Rector's Blog: Pride Series

"Pride, in this context, is a stunning, glorious refusal to believe the lies the world tells about you. Pride is the claiming of your belonging in this world as you are, not as I tell you you should be. This Pride, this celebration of who God made you to be, is a rejection of shame, and an embracing of joy; a rejection of hatred and an embracing of love. This Pride is an act of grace. It’s a Christian virtue."

"The first time someone I loved ever came out to me, it was the Jesus I encountered in Scriptures that taught me how to see them for who they really were, and to love them just as they were. In the years since that day, I keep coming back to the Jesus I find in the Bible. Every time I do, I’m reintroduced to the God who gives me new eyes to see Love in ways and places and people I could not previously have imagined."

"How can the Church fail time and again to recognize the prophetic nature of the LGBTQ+ witness? LGBTQ+ persons live their truth in the face of great societal pressures. Their experience of love is profound, and yet they often find themselves at odds with the normative culture. They see the truth of themselves, and they understand the magnificence of love in unique and powerful ways. And in this time and place they are standing up and speaking out at great personal expense. Will the Church listen? Will the Church acknowledge the powerful presence of God here?"

"We believe that the God that created you made you as you are on purpose. You are not a mistake. Your sexuality is not a mistake, a sin, or something to be cured, fixed, or healed. You are a blessing. Your journey to self-understanding is essential to the healing of this world. You matter tremendously to God and to the people around you. Your expression of love is even now teaching this world a deeper understanding of what love really is. When you are part of the Church community, the church is more of who God means it to be. When you are empowered, the Spirit is revealed. When you lead, we see Jesus."