ChrisGlaserOn Sunday, May 17, 2009, CLGS was pleased and honored officially to receive the Rev. Chris Glaser Collection into the CLGS Archives, which also includes invaluable documents from the pioneering work of the Lazarus Project, which Rev. Glaser directed for many years.

Author and activist, Chris Glaser has published eleven books, including Uncommon Calling, Coming Out to God, and Coming Out as Sacrament. His newest book is As My Own Soul: The Blessing of Same-Gender Marriage (Seabury Press, 2009). In 2007 he wrote two curricula for The Human Rights Campaign, both available free online at www.hrc.org.

Chris is a frequent speaker and retreat leader across denominational boundaries throughout North America on issues ranging from sexuality to spirituality. He served as the only openly gay member of the Presbyterian Task Force to Study Homosexuality (1976-78), the majority of which voted to recommend the ordination of lesbian and gay people; that recommendation was rejected by the Presbyterian General Assembly.

After graduation from Yale Divinity School in 1977, he served as director of a first-of-its-kind ministry of reconciliation between the church and the LGBT community, The Lazarus Project, located at the West Hollywood Presbyterian Church. He has worked for almost forty years to affect Presbyterian policy regarding the welcome and ordination of openly gay and lesbian ministers. He also works for full inclusion of bisexual and transgender people in the church.

In recent years he has served as Spiritual Leader of the interfaith Midtown Spiritual Community in Atlanta; interim pastor of Christ Covenant MCC in Decatur, Georgia; interim pastor of MCC San Francisco; and presently as interim/transitional pastor of Virginia Highland Church, a Baptist and UCC congregation in Atlanta. He was ordained to the ministry in MCC on October 2, 2005. A native Californian, he now calls Atlanta home. His family includes his partner Wade Jones and their golden retriever lab, Hobbes.

The Rev. Chris Glaser and Lazarus Project Collection is currently being processed and cataloged. CLGS will make an announcement when this collection is accessible for research.

The finding aid to the Chris Glaser Collection can be found here:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8z31x2p/