Peace Lutheran is the church were D and I are members. Following our horrific nightmare of a departure from another church in another denomination the pastor and congregation of Peace welcomed us with open, healing arms. Though ordained in another denomination, they honored me by recognizing my heart and commitment as a pastor and have [...]

Posted in Church, Holidays and Special Times 4 Comments »

ELCA NEWS SERVICE
August 21, 2009
ELCA Assembly Opens Ministry to Partnered Gay and Lesbian Lutherans, Urges

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) – The 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted today to open the ministry of the church to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in committed relationships.
The action came by a [...]

Posted in Affirming Voices From Inside the Church, News and Events 16 Comments »

I was reminded of a favorite quotation by Frederick Buechner this weekend related to calling, the quote being “The place God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” I adore that quote and in a future post I’ll come back to it but not today. Instead, [...]

Posted in Affirming Voices From Inside the Church, Human Sexuality, Sexual Ethics 13 Comments »

It was the early 1990’s and only a few months after coming out I traveled to Northern California and while there I attended Sunday worship at MCC San Francisco. It was my first time to worship among other GLBTQ Christians and to worship openly as a Christian lesbian.
Throughout the service on that crisp autumn [...]

Posted in Church, Storytelling 6 Comments »

This is a portion of Wendy’s response to my entry, God Revealed or What’s It Look Like When God Shows Up?
I just want to save this to read it over and over again . . .when I sit in church and wonder whether I am “worthy” to take communion.
Dear Wendy,
Thank you for your willingness to [...]

Posted in Church, Love and Grace, Theology 2 Comments »

healing and reconciliation are not only what we offer to the gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered person who walks through the doors of our faith community, but ultimately they are the gifts we give ourselves. By enlarging our embrace, we enlarge our own capacity to be embraced by the passionate love and holy presence of God among us. By being a voice of reconciliation to others, God’s voice calls those alienated places within us to new and uncharted levels of reconciliation. By being a hand of healing to another, God touches the hidden places within us that yearn desperately for healing. We all need to be recipients of healing and reconciliation, not because we are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or straight, but because we are human.

Posted in Public Homilies, Welcoming All No Comments »

This seems a reasonable question for any gay or lesbian Christian to ask, particularly when so many within the Christian church have said and done all they can to let GLBTQ people know just how unwelcome and unwanted they are, unless of course, they consent to denying or repenting of their sexual orientation…
…and certainly I’m [...]

Posted in Christian Unity, Public Homilies, Welcoming All No Comments »

Divorce and Remarriage Within the Church
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Tom was a great guy, a man with a strong Christian faith and a genuine passion for entering the ministry. He was there every Sunday, playing the organ or piano, leading the choir, teaching the kids. The problem was the church didn’t consider Tom suitable for ordained ministry because [...]

Posted in Marriage, Relationships, The Bible and Homosexuality, Welcoming All 2 Comments »

This was my ordination sermon, based on John 17:20-26, and preached on May 23, 2004.
“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in [...]

Posted in Christian Unity, Church, Public Homilies 1 Comment »