It’s Pride Month @FPC (First Presbyterian Church of Albany). Usually, I don’t get to attend Adult Ed because the choir rehearses at that hour; however, since the Albany Gay Men’s Chorus (AGMC) was performing the service music on June 1, I was able to attend.
The discussion was very meaningful. Some visitors were surprised that a conversation about LGBTQ+ issues, led by a member of Pride Center of the Capital Region, a/k/a the Capital Pride Center, “the longest continually operating Pride Center in the Country.”
What does coming mean? Who do you come out to? The answer to the latter question is, in part, to oneself. LGBTQ+ people in New York State tend to gravitate to places such as NYC, Buffalo, and Albany because they tend to be not just more welcoming but safer.
The Christian church has often been an unwelcoming institution, to the point that some folks cannot even walk through the doors. I understand this, and as a Christian, it frankly angers me. But it also pains me that folks have been subjected to such crap.
But it wasn’t all heavy. The speaker pointed out “we have been here,” and asked an audience member to pick a number and a continent, excluding Antarctica. I was introduced to Emperor Ai of Han (ruled 7 BCE- 1 BCE). “Traditional historians characterized the relationship between Emperor Ai and Dong Xian as one between homosexual lovers and referred to their relationship as “the passion of the cut sleeve” (斷袖之癖) after a story that one afternoon after falling asleep for a nap on the same bed, Emperor Ai cut off his sleeve rather than disturb the sleeping Dong Xian when he had to get out of bed.”
The service
The 10:45 service, which you can watch here, featured the aforementioned AGMC, as well as a great sermon by Pastor Miriam. Ater the scripture, 1 John 4:7-21, using “sibling” for “brother or sister,” she explained More Light Sunday.
“Our denomination in 1978 ruled that openly gay and lesbian people (the language of the time) could join and participate in the Presbyterian church, but not serve in official leadership of the church – not as deacons, elders or ministers. In reality many churches weren’t even welcoming openly gay people into their church, much less into membership.” She explained how First Pres and the PCUSA had changed.
FPC Albany’s More Light Statement of Inclusiveness notes that “we welcome all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, into the full life and service of the church. …
Last summer, when the PCUSA added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of categories found in our constitution that may not be the basis of discrimination in the church’s life, it was… “such a bold witness… given that there is so much anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation in the U.S. – especially because it is allegedly being done in the name of Christian faith or justified by the weaponization of scripture…”
Siding with love
“When Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are being removed from public policy, we are standing up and saying, not in our church. When the laws of the human government obstruct the laws of our loving God in denying trans and intersex people both social and medical gender affirmation, we are standing up and saying, not in our church. This is not going to happen to our siblings…”
She borrowed from a 2015 sermon, Siding With Love, by Lisa Friedman called , particularly the paragraph that begins “Love is a choice.”
Miriam ended: “Let us pray – Holy God, at this moment, help us to see who needs us to stand with them on the side of love. Help us to choose that side; help us to make a stand; help us to take action. Help us to love others as you have loved us. Amen.”
Upcoming
And then, on Sunday, June 8, the church will be decorating this year’s “float” for the Pride Parade. You can either join the parade in Washington Park or join as the “float” passes the church after the 10:30 service.
I’ve mentioned that there was a time when a Pride Parade seemed passe to some, that we had overcome. But the current political climate makes it, I would argue, more necessary.