Sharon Hart, a member of GLAD's Open & Affirming Ministry Team, submitted the following article from Rebecca Voelkel Sharon wants us to remember that
"The scriptures tell us that the body of Christ is made up of many members and that we are members of one another. The Institute for Welcoming Resources is a perfect example of how the church, when all of the parts are working together, is a strong presence and voice for justice love in the world. The Reverend Rebecca Voelkel serves as Program Director for the Institute for Welcoming Resources and makes the following report concerning upcoming exciting ministries on behalf of us all."
The leaders, representing eleven different Christian denominations, sat in a circle in the fireside room of a joint Presbyterian and United Church of Christ congregation. They were lead in prayer by an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada who is also lesbian. They held in their hands stones and were asked to place in the stones their grief, pain and sorrow at what the church had done—to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and to itself. Then they placed the stones on the altar, symbolically releasing the pain, and ended with singing a hymn of resurrection and hope before they began their work together to strategize, prepare and act to collaboratively change the Church and the world.
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| Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, Program Director for the Institute for Welcoming Resources |
This scene—deeply spiritual, deeply ecumenical, deeply honest, deeply hopeful—is a kind of microcosm of the work of the Institute for Welcoming Resources. The gathering was of the Welcoming Church Program Leaders (the heads of the various “welcoming and affirming programs” in the United Church of Canada, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Presbyterian Church, USA, the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Reformed Church in America, the Community of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptist Churches, the Alliance of Baptists, the Church of the Brethren and the Mennonite Church). Twice a year for fifteen years, this body has come together to share best practices, develop resources (Open Hands Magazine was a joint publication as are Shaping Sanctuary and Claiming the Promise), hold joint conferences—the Witness Our Welcome 2000 and 2003 conferences, for example and work toward better equipping our movement. In 2002, the Welcoming Church Program Leaders officially started a separate non-profit known as the Institute for Welcoming Resources.
Today the Institute for Welcoming Resources is still very closely aligned with the Welcoming Church Programs that birthed it. Its work can be found at www.welcomingresources.org. In February of this year, IWR received the Shower of Stoles Project as a gift and then merged with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The combined partnership offers a model of hope for the Welcoming Church Movement—shared resources, shared vision, shared energy.
As we look to the next five years, here are some of the projects that IWR is doing:
Vaughn Beckman is GLAD’s O&A representative on the IWR Board. and has been the GLAD O&A presence since this organization’s inception. It was Vaughn who encouraged GLAD to become a strong founder and continuing supporter of this emerging ministry. Beckman says: “This did not just happen. This has been great work and I’m honored to have been a part of it. I am indeed so pleased with this, prophetic voice, that is moving our "affirming church" movement forward.” Sharon Hart and Kerry Armstrong have also attended IWR meetings on your behalf.
You can learn more about GLAD’s integral piece of work with IWR by viewing the new
website at http://www.welcomingresources
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