At the end of the day coming out is simply living into the commandment to not bear false witness. For a member of the LGBTQ+ community to not be out is for them to consistently bear a false witness to the world. For a society to request LGBTQ+ individuals to not express the truth about who they are is to ask them to consistently lie to the world at large. Perhaps one of the greatest sins churches continue to perpetuate is the request it gives to many of its members to commit to a life of daily breaking one of the ten commandments.
The need for Christian community to be based on honesty is why every at the ECM at UofA we have made Coming Out Day a commemoration in our worship cycle. Tonight as we gather we will leave the normal liturgical cycle of prayers and readings for ones we have put together ourselves...
Coming Out Day Propers:
Collect: God, who made us for Yourself, to show Your goodness in us: awaken the life-giving power of your holy nature within us; bring us to a true and living faith in You, make us hunger and thirst for the birth of Christ’s spirit in our souls, so that all that is within us, every inward thought and outward deed, may be turned toward you and your heavenly working in our persons. Amen
Revelation 7:13-17, Psalm 116, Luke 12:2-12
This is not a day that is all about being queer... this is a day that is all about being honest... this is a day when we learn from the queer community what it means to be honest and to no longer live a life as a community, as a church, based on a fabrication of lies and half truths. This is a day when we stop feeling comfortable with the truths we tell ourselves about the other and ourselves and when we allow ourselves to start being transformed by truth.
The persistent issue, throughout history and to this day, is that the church presumes to know the truth of its members. It presumes to know where the spirit is calling them, it presumes to know what the proclamation of Christ Crucified from them will look like, it presumes it can organize and engineer a structure that will serve all equally well... This presumption that the paths of discernment and the reality of proclamations is already known is a consistent sin against the Holy Spirit and a consistent act of abuse to many within our midst.
This is not an admonition just to "other" Christian groups. It is one that we confront in the Episcopal Church, even in the midst of our parishes and organizations striving to be the most welcoming and affirming of the LGBTQ+ community and other historic outsiders as they can.
For over three years we have stated that our discernment process is open to the Transgender Community, but we do not have a single transgender priest in a full time paid position in the church and we are yet to ordain a transgender female to the priesthood. In many parishes and diocese we have been blessing, and are now marrying, the relationships of same gender couples but those very parishes often struggle to create a space for members of the queer community who do not conform to expectations around how to form families and live "normal" lives. Within the LGBTQ+ community of the Episcopal Church there is growing issues of all voices being heard and respected, as some individuals are rejected by historic LGBTQ+ organizations for not conforming to expectations around theology, liturgical practice, and activism.
So now, as much as ever, having a day where we call ourselves to honesty about what is happening in our community, in our church, around LGBTQ+ issues and all others is of utmost importance. The need for each individual to be able to state the truth of the reality of who they are, who they recognize God has made them, and where they feel God is calling them is ever pressing and will not ever go away. It is a consistent point of discernment that, if we enter into it, will ever call us into transformation from where we are to where the Spirit is calling us.
The persistent issue, throughout history and to this day, is that the church presumes to know the truth of its members. It presumes to know where the spirit is calling them, it presumes to know what the proclamation of Christ Crucified from them will look like, it presumes it can organize and engineer a structure that will serve all equally well... This presumption that the paths of discernment and the reality of proclamations is already known is a consistent sin against the Holy Spirit and a consistent act of abuse to many within our midst.
This is not an admonition just to "other" Christian groups. It is one that we confront in the Episcopal Church, even in the midst of our parishes and organizations striving to be the most welcoming and affirming of the LGBTQ+ community and other historic outsiders as they can.
For over three years we have stated that our discernment process is open to the Transgender Community, but we do not have a single transgender priest in a full time paid position in the church and we are yet to ordain a transgender female to the priesthood. In many parishes and diocese we have been blessing, and are now marrying, the relationships of same gender couples but those very parishes often struggle to create a space for members of the queer community who do not conform to expectations around how to form families and live "normal" lives. Within the LGBTQ+ community of the Episcopal Church there is growing issues of all voices being heard and respected, as some individuals are rejected by historic LGBTQ+ organizations for not conforming to expectations around theology, liturgical practice, and activism.
So now, as much as ever, having a day where we call ourselves to honesty about what is happening in our community, in our church, around LGBTQ+ issues and all others is of utmost importance. The need for each individual to be able to state the truth of the reality of who they are, who they recognize God has made them, and where they feel God is calling them is ever pressing and will not ever go away. It is a consistent point of discernment that, if we enter into it, will ever call us into transformation from where we are to where the Spirit is calling us.
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