Reflections – Marilyn Paarlberg
The aspect of the “Making Room for All” conference that continues to linger most in my mind and heart is not so much anything that was said, although there was valuable information to process and ponder. Nor is it a particular person I met or reconnected with who shares my commitment to full inclusion of LGBT brothers and sisters in the life of the Reformed Church, although there were surely some moving personal stories shared.
Instead, the impression that keeps coming back to me, keeps inspiring me, is the closing worship service. It was not that a lesbian pastor offered Communion in a way that was different than a straight pastor, but isn’t that the point? Nor was the singing or preaching or praying any better or worse. What was different was the palpable joy of standing openly before God and one another in the rich variety and fullness of our created sexual selves – male and female, gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual or transgender – each of us free to be who we are as God’s well-loved image-bearers. The experience gave me hope for what might one day be possible throughout the RCA.
– Marilyn Paarlberg
First Reformed Church
Albany, NY