Letter to the Editor in the Salt Lake City Tribune worth marking as we call TEC to shift its focus from who might leave if we truly welcome all to who will COME in response to the Gospel of God's inclusive love.
No home on plaza
Public Forum Letter -- 07/20/2009
I was late for church on Sunday because I first I went to the Main Street Plaza to join a "kiss-in" in support of the gay couple who were told to leave the LDS property because of a kiss on the cheek ("Protesters smooch near LDS Temple," Tribune , July 13).
As I walked into St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where I'm a parishioner, they were singing "Amazing Grace": "'tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home." It brought tears to my eyes. You see, I'm gay and served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Later in the service, we sang "Praise the mount! Oh, fix me on it, mount of God's unchanging love ... and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home."
I could hardly get the words out. It was as if those hymns had been chosen specifically for me on that particular day. After essentially being told that I was not welcome on Temple Square, I thank God for the Episcopal Church and loving straight people, religious or not, who help marginalized gays find "home."
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Jeff Laver
Salt Lake City
1 comment:
I'm glad to see that letter get wider notice, as I shared it in Google reader when it appeared. That second hymn is also a particular favorite of mine, which welcomed me home to the Episcopal Church on my first visit. It never fails to make me choke up at "Prone to wander."
Althought I'm straight, I've never felt a sense of being welcomed at non-inclusive Episcopal/Anglican churches. They just don't feel like home.
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