The Religious Institute is pleased to offer worship resources to assist clergy in speaking out in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teens and young adults.
Please feel free to modify any of these in order to better serve your faith community.
National Coming Out Day Resources
National Coming Out Day is Saturday, October 11, 2014
A Litany for National Coming Out Day
Prayer of the Day for National Coming Out Day
Pride Month
How Will You Observe Pride?
“Gay Pride,” as it used to be called, began as a political observance, commemorating the Stonewall riots in New York City in late June 1969, an important turning point in the movement for lesbian and gay civil rights. Today, LGBT Pride is celebrated in communities worldwide — including communities of faith.
Any day in June is appropriate to pray for LGBT equality during worship, sponsor a social event celebrating Pride, host a guest speaker or educational program addressing LGBT concerns, or take steps toward greater inclusion in your congregation. But there is perhaps no better time than the last weekend in June, when LGBT Pride marches take place in cities around the world. The Religious Institute has created and collected resources to help your congregation observe Pride the weekend of June 25-27.
Pride Month Worship Resources
Acting Out Loud
This is a multifaith, online resource for faith communities that want to move beyond welcome toward a wider embrace of LGBT people and their families. Acting Out Loud explores the diversity of populations within the LGBT community and suggests dozens of practical steps that congregations can take to address the specific pastoral needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
A Time to Seek
A Time to Seek is a congregational study guide on sexual and gender diversity. Useful for individual study or group discussion, A Time to Seek offers an introduction to the science of sexual orientation and gender identity, and explores new understandings of Scriptural texts related to sexuality and gender.
Open Letter on Sexual and Gender Diversity
If you are clergy or a religious professional, click here to read and endorse the Open Letter, which makes a faith-based argument for LGBT civil rights and full inclusion in our faith communities. And encourage your colleagues to sign on as well! You may also download the Open Letter to share with members of your congregation.
Clergy Respond to LGBT Bullying in Sermons and Prayers
“All of us have teens and young adults who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender in our congregations, many who are suffering in silence and are at risk,” noted Rev. Debra W. Haffner, executive director of the Religious Institute. “One study found that 14% of teens in religious communities identify as something other than heterosexual. Almost nine in ten of them have not been open about their sexuality with clergy or other adult leaders in their faith communities.”
Here are several sermons and prayers given in response to anti-LGBT bullying.
Rabbi Victor Appell, Union for Reform Judaism, If Only Tyler Clementi Had Been to a Gay Synagogue
Pastor Phill Haslanger, Memorial United Church of Christ, The life of an Outcast
Rev. Lori Johnson, Trinity Episcopal Church, There is Something Wrong and Something Needs to Change
Pastor Maria Tafoya, Disciples of Christ, Where are the Others?
More resources are being added regularly, so check back frequently.
Have something you’d like to share? Please send it to us at info@religiousinstitute.org and we’ll add (or link) to it via this page. Thanks!