All are welcome
EDITOR’S NOTE: According to the Library of Congress, the month of June is when the country recognizes the impact that the LGBTQ+ community has had on U.S. history. President Bill Clinton first designated it as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month on June 11, 1999, and then President Barack Obama proclaimed it Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month 10 years later. The Rev’d Benjamin Maddison is rector of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Wenonah, New Jersey. His parish website explains what it means for a church to be LGBTQ+ affirming. Like Holy Trinity, Saint Philip’s is proud to be known as a church that welcomes everyone. In honor of Pride Month, a portion of Holy Trinity’s website is provided below (with permission).
“Q: What does it mean for a church to be affirming?
A: We affirm the gifts, presence, and leadership LGBTQ+ people bring to the church….”
“We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ radically includes everyone into the saving work of God, not by our faithfulness or obedience, but by Christ’s. By and through his perfect life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ fulfilled God’s plan of salvation for the whole world, perfectly fulfilling the law, and setting those whom he calls free to love God and love their neighbor. In this calling, Jesus offers to all the forgiveness of their sins, eternal salvation, justification before God, and the promise of sanctification through the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
“And yet, it also means so much more. For Christians, the Gospel of Christ eases all distinction and hierarchy among people. As St. Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians (3:23-27):
Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore, the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”
“In Christ Jesus, we have all become children of God, given the righteousness of Christ, and are being transformed ever more into the likeness of Christ by the inspiration and work of the Holy Spirit. This means that everyone is included in the church!”
“But more than that, not only is everyone included, but the church needs everyone. In his Revelation, St. John of Patmos has this vision of the Church in Glory (7:9-10):
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
“John’s vision of the Great Multitude is a clear sign that the full reconciliation of God will include all people, encompassing people of all genders, identities, orientations, races, and heritages. That means that for the church of today to look like the Church Triumphant, we also must include—and benefit from—the gifts, talents, leadership, ideas, experiences, and faith of that multitude.”
“For the church to be the Church, we must affirm the full participation of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church, because, without them, we do not represent the fullest expression of God’s reconciling work in history.”
To visit Holy Trinity’s website, click here.