God Loves the Gays, and So Should We (Lent 1 2026)

Our congregation is taking some bold steps during Letn this year, we're on the path to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation, meaning that we're becoming a congregation who intentionally and actively seeks out and welcomes LGBTQIA+ folks and persons of color.The ACT of loving folks who have been traditionally eschewed by the Church isn't something new to St. James. We've welcomed LGBTQIA+ persons for a long time now. What's new is that we haven't enshrined it in writing as a core part of our identity as a congregation.At its heart, while this is very much about learning to be more welcoming of people who society marginalizes, it's also more closely related to our identity as a congregation – one that's much like so many congregations right now. We've been here for over seventy-five years, but we look around our neighborhood and don't see our physical neighbors in worship like we used to. Part of what it means to reconcile ourselves to Christ and his welcome is learning to reconcile ourselves to our neighbors and meet them again for the first time. This is holy, hopeful work. Here's to a Lenten discipline that we hope will change us all for the better.Support the show