Towards a Welcoming and Inclusive Church
Resources
All in God's Family: Creating Allies for Our LGBT Families
Giving you opportunities to gather with other members of your congregation to pray, to learn, to share, and to work together to transform your lives, your congregation, and your world into a loving place in which God's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families can thrive.
AVAILABLE NOW!
To Do Justice: A Study of Welcoming Congregations
In order to both highlight the vibrancy, faithfulness and power of the Welcoming Movement and to counter the 'false witness' of those who seek to quash this movement of hospitality and justice, the Institute for Welcoming Resources surveyed pastors and leaders of 1,200 Welcoming congregations to ask them about their work and witness. Two areas emerged that warrant particular focus and celebration:
- Successfully completing a Welcoming Process makes a congregation more likely to work and witness on other justice issues.
- Congregations that directly engage the question of welcoming LGBT persons have low levels of conflict.
AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD!
transACTION
A Transgender Curriculum For Churches and Religious Institutions
AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD!
Making churches transgender inclusive
by Barbara Satin
IWR and faith work associate, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
As a transgender Christian who has visited numerous churches throughout the country, I know first hand the need to make religious institutions welcoming and affirming of transgender people but have seen time and time again that the congregational-based resources are not there yet. I have heard the anger and frustration from many of my transgender brothers and sisters as they relate how they have been met with hostility and fear upon entering a church to attend worship services.
This "exclusion" many times comes from faith institutions that have publicly identified themselves as "welcoming" to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) folks. However, when "push comes to shove," these congregations find themselves completely at a loss as to how to respond.
- Additional blogging about transACTION is available here.
Also released
The Human Rights Campaign's Religion & Faith Program has just published online a new transgender resource for clergy:
Liturgical Resource
A Place in God's Heart...
A Place at Christ's Table
Worship Resources for the
Welcoming Church Movement
