LGBTQIA+
LGBTQIA+ people are not only welcome, we lead ministries.
All Are Welcome At St. Michael's
St. Michael’s has a long history of advocating for the full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ persons in the community and church. This commitment has been part of our ethos since 1974. The road has not been easy. In 1996, St. Michael’s offered a Eucharist of Reconciliation in acknowledgment of the larger Christian Church’s harms against the LGBTQIA+ community, bearing a significant cost from the diocese at that time. Clergy, Vestry, and the congregation strove to find their way together, seeking to remain in dialogue with the Diocese and carefully choosing when and how to take a stand. Nevertheless, some members felt compelled to leave over this issue. St. Michael’s stance raised our visibility in Albuquerque and in the country and placed us in the forefront of LGBTQIA+ issues. It sharpened our focus on social justice, taught us how to take a principled stand, and still informs our life together, in pursuit of being an inclusive, loving parish. As the views in our diocese and the wider Episcopal church evolved, our then-rector was asked to chair the Church’s Task Force on the Study of Marriage, leading to provisional ceremonies blessing same sex relationships. Later we would be the first parish to offer same gender marriage. And now. we joyfully have celebrated a new name and the affirmation of the authentic identity of a long-time parishioner using the Episcopal Church’s Service of Renaming as a part of one of our Sunday morning liturgies.
The LGBTQIA+ Community at St. Michael's
St. Michael's Church has long made equal rights and full inclusion for LGBTQIA+ persons in the community and church a priority. Because of the welcome the parish has extended over the years, many gay, lesbian, bi-, and transgender persons are part of the congregation, and a number of these parishioners are raising children in families with their spouses/partners. The parish has blessed committed same-sex covenants for sometime. With the approval by the Episcopal Church in the summer of 2015 of full marriage equality, St. Michael's now celebrates the marriages of all persons who come seeking God's blessing of their relationships.
Standing with our Trans Siblings
Trans members have been in visible leadership at St. Michael's for decades. Since 2018, the Episcopal Church has included a service for receiving a new name among our authorized liturgies to affirm our gender expansive siblings.
St. Michael's has celebrated the liturgy for two of our trans members. We have actively partnered with the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico to offer trainings on how to better welcome our trans siblings. We have also held a drag bingo event, with the wider Diocesan LGBTQ+ ministry, to raise funds for their work, including CASA Lola, a program for trans people experiencing housing insecurity.
We take these stands a time when our trans siblings are under attack in the wider society. Our rector was actively involved, in his previous parish in Missouri, in advocacy against discriminatory laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community. In New Mexico, St. Michael's is part of a wide coalition of organizations which have been successful in securing the legal recognition of the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and for trans healthcare and reproductive healthcare. We are proud of this work, and grateful for the New Mexico leaders who stand with us.
