Queerly Beloved Supporting Safe, Affirming Worship Communities

Members of Queerly Beloved, a working group of the Diocese of Edmonton Social Justice Committee, hosted a recent Clergy Day in the parish of St. Timothy’s, Edmonton. Through these continuing education days, Queerly Beloved supports church communities to become safe spaces for 2SLGBTQIA+ followers of the Jesus way.

As the Rev. Clare L. Stewart, rector of St. Timothy’s and a member of Queerly Beloved, clearly illustrated in her presentation to clergy on “The Church and Human Sexuality: Queer Christians & the Anglican Church,” the church has not always been a safe place for 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

However, Finding Our Way: Discerning a Strategic Path for the Diocese of Edmonton Goal #10 reads: parishes of the Edmonton diocese “will affirm and declare publicly, intentionally, and explicitly our commitment to the welcome, safety, and full access of siblings in the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities within our churches…”

Queerly Beloved provides resources to parishes, such as “Building an Inclusive Church Toolkit,” and “Room for All Blessings for All” Sunday school curriculum, on the diocesan website where, to date, eight parishes have identified themselves as affirming.

“It is hugely important for queer individuals and couples to be recognised by their faith communities,” says the Rev. Mark Vigrass a deacon at St. George’s, Edmonton and chair of Queerly Beloved. “These aren’t easy conversations to have in some parishes, but they are necessary if we are to continue moving forward.” 

“It’s easy for people to form an opinion in the abstract,” says Vigrass who has been married to Manny Panera since 2015. “We don’t all have to think the same way theologically, but we can still get to know Christians who are Queer.”

Vigrass shared with the clergy community that he did not feel accepted by his conservative United church when he came out as a gay man in his twenties. He spent many years “in the wilderness” until a gay friend in Montreal suggested he give the Anglican church a try. 

He became an active member of Ascension Church in Montreal and was confirmed as an adult, in 1991, at All Saints’, Regina. In Edmonton, he served as a deacon at St. Patrick’s and, most recently, St. George’s. 

Because of the church’s history, Vigrass says it is also important for affirming parishes to be “public, intentional and explicit” in their welcome, by making safe church declarations on their websites and social media channels and displaying rainbow flags and signs. 

“When I go to a church and I see a sticker and pride flag in the window, it’s like a touchstone for me,” he says. “I feel love.”

Queerly Beloved provides “Safe Space” decals to parishes to display in their windows. If your parish would like a decal to signal to Queer people that you are an affirming worship community, please get in touch with RJ Chambers at the Synod Office: churched@edmonton.anglican.ca / 780-439-7344. 

The Rev. Michael Coren, assistant curate at St. Luke’s, Burlington in the Anglican Diocese of Niagara, was invited to speak at Clergy Day and later gave an evening lecture. He shared how a change of heart and mind led him to abandon Catholicism and embrace Anglicanism. Coren, whose father was Jewish, though he was not raised in a faith community, became a Catholic as an adult. However, two events in 2014 -- an evangelical Christian backlash against World Vision for hiring Christians in same-sex marriages in its US offices, and the Ugandan president’s legislation for life imprisonment for gay sex -- caused him to question the Catholic church’s teachings about homosexuality. 

Coren began intentionally reaching out to Queer people and “the more I learned, the more I felt I had got it wrong.” He is now regarded as a Christian champion of equal marriage, same-sex blessings, and the full affirmation of 2SLGBTQ+ people in the church.