To observe PRIDE Month, we will be sharing a different story each week from one of our congregations about the holy work of welcome, listening, learning, and love.
This week, we feature Christ Lutheran Church and their journey toward becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation.
This is their story as written by Kathy Sutherland.
In the summer of 2021, an 80 year old, long-term member of Christ Lutheran Church, Valparaiso, gathered a random group of people together. Most of us had gone through the Sacred Ground program (an 11-week study of the history of race in America put together by the Episcopal Church) and also participated in a book group that read and discussed the book: Dear Church: A love letter from a black preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the US. by Lenny Duncan.
As a result of those studies, we learned that while we were a well-read and educated group, we discovered that there were many things we hadn’t learned and didn’t know. That reality challenged us to wonder what else we didn’t know which led us to further study. We began to talk about our church and how we might deepen our welcome to everyone and especially to people of color and people in the LGBTQIA+ community.
We spent the first year listening and learning and were in conversation with each other and with others about what we were learning.
We looked for people and organizations that had more expertise than we did: we spoke with people from other churches; we spoke with and read books and articles by theologians and others, we learned about and connected with Reconciling Works (the pan-Lutheran organization that we are now in partnership with) and attended a seminar they offered. The process we went through was largely based on what we learned from Reconciling Works and we found their resources and accompaniment very helpful.
We met with many people at CLC in one-to-one conversations about their experience at CLC – asking folks what drew them to CLC, and what keeps them at CLC. We also asked what questions folks had in terms of knowing and welcoming our LGBTQIA siblings. We couldn’t have one-to-ones with everyone in the congregation but we tried to speak with a good cross section of people.
In the summer of 2022 we took the information we had gathered and continued to gather and began to put together a series of programs including Adult Faith Formation presentations and discussions, movie showings, book groups, a panel of adults who had loved ones in the LGBTQIA community and another panel of youth willing to talk about being an ally or a member of the community. Throughout, our intention was to listen and continue to learn and to offer a variety of ways that people could join us in asking hard questions and learning new things.
We developed a welcome statement that we hoped was both a reflection of who we are as a congregation and also who we aspire to be. In April, 2023, we conducted a written survey of the congregation asking if the statement draft was a reflection of who we are and we also asked for feedback on the statement itself. The survey showed there was overwhelming support for the statement as well as some wonderful feedback and suggestions. We looked carefully and prayerfully at all the feedback and made revisions to the statement. Also, we continued to offer Adult Forum sessions based on the questions and feedback.
In October of 2023, we presented the revised welcome statement to Council and it was brought to a vote at the annual meeting. The congregation showed overwhelming support for the statement.
Throughout the process, our goal was to listen carefully and to create spaces where we can listen to and learn from each other as well as to seek out the voices of people the church doesn’t often hear from. One thing we continue to learn is that all of us – with our different perspectives and from our different contexts -- can look at difficult questions and through the lens of our faith and our commitment to this church that we love, we can gain new understandings of the people we worship with, our faith, and our place in this community and the world. Sometimes these conversations have been difficult but they have also been life-giving.
After the overwhelming acceptance of the welcome statement, and receiving the word that CLC is now a Reconciling in Christ partner congregation, our committee prepared to “hand-off” the ongoing work of Deepening Our Welcome. We discussed as a committee to whom would we yield this responsibility for how CLC continues to live into who we “officially” said we are? (We are convinced that the holy work of welcome and affirmation is a life-long journey.)
Our conversations led us to realize that extending welcome, creating safe inclusive spaces and maintaining our commitment to fashioning a faith community intent on welcome, inclusion, celebration and advocacy is the calling of the entire congregation, and thus rests with the Church Council, as the church’s chosen leadership team. As a result, we officially “passed the baton” (using real batons!) to the council and concluded our work as a committee.
It has been two years since we have passed that baton and we continue – as a church – to live in to our commitments. We have continued to offer various adult faith formation opportunities. We have members of the LGBTQIA community serving in various leadership roles. We have participated in a local Pride Fest by having a booth at the Fest.
At the fest, we had copies of our welcome statement, various give-aways, and lots of candy available for folks to take! But perhaps the most effective thing we offered was initiated by one of our youth. They gathered many colors of beads and the things needed for making bracelets. I noticed that having youth there making the bracelets and inviting others to sit with them, provided a gentle way for people to sit and join them in conversation. In addition, we have had a good number of folks who have joined our congregation since the beginning of the process mention that our public affirmation of LGBTQIA neighbors and siblings is what drew them into our community of faith.
CLC continues to look for ways to continue to live into our welcome statement as an expression of who we are and want to be and to continue the life-long journey in the holy work of welcome and affirmation.
