My thanks to West
Hollywood UCC’s congregation and church council, its pastor Rev. Dan Smith and
moderator Dr. George Lynch, for making my presence here possible!
I
know or know of most of those whose leadership has helped the reformation of
our faith communities into more welcoming places for LGBT membership,
ministries, and marriages. Even traditions and denominations which have yet to
see “more light” have become better at acceptance than they were.
As
a result of our efforts and that of activists of the broader LGBT community,
the culture, at least in the West, has made an enormous shift in how it views
us.
This week many of us observe
the 500th anniversary of the Reformation alongside All Saints Day.
It’s important to remember that neither saints nor reformers are perfect people
who “have it all together.” But they share a vision of our better selves, of our
beloved selves, of our better and beloved communities.
Invited
too to St. Louis are new activists who will carry us through generations to
come. I have often said and written that movements are led by future
generations.
During
a Vietnam War protest on my college campus, one of the speakers railed against
us, “Where were you when…” and then mentioned some earlier cause or
demonstration. My friend and now Facebook friend, Lindsay Taylor, shouted back,
“I was in the fifth grade!”
From
1977 to 1987, I served as founding director of the Lazarus Project, a
first-of-its-kind ministry of reconciliation between the church and the LGBT
community. During that decade we established the annual Lazarus Award, which was
given to the often unrecognized and unheralded individuals bringing such
reconciliation. It went to many obvious heroes and she-roes, including the Rev.
Dr. Nancy Wilson of MCC and the Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr of the Presbyterian
Church.
Years
after I departed as director, the Lazarus board decided to award it to the
former Presbyterian Stated Clerk, William P. Thompson, a controversial choice
given his earlier opposition to LGBT ordination. I was asked to return to serve
as emcee of the dinner. Though Thompson was being given the award because of
his very public and courageous change of mind on the issue, feelings ran high
among those unforgiving of his past opposition.
So I used Jesus’ parable
of the laborers hired at different times of the day to work in a vineyard, yet
given the same reward. It’s a parable about the nature of liberation.
“All
those who supported welcoming gay people in the church in the 1950s, please
stand or raise your hands,” I said. Then, “All those who supported it in the
1960s, please stand or raise your hands.” And on through the decades, till we
reached the current decade, the 1990s, and, by then, everyone was standing or
raising their hands. I concluded, “Just as the laborers who came at different
times to work in the vineyard, we all came at different times to welcome LGBT
people.” The point was we were all here now.
The
gathering I am attending is a time for reunion and remembrance, reflection and
thanksgiving, as well as passing the prophetic mantle on to those who will
continue the reformation of our faith communities and of our world.
As
the sometimes missing verse of James Russell Lowell’s hymn “Once to Every One
and Nation” goes:
New occasions teach new duties,Time makes ancient good uncouth;They must upward still and onward,Who would keep abreast of truth.
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Copyright © 2017 by Chris R. Glaser.
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