Cambridge Welcoming Ministries -- Reconciling Saint Sunday

ICTE Supporters and other readers, I want to let you know about a wonderful faith event that will take place this Sunday, April 19^th, at 5:00 p.m. Cambridge Welcoming Ministries will be celebrating their annual Reconciling Saint Sunday, at College Avenue United Methodist Church (in Somerville, just outside of Davis Square).

I’ll be attending with a friend and am so looking forward to it!

Every year, CWM hosts a celebration of Reconciling Saints in honor of those who advocate for full inclusion of all God’s beloved children. This year, they honor the life and ministry of Bishop Melvin G. Talbert. Bishop Talbert has been a tireless advocate for the civil rights of all people over the course of his ministry. The service will also include special guests.

A Reconciling Saint embodies the qualities of a faithful believer who is passionate, courageous, caring, audacious, and dedicated to the vision of a fully inclusive church in which one day lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons will be welcomed and loved as equal believers in the Church of Jesus Christ. A Reconciling Saint has, through their leadership, witness and action, diligently advocated and struggled for such a vision in the United Methodist Church.

Cambridge Welcoming Ministries is the spiritual home of my fellow ICTE members Sean Delmore and Marla Marcum. Sean co-chaired ICTE’s An Act Of Faith event with me, and CWM’s pastor Reverend Tiffany Steinwert was one of the AAOF speakers.

I celebrated Easter this past Sunday at CWM’s Worship Service and Fellowship Dinner. I had the most wonderful time. It was the perfect way to return to celebrating the holiday and Holy Week.

I’ll be posting an entry about that experience soon. In the meantime, I will tell you this. I’ve been very fortunate in my experience as a transgender person and leader of faith. But I have never felt so welcomed and included by a faith community as I did on Sunday night.

Even though it was my first visit to the congregation, I found that CWM truly embodied the words and phrase “welcoming” and “ministry”. (Though I shouldn’t be surprised after my experiences with Sean, Marla and their colleagues!)

One of the most meaningful things about the evening was the way transgender people and issues were raised up during the service. How much more so because this wasn’t done by the transpeople present but by the allies. It is more important than ever to empower transpeople to speak for themselves. It is also wonderful to be entering a time when we transpeople don’t always have to be the ones to raise trans issues; a time when even when we’re not at the table, we can know that someone there is raising them. It was so powerful to witness these acts of alliance, including the congregation and pastor’s positive response. Especially as last week was Transgender Equality Lobby Day here in Massachusetts and beyond.

I invite you to learn more, attend this Sunday, and invite others. All are welcome! Indeed, Reconciling Saint Sunday is an important step forward in the movement towards “all means all”.

Cambridge Welcoming Ministries has a website and a blog, and can be reached at info@cambridgewelcomingministries.org and 617.776.4172. CWM is also on Facebook, MySpace and elsewhere.

href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/william/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml">

Mycroft Masada Holmes

Chair, Keshet Transgender Working Group (TWiG)

Co-Chair, Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE)

http://MasadArts.blogspot.com/