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When I hopped on a Zoom call with some of our dedicated Board Members this week, there was a good chuckle that Christmas decorations have already appeared behind me in my office. I can’t help it! My mom will tell you that since I was a kid, the wheels have started turning in my head around May.
This year, I put those wheels on the road to build something that could accompany queer people and their allies through the Advent season. I took the idea to the Collective of Queer Christian Leaders, a Queer Christian Collective of organizational leaders dedicated to combating white Christian Supremacy through centering Queer people and innovative collaboration.
The fruits of our labor are have joyously arrived through What are you Waiting for? An LGBTQIA+ Affirming Advent Devotional.
When I pulled up with this concept, many members of our Collective throughout the country hopped in:
- From the National LGBTQ Task Force, Faith Work Director Rev. Nicole Garcia.
- From Alliance Q: The Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance, Executive Director Rev. Melissa Guthrie.
- From the Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests, Executive Director Annabeth (AB) Roeschley, M.Div, and Jaylon Tasby.
- From the Open & Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ, Executive Director Rev. Dr. Katrina Roseboro-Marsh.
- From Room for All, Executive Director Cameron Van Kooten Laughead, and myself, Mitchel Leet.
- And from the Transmission Ministry Collective, Director of Community Engagement Micah Melody Taberner, and Peter Clare.
I am deeply grateful for each of their presence on this ride, and of course, for their insightful contributions!
This season of preparation and sacred darkness keeps all of us busy, but it’s also a journey. It’s a time for reflection, for wondering, and for deep conversation in fellowship with our communities. Within the pages of this devotional, we hope to subvert the traditions that bind us blindly to the prejudice of the past, while offering grounding for the present and hope for the future.
On our Advent 2023 page, you’ll be able to download our free PDF copy of these daily reflections, songs, poems and prayers. Included in that resource is a page to record your own wonderings, with plenty of room for notes and doodles in the margins. You’ll also find daily postings of each entry on our Facebook and Instagram @roomforallrca. Whether in a group or individually throughout, we offer this up for free for all our churches, rostered clergy and communities looking for seasonal contemplation!
Your support and donations to Room for All make this and all of our resources possible. We invite and appreciate your giving what you are able.
I’ve approached Christmas with enthusiasm since I was small. I get the decorations up early, so I have more time to enjoy all the beauty of the season! We’re all waiting for different things at this holy time of year— intangibles, but valuables. There’s love, hope, peace, and joy from some traditions, but there’s also patience, wholeness, trans justice, truth, liberation... we pray for all these, and more.
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