ORLANDO | LGBTQ Christians, theologians and allies all gathered to worship and learn about LGBTQ inclusion in the church held by The Reformation Project. The event — the sixth annual LGBTQ Inclusion Conference — was held at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Orlando Oct. 18-20.
The Reformation Project is a Bible-based, nonprofit Christian grassroots organization that works to promote the inclusion of LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups in the church. The organization focuses on reforming the church’s teachings on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Religious author Matthew Vines founded The Reformation Project in 2013. Vines, who is openly gay, had taken a semester off from Harvard University to come out to his parents and research homosexuality in the Bible. That research led to Vines holding lectures on intersectionality in the church. A video of Vines’ lecture was uploaded to YouTube where it was viewed over one million times.
Vines wrote “God and the Gay Christian” in 2014 to help give LGBTQ Christians the book he wished existed when he came out to his family and church.
“I felt like there was two things that were really missing for me,” Vines says. “One was a clear message tailored for conservative Christians and the other was an organizational infrastructure or support for people seeking to stay in these communities and create change within them. That was something that was not available to me.”
The conference featured teachings and workshops from leading biblical scholars and theologians to help attendees learn how to talk about the Bible and LGBTQ inclusion. The conference’s workshops included activism and organizing, family and community, LGBTQIA+ margins, racial justice and theology workshops.
The conference also included two keynote speeches, one from Rev. Brit Barron and another form Rev. Stanley Ramos. The event also featured speakers “Mama” Tammye Hicks and son Myles Hicks, best known for their appearance in the second season of Netflix’s “Queer Eye.”
“The Reformation Project is rooted in change. There is time for change. There are so many people that are in the body of Christ that feel marginalized and feel pushed to the side,” says Mama Tammye. “It’s time for the body of Christ to come together and function how it was meant to.”
QLatinx, The Reformation Project’s community partner, erected a Pulse Ofrenda – a memorial alter meaning “offering” in Spanish – to honor the victims of the Pulse tragedy in their serenity room.
“The Ofrenda was created in collaboration between the Orlando United Assistance Center, the OnePusle Foundation and QLatinx,” says the Executive Director of QLatinx, Christopher Cuevas. “The three came together to build the Ofrenda to honor the spirit and energy of the Orlando community and the 49 angels. The Ofrenda is very rooted in culture, typically constructed in Latin America, to honor the fallen.”
Photos by Jaime Donelson.
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