Mission

Lutherans Concerned/Twin Cities is the metro area chapter of Lutherans Concerned / North America. We include gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons as well as straight allies. We are committed to modeling the gospel within the Lutheran church, seeking to foster a climate of understanding, justice and reconciliation among all people, especially around issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

We are independent of any particular Lutheran synod and include Lutherans (and non-Lutherans) of many backgrounds who affirm in common that we are justified by grace alone through faith, and that our Baptism is our call to active and full participation in the Body of Christ. We encourage our members to maintain their membership and use their ministry gifts in the life of their local parish. we support one another in living out the gospel in the whole of our lives, including the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities.

One expression of our work is the Reconciling in Christ program which identifies Lutheran congregations who, after study and conversation, have adopted a statement welcoming GLBT persons as they are. The Minnesota RIC roster currently includes 25 metro and outstate reconciling congregations. Using local volunteers and one part-time staff person, we continue to expand the list of Minnesota Reconciling congregations.

We typically meet - for worship, programs, and/or fellowship - quarterly, the third Friday of March, June, September, and December. See our most recent newsletter for announcements of our next event.

Some of our other project include:

• Presenting annual Saints & Reformers Awards to recognize local people who take risks on our behalf.
• Co-Sponsoring annual Walking The Talk of Welcome workshops to invite other Lutheran congregations into the RIC process.
• Participating in the local Pride festival, Rainbow Families gathering, and other events that promote awareness and welcome for GLBT persons.

History

"Through the night of doubt and sorrow, Onward does the pilgrim ban; Singing songs of expectation, Marching to the promised land. Clear before us through the darkness, Gleams and burns the guiding light; Pilgrim clasps the hand of pilgrim, Stepping fearless through the night."
LBW #355

Perhaps no hymn could better express the feelings of that first group of gay and lesbian Lutherans who, following a Consultation on Sexuality by the American Lutheran Church, founded the first chapter of Lutherans Concerned for Gay People (Twin Cities - 1974). After lives of quiet desperation, reminiscent of so many "nights of doubt and sorrow," lesbians and gay Lutherans bravely, and hopefully were making a first step into the light

Most beginnings may not seem especially significant when they occur, but this was a "new beginning" whose clarion call sounded throughout Minnesota, and as the membership for this first chapter grew, so did the need for ever larger space. This small and courageous chapter continued singing "songs of expectation," as they moved from location to location, until finally accepting the invitation to make St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church their home in 1982. Twelve years of wandering had taken them through various Lutheran Campus Ministry locations, through Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and later Grace University Lutheran Church.

As its rapid growth continued, the chapter approached the Minnesota Synod (LCA) about an abandoned church site, with the intention of making it their home. There was even a desire to have our own chaplain, since the larger church still woefully neglected and ignored its gay and lesbian children. Yet even as "inclusiveness" was discussed within the wider Lutheran church, so was it struggled through at the LC/TC Chapter level - a more inclusive style of worship was developed, speaking equally to men and women, and rising from our own faith experience as lesbian and gay Lutherans..

But LC/TC was also to become a sanctuary for the "walking wounded," as it attempted to meet the spiritual and social needs of its ever-growing membership, those who had been so badly battered by their own churches. And so, while caring for its members on one hand, it stretched forth the other to educate and confront the neglect of every level of Minnesota Lutheranism. It was LC/TC that brought the LCA and ALC (in Minnesota) to Human Rights battles – an effort of over 20 years before statewide protection was granted by the State Legislature.

That struggle for justice also included a call for the church to address its own discriminatory practices, especially regarding ordination. LC/TC was present at every major point of the conflict, from demonstrating at the defrocking of a gay Methodist colleague, through leadership in creating the national electronic hookup for all participating cities in the San Francisco Ordinations, and more recently the enthusiastic ordination of Ps. Anita Hill at St. Paul-Reformation.

From a quiet, frightened, little group in 1974, LC/TC grew to provide leadership for Lutherans Concerned/North American, as well as ecumenical and interfaith arenas in Minnesota and beyond (Lesbian and Gay Interfaith Council of Minnesota, and later the national Lesbian and Gay Interfaith Alliance). "Pilgrim clasping hand of pilgrim, stepping fearless through the night." Just as in this old hymn, they clasped hands, working to create the first RIC congregation in LC/NA, and have continued building this program in Minnesota and nationally ever since.

Not content with mere "welcome," the chapter continues significant leadership in other areas: Blessing of Relationships, development of programs for GLBT youth, and full inclusion of bisexual and transgendered individuals, not only in Lutheran congregations, but in Lutherans Concerned itself.

When the last verse of the old hymn is sung: "Soon shall come the great awakening; Soon the rending of the tomb! Then the scatt’ring of all shadows, And the end of toil and gloom." - then this chapter will look back and know that when they were called to stand with one another, and on behalf of others, that they did just that. Faithful first, then brave in that faith, LC/TC has played a part in scattering those shadows which have kept GLBT Lutherans from the Light.

A reflection in anticipation of the 30th Anniversary of Lutherans Concerned/ Twin Cities
By Leo Treadway
18 October 2003