CLGS Open House: Thursday, September 13

As a center of Pacific School of Religion (PSR) at the Graduate Theological Union, CLGS follows the academic year in its programming initiatives. School starts the day after Labor Day and CLGS will ring in the new year with a festive open house on the PSR campus, Thursday, September 13 from 1:00 to 2:30 pm at the CLGS "Cottage" (for directions, go to http://www.clgs.org/2/2_4.html). This will be an opportunity to socialize and hear briefly about this year's programming (including the inaugural Boswell Lecture, OutFront Weekends and the second Transgender Religious Leadership Summit) as well as to meet both new and returning staff members of the Center.

This past summer witnessed several significant personnel changes at CLGS. We bid farewell to Alvan Quamina, who returned to his previous work in HIV/AIDS issues; Anita Cadonau-Huseby, who is expanding her online ministry among Christian lesbians; Jim Rainbolt, who moved to Texas where his partner relocated for a new job; and Jeffrey Dirrim, who is seeking ways to respond to his call to ordained ministry. We will (and already do) miss all of them! We are also pleased to welcome Jen Gall, the new Center Administrator, and to welcome back from sabbatical, Mary Tolbert, the Center's Executive Director.

As CLGS celebrates its seventh anniversary, all of us are excited about the year ahead. Please join us on September 13 to mark this new beginning.

From San Diego to Walla Walla

The OutFront Program takes CLGS resources and expertise to where they are needed most - local faith communities, neighborhoods and cities across the country. These weekend conferences are designed to help progressive people of faith and their allies become voices of authority and agents of societal change. Each of these weekend programs is tailored to meet the specific needs of the local community with which CLGS partners, and the weekend draws on a variety of speakers from around the country for the content of the workshop modules. In each case, the OutFront Project assists and supports individuals and organizations in gaining competence and confidence on topics ranging from strategies for creating welcoming congregations and marriage equality and civil unions to the Bible and homosexuality. Recent additions include transgender issues, youth and young adults, and race and ethnicity. During the 2007-08 programming year, OutFront weekends are planned for: San Diego, CA; Portland, OR; Walla Walla, WA; and Austin, TX. For more information contact Bernard Schlager (bschlager@clgs.org).

Historical preservation of key materials in LGBT religious scholarship and activism is an ongoing and critical concern for many reasons. Unpublished personal papers, manuscripts, meeting minutes, and other documents are often the only record of important moments at the intersection of religion and sexuality and will mark the legacy of LGBT people of faith for many generations. Organizing, cataloguing and preserving these papers require the skills of professional archivists and institutional locations where these materials can be safely stored and easily accessed. We are fortunate at CLGS to have access to the significant resources of the library at the Graduate Theological Union, one of the top ten theological libraries in the country, where the CLGS Archives are housed and managed. In 2003 the GTU Library Archives published its Collection Guide for the John J. McNeill and Charles Chiarelli Gay and Lesbian Liberation Collection, the first collection in the CLGS Archives. CLGS is pleased to announce the addition of archival materials from Rev. Chris Glaser and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott. Two more additions will be announced soon. For more information about the CLGS Archives and their accessibility, contact us at clgs@clgs.org.

Saturday, September 22, 10:30 am - 12:30 pm

The CLGS Asian and Pacific-Islander (API) Roundtable, a joint project of CLGS and PSR's PANA Institute, is pleased to host a conversation for and among API Roman Catholics about LGBT issues and concerns. This will be an opportunity to share stories, find resources with and beyond the institutional church for LGBT Catholics, to explore API identities in this work and to brainstorm ideas for outreach to Asian and Pacific-Islander communities. The conversation will be facilitated by Rev. Jim Schexnayder (of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries), Rev. Elizabeth Leung (Coordinating Minister of the API Roundtable), and Michael Sepidoza Campos (a GTU doctoral student). This event will take place on Saturday, September 22 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm at PSR's PANA Institute (2357 LeConte Avenue in Berkeley) and brunch will be provided.

CLGS is pleased to promote a variety of events and conferences related to LGBT people and religion. Let us hear from you about events in your region! Contact us at clgs@clgs.org.

Reception honoring Sr. Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, will be held on Sunday, September 9 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm at the Rainbow World Fund in San Francisco (4111 - 18th Street). No registration or RSVP is necessary - just join us to celebrate the work of this pioneer in the Roman Catholic Church.

Catholic Parents Network, a project of New Ways Ministry, will present a workshop and retreat for lesbian/gay Catholics, parents, pastoral ministers and other allied persons with the theme "Becoming a Mature Christian." The keynote presenter will be Rev James Keenan, SJ, who will address how committed Catholics can both embrace their tradition and respond to the promptings of conscience. The retreat will be held at the Xavier Center in Convent Station, New Jersey, September 21-23. For more information, go to www.newwaysministry.org.

Testimony: You Shall be My Witnesses will be presented by the Covenant Network of Presbyterians in Atlanta, GA, November 1-3. This will be an opportunity to join theologians, preachers, teachers and singers in reclaiming the power of story-telling and testimony in our lives of faith. Speakers include Anna Carter Florence, Don Saliers, and Beverly Gaventa. For more information, go to www.covenantnetwork.org.

A Time to Embrace, by William Stacy Johnson

"Revolutionary Reading" is an occasional feature in this e-newsletter for linking scholarship and advocacy - a key aspect of the CLGS mission. In this issue we're featuring a book that doesn't seem at first to be "revolutionary" to LGBT people of faith, but is nonetheless a truly valuable resource. William Stacy Johnson's A Time to Embrace: Same-Gender Relationships in Religion, Law and Politics offers a comprehensive overview of the seven major religious responses to same-gender relationships (from outright prohibition to institutional blessing), including a helpful biblical and theological analysis of each of these positions. While much of this will be familiar to many LGBT people, Johnson's organization of these positions (including charts!) makes this a "one-stop" resource for the full range of Christian arguments regarding sexuality. It's also an important reminder about the differences among the kind of arguments made by various denominations and schools of thought. For those resources alone, this book is well worth the price. But Johnson also includes a compelling argument for why embracing same-gender unions and full marriage equality is essential for a well-functioning and thriving democracy, from both a legal and political perspective. Here again Johnson outlines and organizes the various types of committed unions and arrangements that same-gender couples might choose to participate in and what's at stake for civil society in each of these in terms of both liberty and equality. Johnson is well equipped to take on this daunting task as he is Arthur M. Adams Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, an ordained Presbyterian minister, and an attorney-at-law. (If you order this book through the Amazon portal on the CLGS website, CLGS will receive a potion of your purchase price!)