A Time of Fracturing in the Life of the Evangelical Covenant Church, Again, Over LGBTQIA2S+ Community

We celebrated our first Pride Sunday at La Mesa Presbyterian Church on Sunday, June 11, 2023. It was the first time that I, as a pastor, celebrated an entire worship service on the theme of Pride. We are a congregation with plenty of LGBTQIA2S+ people and non-LGBTQIA2S+ allies, but it had not been celebrated in worship in this church until I became pastor of the church. And I had never celebrated it before in worship in a PCUSA church, though I did the Pride marches in Portland, OR with the Community of Pilgrims. I wore a black t-shirt that says, “This Pastor Loves You,” in which the word “Pastor” is in rainbow colors. I expressly bought the shirt after I knew I got the position at the church. We had a rainbow flag draped over the Communion table, and also smaller rainbow pendants on the pulpit and lectern. The banners were rainbow banners, too.

The day before, on June 10, 2023, there were fourteen members of La Mesa Presbyterian Church who walked with a group of Episcopalians in the Albuquerque, NM area for Albuquerque Pride march down Central Ave., NE. We all wore our La Mesa t-shirts, that has our insignia, which includes a large rainbow. 

And to top it all off, the church’s Session voted to become a More Light Presbyterian Church on Monday night, June 12, 2023!

In other words, La Mesa Presbyterian Church fully embraced its status and role of being a church for and with people who are part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community and allies.

I find that we are in a time and place across the board in church-life that churches and denominations are having to make a stand (if you will) as to whether embrace the LGBTQIA2S+ community and allies or not. It is an inflection point, or a pivotal time in the life of most major Protestant denominations, around the world. 

While La Mesa Presbyterian is “owning” its identity as a safe, welcoming, joyous place for LGBTQIA2S+ Christians, there are other churches and denominations that are struggling mightily with this issue, and splintering apart. 

For example, Quest Church in Seattle, a church connected with the historic Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), has chosen to dis-affiliate itself with the ECC over LGBTQIA2S+ people. The ECC is an historically Swedish based denomination. Founded in the 19th century, ECC, a Reformed denomination, was an off-shoot off the official Church of Sweden, which is Lutheran. At the turn of the century, members of the ECC made their way to the states, many settling in the midwest. ECC own North Park University and North Park Seminary in Chicago, IL.

I remember in 2015, when Christ Church, an ECC congregation headed by Pastor Adam Philips in Portland, OR, was expelled from the ECC when they embraced LGBTQIA2S+ people because ECC does not ordain or welcome LGBTQIA2S+ people. Adam just wanted to include LGBTQIA2S+ people. The ECC dropped this new church development because of Adam’s stance.

Here’s an article about this development: https://religionnews.com/2015/02/17/evangelicals-pull-support-portland-church-lgbt-stance/

History is repeating itself, this time in Seattle. Quest Church, an ECC mega-church, pulling in a lot of young people, many who are LGBTQIA2S+. Before they were expelled this summer, they disaffiliated themselves from the denomination.

“We have discerned that, to be the body of Christ, we must embrace the fullness of God’s life in all of our members, including our LGBTQIA+ siblings,” said the Rev. Gail Song Bantum, lead pastor of Quest.

Quest Church joins Awaken Church in St. Paul, MN, also an ECC church, who are leaving the denomination now before they are expelled this summer.

Public Religion Research Institute  (PRRI) found that among white Protestant/mainline denominations, 76% of its members support same sex marriage, only 35% of white evangelicals support same sex marriage. 

ECC is not the only denomination struggling over LGBTQIA2S+ Christians and including us. The United Methodist Church (UMC) is in the process of splintering as I write this, with many churches going to the Global Methodist Church. Meanwhile, the Southern Baptist Conference is even further behind in terms of progress, outlawing the ordination of women in roles of pastoral leadership for fear of being on the slippery slope of welcoming LGBTQIA2S+ Christians. God forbid!

Here’s more on Quest: https://religionnews.com/2023/06/05/seattles-quest-church-leaves-ecc-as-church-affirms-lgbtq-christians/

The future is including LGBTQIA2S+ people of faith into the Church, not excluding us. The next generation of Christians, the Gen Z and Millennials, have already told us that that is where they stand on these issues as the Baby Boomers slowly die off. 

The future is with churches like La Mesa Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, NM, and all other churches that make it well known that LGBTQIA2S+ people are welcome.

May it be so.