The PC(USA) Celebrates National Coming Out Day

Since 1987, National Coming Out Day has been celebrated by LGBTQIA+ people around the country, but interviews from the Presbyterian News Service undoubtably brought this day to the attention of many Presbyterians for the first time.

Questions to diverse leaders within the PC(USA) shed light on why this day has such special importance for LGBTQIA+ people. Amanda Barclay, Pastor at Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco, explained, "National Coming Out Day and LGBTQIA+ history month to me are national efforts to recognize our full humanity, in response to the historical failure to see queer people as fully human and fully divine."

Other interviewees included Bertram Johnson of Union Theological Seminary, Phillip Morgan of Central Presbyterian Church, Louisville, and CNP Board member Slats Toole.

Speaking to the affirmation of the Church, Johnson said, "The fact that we still have to question if an individual congregation or church leader will genuinely welcome and affirm our gifts is a sign that our legacy of exclusion and sin is still with us. The reality that queer people choose to be here is a testament to the fact that God still performs miracles and that each of us love the Church enough to suffer with it in its growth and reformation."

Toole also testified to the healing that affirming spaces and people can offer. Of their Reaffirmation of Baptism, they said, "It wasn’t until I was in that room, filled with a cloud of witnesses who cared for me and affirmed me, that I realized how much I needed this experience as a part of healing from the trauma the church had caused me."

The article suggested several ways in which the Church can continue to improve its witness to God's love in the world. Morgan said, "Realize that there is still work to do and the issues around justice for queer people go beyond ordination."

At the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, we rejoice in the witness of LGBTQIA+ people in the Church and continue to work for justice beyond ordination. In our most recent newsletter, Executive Director Brian Ellison addressed recent and upcoming conversations with churches looking to expand their inclusivity: "They are willing to examine their worship, their language, their facilities, their attitudes, their assumptions ... all in the name of helping the church live into its promises to love and honor all God's people."

Check out our Events page to see upcoming conversations and events supporting that vision.