You hear a lot about Proclaim, the community for publicly identified LGBTQ rostered leaders and seminarians. Do you wonder what they are actually up to? Turns out, quite a bit!
Here’s a quick overview of topics discussed on a recent Proclaim Team web-call, as reported out by Proclaim Team Secretary Carolina Glauster:
*A Proclaim Presence at the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering–overheard: the phrase “selfie photobooth”
*The Roller-Coaster that is Springtime in Seminary–1st years are hearing about Field-ed placements, 2nd years are hearing about Internship placements, and 3rd years have all heard at least some info about Assignment, so it’s a good time to reach out to and/or pray for a seminarian
*Proclaim Survey – we’re gathering some great demographic and personal information about LGBTQ leaders to help the church understand more about our gifts and needs!
*Sharing our Stories Project – we are collecting stories for a yet-unnamed anthology of our shared stories – this was inspired by the project “And So We Speak” done by the United Church of Christ – and funded by a grant from the Philip N. Knutson Endowment at St. Olaf College.
As we’d expect this time of year, a topic that resurfaced several times during our call was….the Assignment process. It’s a sometimes wonderful and also often really rough time for so many of us for so many reasons. We talked about ways we can continue to support each other.
We worked together on several ideas for new and better ways to keep connecting and supporting folks as the wheels of the first call process turn. Let’s continue to keep one another in our prayers and look for opportunities to support one another.
The Proclaim Retreat is coming so soon and the news from the retreat team is exciting! We heard that there are already lots o’ registrations–and they’re still coming in! It’s gonna be a hoot!
ELM was invited to both the Conference of Bishops meeting and the ELCA Internship Directors meeting in March. It’s very exciting to be invited and to know our voices are being sought out by both of these groups!
Ongoing ways to be involved:
A brand-new, full-fledged, Seminarian Team is convening this year, with new ways for seminarians to connect. Look for more info on this at the retreat and coming to you from your seminarian reps: Emily Ewing and Paul Gibson.
Chaplain selection process will happen at the retreat as usual–be thinking about who might serve (maybe you?) and look for more info on that soon from Chaplain Laura Kuntz.
ELM Friends – your contributions and prayers keep this work going. Without you, we couldn’t do any of this.
Proclaim, a program of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, is a professional community of Lutheran rostered leaders, candidates, and seminarians who publicly identify as LGBTQ. There are 154 members in Proclaim, living and doing ministry in 45 of the 65 ELCA synods. Proclaim photos by Emily Ann Garcia. Learn more.