCC Meeting in St Matthew's Church – on the corner of S. Carrollton and Willow in Carrollton, near the end of the St. Charles streetcar line.
	Carol Wise For the past five years, Carol has served as the Executive Director of the Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests (BMC), an organization that works for lgbt justice within the Church of the Brethren, Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren traditions. Prior to her work with BMC, she served a Church of the Brethren congregation in Southern California, was on the management team of a multi-service organization that focused upon the needs of women and families, and was director of a residential treatment facility for adolescent girls who had been abused or neglected. She is a graduate of Muhlenberg College and the Iliff School of Theology.

Top

Workshops

To submit a Workshop Proposal, click here.

Deadline for Submissions: May 30, 2008

Public Story-Telling for Strategic Action – Rev. Tiffany Steinwert Our religious communities harbor some of the worst homophobia, heterosexism, and gender-phobia, yet they also provide some of the greatest resources for transformation of society. In order to counter the lies and un-truths and to leverage the power and resources of our different traditions, this training will focus on one key organizing strategy – public story-telling. Rev. Tiffany Steinwert is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and the pastor and founder of Cambridge Welcoming Ministries. She is an active member of the Reconciling Ministries Network of which she has been a volunteer coordinator, board member, and field organizer. Most recently Tiffany coordinated the Called to Witness program which sought to create change by building relationships across ideological and theological divides. Tiffany has worked with both the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry and Mass Equality in supporting marriage equality in Massachusetts. Before serving the church as an elder, Tiffany was as a missionary for two years in Nicaragua where she established an English language school and led delegations for churches in the North. Currently, she is writing her dissertation investigating how the prohibitions against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in the United Methodist Church reflects their understanding of what it means (and does not mean) to be the Church.

• Addressing Racism and Heterosexism in the Church [Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington]
• Asking for Money, And Living to Tell the Tale [Russell Roybal]
• Banners, Stoles, and Quilts: Oh My! [Laci Lee Adams]
• Building the Capacity of Faith and Community-Based Organizations for Social Change [Kerry Lupher [Janine Vanderburg]
• Claiming Your Space Without Losing Common Ground: Activism Across Boundaries [Haven Herrin]
• A Documentary History of Marriage Rights and Fights in California [Sylvia Rhue]
• Don't Let Worry Kill You. Let The Church Help. Thursday Night: Potluck Supper [Roland Stringfellow]
• Engaging the LGBT Baby Boom Generation in Our Work [Kerry Lupher & Janine Vanderburg]
• An Ex-Gay Primer, It's Not All About Faith [Peterson Toscano]
• Fearfully and Wonderfully Made [Rev. Dr. Julie Nemecek]
• Global Justice -v- Queer Colonialism [Rev. Pat Bumgardner & Rev. Robert Griffin]
• Handling It Before It Hits the Fan: Nonviolence as a Tool of Healing and Empowerment [Haven Herrin & Alexey Bulokhov]
• How ARE the Children? Practical Strategies to Promote Welcoming Work with our Young People [Nancy Michael & Lyn Mitchell]
• Human Sexuality Education and the Faith Community [Ann L. Hanson]
• Intersex 101 [Elder Andrea Boisseau AIS]
• Lessons from the Pews: Using Faith-Based Community Organizing to Change the Church (and the World) [Rev. Dr. Anita L. Bradshaw]
• Media Strategies for a Soundbite World [J. Ann Craig]
• Ministry By Design, Not By Default [Dr. John Harris]
• An Open Letter to the Bishop: A Queer Reading of Sexual Abuse and the Church [Brian Ammons]
• Out of the Youth Room and into the Pews: Using Faith-Based Community Organizing to Change the Church (and the World) [Rev. Dr. Anita L. Bradshaw]
• Removing the Barriers to Talking About Sex and Religion [Timothy Palmer]
• R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Queer and Christian? [Jane Grovijahn]
• Sex and the Spirit: Mapping our Journey [Dr. Jaime Grant]
• Spiritual Self-Defense for GLBT Christians [Candace Chellew-Hodge]
• Surviving Spiritual Violence Through the Creative Arts [Betty Jean Steinshouer]
• Transphobia? Transform. TranSpire! [Sean Delmore & Marla Marcum]
• Turning Change and Conflict on Their Heads in the Work for More Inclusion [Rev. Dr. Anita L. Bradshaw]
• Two Feet of Compassion: Micah 6:8 [Susan Laurie]
• The VALUE of Evaluating your Programs [Kerry Lupher]
• Web 2.0 Activism [Antony Hebblethwaite]
• The Welcoming Church Movement in Song [Jorge Lockward & David Lohman]
• Young Adults and New Media: Engaging the Millennial Generation [R. Warren Gill III]
• Young, Radical, Nonviolent: Strategies for Health and Efficacy in Your Work Group [Haven Herrin & Alexey Bulokhov]

Statewide Clergy Coalitions

There will be time during each of the workshop sessions for folks interested in organizing in their state on lgbt issues. All are welcome to these sessions which will be interfaith. (For those interested in this track, please contact Harry Knox at the Religion and Faith Program at HRC harry.knox@hrc.org)

Top

Optional Pre-Conference Events

RainbowCorps

A Two-Day Work Service Project
September 3-4, 8:00 AM-5:00 PM

Everyone is welcome to join us for RainbowCorps on September 3-4, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM for two optional pre-conference days of rebuilding homes and renewing hope in New Orleans. Michael J. Adee, Executive Director and National Field Organizer, More Light Presbyterians is the coordinator. We will be working with relief projects of local welcoming churches.

ALL LEVELS OF SKILL ARE WELCOME.
ENTHUSIASM REQUIRED!

RainbowCorps is a mission service project for LGBT Christians and allies who simply show up and share God's love for all by serving, helping to relieve human suffering, and being part of relief and mission efforts in local communities.

Top

Setting the Context Institutes

As we begin our time together at Many Stories, One Voice: The North American Convocation of Pro-LGBT Christians, we recognize that our work as LGBT and allied Christians necessitates that we take race, class, ability and age as seriously as we take gender, gender identity and sexual orientation. We also recognize that our history as LGBT folks is critical. These "Setting the Context" Institutes draw upon the expertise of the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, a nationally-known leader in anti-racist work and Robert Batson, a renowned New Orleans historian known as "New Orleans' History Laureate."

For Such a Time As This: A Transgender Pre-Event
(Wednesday, September 3, 9:00 AM-9:00 PM)

Gathering on Wednesday, September 3, For Such a Time as This presents an opportunity for personal networking, community collaboration, and movement building. In these historic times, transgender people and our concerns are becoming more and more visible in both secular and religious communities. Yet, too often, we remain an isolated "minority within a minority."

For Such a Time as This will gather transgender people of faith, our loved ones and allies for discussions about practical topics relating to life in religious communities, including:

• Strategies for transgender education
• Dynamics of ministry with the transgender community
• Blessings and challenges of becoming more visible
• Opportunities for collaboration across denominational lines
• Our need for authentic relationships of support and accountability between transgender people and our allies

TransFaith Online (http://www.transfaithonline.org), in collaboration with Many Stories, One Voice and its partners, invites you to this day of conversation. While we will place a high priority on hearing from transgender-identified people, this event is also appropriate for our significant others and family members; allies who are working with or want to work with the transgender community; and anyone who is simply interested in learning more about transgender people and our concerns.

Participants are invited to continue the conversations begun at For Such a Time as This as we move into the larger Many Stories, One Voice community. While the Many Stories, One Voice context is rooted in Christian tradition, transgender persons and allies of other faith perspectives are most welcome to join us at For Such a Time as This.

An Un-Holy Alliance: Racism, Classism, Homophobia, Bi-phobia, Transphobia and How We Can Be Prophets of Liberation
(Thursday, September 4th from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm)

The sad truth is that our Christian tradition has been a primary player in both the creation of and the perpetuation of oppression. Utilizing a focus on racism, this day will help participants move beyond the symptoms of racism to an understanding of

• what racism is
• where it comes from
• how it functions
• why racism persists
• and how it can be undone.

The core of this workshop's systemic approach emphasizes learning from history, developing leadership, maintaining accountability to communities, creating networks, undoing internalized racial oppression and understanding the role of organizational gate-keeping as a mechanism for perpetuating racism. Interwoven into this will be an examination of how oppression based on class, ability, age, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation is buttressed by and reinforces racism which dehumanizes us all while at the same time giving privileges to some.

Undergirding it all will be our understanding that the Gospel calls us to be agents of God's liberation in the world. Therefore, participants will leave this workshop with a common language and process to use in their work as Pro-LGBT Christians.

LGBT History in New Orleans
(Thursday, September 4th from 1:00 pm to 5 pm)

Using multi-media, this Institute will showcase New Orleans unique GLBTQ history and culture. Narrated by Robert Batson, New Orleans' history laureate, this tour illuminates this city's vibrant GLBTQ history. Known for his humor and historical insight, this spellbinding storyteller will lead you on "an irreverent, comic stroll that brings history, gossip, polemics and culture together."

Rooted in decades of experience, Mr. Batson will recount events that shaped an era in New Orleans:

• the Clay Shaw trial (misrepresented in Oliver Stone's film, JFK)
• the tragic Upstairs Lounge fire
• the New Orleans Gay Liberation Front
• the 1977 Anita Bryant protest

Other figures include Tennessee Williams, Ellen DeGeneres, Frances Benjamin Johnston, Truman Capote and Mother Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio.

Topics include:

• Mardi Gras and Southern Decadence
• the role played by gay bars
• the specific contributions of lesbians and trans folk
• drag
• police harassment

Top

Youth & Young Adults

Details yet to come.

Top

Tentative Schedule

Wednesday, September 3

Thursday, September 4

Friday, September 5

Saturday, September 6

Sunday, September 7

Top

Location

New Orleans Marriott
555 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
504.581.1000

Meals, Lodging & Transportation

Meals

The following meals are included in the registration cost:

• Friday breakfast
• Friday lunch
• Saturday breakfast
• Saturday lunch
• Saturday dinner
• Sunday breakfast

Lodging

We have arranged a special room rate of $99 per night at the beautiful New Orleans Marriott, right on the edge of the French Quarter.

New Orleans Marriott
555 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
504.581.1000 or 888.364.1200

To make reservations online, you must use this link: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/msyla-new-orleans-marriott/?groupCode=NGLNGLA&app=resvlink.

To make reservations on the phone, call 504.581.1000 or 888.364.1200 and be sure to mention "Many Stories, One Voice."

We have limited no-cost community housing available in local homes. To apply, download, fill out and return this form.

• MSOV Community Housing Request Form (PDF)

DEADLINE: The deadline has been extended to Friday, August 15. After that, there is no guarantee that you can get the special $99 rate. After August 4, please contact the hotel and ask if that rate is still available.

Transportation

There are two transportation options to get from the airport to the hotel: $15 Shuttle (one way) or $30 Taxi (one way). This cost is not included in your conference registration.

Top

Volunteers

If you live in the area and are interested in volunteering during the conference, download, fill out and return this form.

• MSOV Volunteer Form (PDF)

Top

Registration

Registration fees

• $250 Adults
• $200 Youth/Young Adults (24 and under) and Elders (65 and over)
• $100 Single Day

Groups: Pay for 10 registrations and the 11th is free! All group registrations are handled by our registrar, Marta Alvarado. Please contact her at MAlvarado@TheTaskForce or 202.639.6333.

Limited scholarship help is available. Email MSOV@WelcomingResources.org to apply.

Registration form

Click here to register online.

Top

Press Releases

Pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians to tackle racism and gender identity issues at next week’s faith conference

Many Stories, One Voice conference in New Orleans , Sept. 4–7, will address these important issues

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 — Hundreds of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Christians will tackle issues of race, class, ability, age, gender identity and sexual orientation at the Many Stories, One Voice conference to take place in New Orleans , La. , Sept. 4–7. Two pre-conference institutes will discuss, analyze and strategize on how to organize around these issues.

Read more...

Pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians to mark 35th anniversary of deadliest fire in New Orleans’ history at September faith conference

Many Stories, One Voice conference will feature a jazz funeral to commemorate the Upstairs Lounge Fire of June 1973

WASHINGTON, July 1 — Many of the hundreds of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Christians who will converge Sept. 4–7 in New Orleans , La. , for the Many Stories, One Voice conference will revisit the site of a devastating fire that killed 32 people at a local gay bar known as the Upstairs Lounge.

The tragedy that occurred on June 24, 1973 — 35 years ago — was the deadliest fire in New Orleans ’ history. Many members of the local Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), including its pastor, the Rev. Bill Larson, died at the fire, which was widely reported as arson. The members of MCC had congregated after their religious service at the Upstairs Lounge as they did every Sunday.

Read more...

Registration now under way for Many Stories, One Voice: The North American Convocation of Pro-LGBT Christians

Interested parties are encouraged to register for the premier gathering of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians to take place in New Orleans , La. , Sept. 4–7

WASHINGTON, June 18 — Registration is now open for Many Stories, One Voice, the premier gathering of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians, which will be held in New Orleans , La. , Sept. 4–7. Pro-LGBT faith leaders are urged to attend. Register online at www.ManyStoriesOneVoice.org.

Read more...

Hundreds of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians to converge on New Orleans on Sept. 4–7

Faith leaders will be gathering for Many Stories, One Voice: The North American Convocation of Pro-LGBT Christians

“Today, too many people think Christian equals obsession with hating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. Too many people hear preachers talking about ‘homosexuals’ causing Hurricane Katrina and all other sorts of natural disasters. But the Christian gospel and the ministry of Jesus are all about justice and healing and hope.”
— Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, Institute for Welcoming Resources and Faith Work Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

WASHINGTON, May 22 — Hundreds of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) faith leaders will converge on New Orleans, La., Sept. 4–7, for Many Stories, One Voice, the premier gathering of pro-LGBT Christians.

Many Stories, One Voice provides a rare and unique opportunity for pro-LGBT Christians to build relationships, and offers rich Bible study, challenging and profound worship and praise, concrete skills-building, strategic action and reflective and incisive theological analysis. This is in part designed to grow the number of Christian churches that are welcoming and affirming of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Read more...

Top

Partners

Many Stories One Voice is convened by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's Institute for Welcoming Resources

In partnership with:

Top

Advertisers and Exhibitors

For information on advertising and exhibiting opportunities, click here.

Top

Sponsors

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact MSOV@WelcomingResources.org.

Questions

Contact MSOV@WelcomingResources.org

Top