Church Acceptance Project

I had some time this morning to talk to Rev. Jeff Nelson about Rev. Ed Rowe's meeting with the Michigan Bishop tomorrow. As part of that Jeff mentioned that Ed will be basing his Just Resolution on ideas he had learned from the Ruth Ellis Center (where I'm a volunteer) about the Family Acceptance Project. I won't go into how Ed will use it as a way of resolution.

However, I can say more about the Family Acceptance Project. I learned about it one evening two years ago at the Center. Caitlin Ryan of San Francisco State University gave a presentation to the staff and I was asked to sit in. I wrote about it in my other blog, the one I use to share LGBT news with friends and family. The post is here. Replace every reference to "parent" with "church" and you get an idea where Ed is headed.

Jeff said Ed's big goal is to reduce, hopefully eliminate, harm. And he means real, serious harm. Jeff does not want to see another forum where our harm is put up against the "harm" that conservatives in the denomination claim when the issue is discussed. It is time to end that nonsense.

Just before I talked to Jeff I chatted with another member of the congregation, an ally. She had talked to a friend who has a gay son. The friend has expressed remorse that her son will be going to hell when he dies. She has probably said as much to her son. That is the harm, to both mother and child, Jeff is talking about.

Jeff had another bit of news. There is a second pastor in Michigan who performed a same-sex ceremony. This one is from the more conservative West Michigan Conference. His meeting before the bishop is Thursday.