Trigger Warning: Suicide, Mental Health, Homophobia, and Transphobia. This recording contains material related to the church’s treatment of persons who identify as LGBTQ+ and may evoke a strong emotional response.
New Resources Available from RfA
All One Body is pleased to announce that we have begun partnering with our sibling organization, Room for All, to share some of the amazing resources they have developed over the last 19-plus years of ministry to queer folk and their families in the Reformed Church in America. You can find their website here. Be sure to check out their Resources page. If your congregation is interested in becoming an open and affirming place for LGBTQ+ individuals, be sure to look at the Roadmap they have developed as a well-tested path to inclusion.
As both the CRC and RCA are in a period of disruptive change, we anticipate greater cooperation between A1B and RfA for effective ministry and support for queer people of faith and their families.
1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture
This documentary film chronicles how the misuse of single word changed the course of modern history. It follows the story of tireless researchers who trace the origins of the anti-gay movement among Christians to a grave mistranslation of the Bible in 1946. It chronicles the discovery of previously unpublished archives at Yale University which unveil astonishing new revelations, and casts significant doubt on any biblical basis for LGBTQIA+ prejudice. Featuring commentary from prominent scholars as well as opposing pastors, including the personal stories of the film’s creators, 1946 is at once challenging, enlightening, and inspiring.
While other documentaries have been successful in their attempt to treat the symptom of homophobia in the church, 1946 is working to diagnose and treat the disease – Biblical Literalism.
Interested in showing this film at your church? We can assist.
Contact us with questions or for details.
WELCOMING & AFFIRMING CRC CONGREGATIONS — Updated 9 Apr 2024
At this time, eighteen churches of the CRCNA are on record as welcoming and affirming those who identify as LGBTQIA+. You can read their position statements in this compilation document. More CRC congregations are moving in that direction and will be added to this composite document as those churches become known to us. If you are a member of such a church, our hope at All One Body and Hesed Project CRC is that these exemplars will encourage your congregation and provide useful language and supporting rationale for your own affirming stance.
Blessed be God in whose image all are made. Blessed be the church of Christ which has many parts but is one body.
WE'RE HERE WITH RESOURCES FOR LGBTQ+ CHRISTIANS, ALLIES, AND AFFIRMING CONGREGATIONS
LGBTQ+ CHRISTIANS
LGBTQ+ CHRISTIANS
Resources for those holding faith & orientation/identity in harmony
ALLIES & FAMILIES
ALLIES & FAMILIES
Resources for those with a queer loved one
FAITH COMMUNITIES
FAITH COMMUNITIES
Resources for congregations creating generous, grace-filled spaces
The church's treatment of homosexuality has become the greatest heresy in the history of the church. It's living heresy because it's treating God's children as if they're not God's children. And if there's any heresy in the world, it's that. – Dr. Lewis B. Smedes
Three Queer Pastors Address the Question: What Does it Look Like to Have a Flourishing Church and to Share the Abundant Life?
In this presentation, Bethany Joy Winn, Nicholas Hopkins, and Ricardo Tavarez will challenge you to work with the Spirit toward that abundant life. You will also learn how the church has been missing the diverse gifts that can enrich our worship, strengthen our faith, challenge our traditions, and and reveal new paths of kingdom service.
Anyone with ears to hear must listen and understand what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
THE CRC DECLARES SAME-SEX MARRIAGE SINFUL
Synod is the broadest assembly and official decision-making body of the CRC. Its agenda for June 2022 included a highly controversial Human Sexuality Report (HSR). Prior to June, in response to the report’s problematic content, judgmental tone, and divisive recommendations, All One Body communicated its deep concern primarily in the form of video responses by competent affirming voices, which you can view via the buttons below.
Synod 2022, however, embraced the report and its recommendations. In effect, it declared that same-sex marriage is sinful and, further, that all CRC leaders and members are expected to comply with this interpretation. Within this changed reality, All One Body continues to advocate for support and encouragement to LGBTQ+ persons within our congregations, as well as resources and guidance for Christian leaders who desire the full participation of confessing LGBTQ+ Christians within God’s Church.
MISSION
All One Body promotes unrestricted participation in all areas of church life by all members who confess Christ as Savior and Lord, whether single or partnered, without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. We seek to challenge the voices of fear and accusation that condemn and exclude, that marginalize some and privilege others. We will create generous and grace-filled spaces in which we can all be informed by direct personal engagement through the sharing of our stories.
Jesus Prays for All Believers: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one-- I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:20-23 (NIV)