Art Friday – “Synod 2016”

Welcome to our second weekly Art Friday post.

Our community is still reeling from the massacre at Pulse, the gay night club in Orlando where 49 people, mainly LGBTQ+ people of color, were murdered and another 53 injured.  Some of our LGBTQ+ community members have written blogs in response, which you can find here, here, here, and here.  As staff, we plan to post some of our own reflections in the days to come.

In the midst of these tragic events this summer, several denominations are having important policy conversations about their LGBTQ+ members.  Wendy, our Executive Director, is a member of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), and through her, many LGBTQ+ people in the CRC have found their way into our community.  This week, that denomination held their annual Synod in Grand Rapids, where they discussed a report offering pastoral guidance for churches regarding same-sex marriage.  The report was prepared over a period of three years by a diverse committee (including Wendy), and offered some freedom for pastors to exercise their discretion as they journey with same-sex couples in their church.  Sadly this report was not adopted by Synod; instead a much stricter minority report drafted by two dissenting members of the committee was adopted, restricting pastors, elders and deacons from participating in same-sex weddings, and restricting same-sex couples from church membership.