Day 1

Leading up to the Special Council on Human Sexuality in April, the Reformed Church in America has published a series of 21 devotionals to help the denomination and participants prepare. We encourage all Room for All supporters to sign up to receive these devotionals via email and follow along as we pray for the church…

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The “Room for All” Generation

Full disclosure, first off: New Testament Greek at Western Theological Seminary was a long time ago! But I still like diddling around with words, including words in the Bible, because I love shades of meaning. Take γενεά (genea), for example. It can be translated as generation, family, or race. Mostly it’s time-and-ancestry associated, as in…

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Beyond Borders

A month ago I traveled to the US/Mexico border with a group of students from Western Theological Seminary. Among the countless memories from our experience, two stand out the most: seeing the physical border wall for the first time and sitting in the unique pain of LGBTQ people in a detention center. When we arrived at the border…

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Don’t Mess with the Mama Bears

For the past couple of years, I’ve been part of a “closed” Facebook group for Christian mothers of LGBTQ children. I can’t remember how I stumbled upon this group, but it has become a second family for me and for the other approximately 450 women in it from all over the world. There is great…

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Choosing Hope

Looking Back on 10 years– Room for All, Choose Hope Fear? In a world marked with fear; fear of what happened, and what will happen, hope often seems far off. However, Jesus offers us this wisdom: When you hear of wars and rumors of wars… Do not be alarmed. (Matthew 24:6) Looking Back I recently…

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Opening Doors

When I opened the doors of my private counseling practice, I was certain that doing so was what God wanted me to do, and therefore would be a place God was going to use. From my human vantage point, Eve’s Haven was opened to help women rediscover their stories, so I simply anticipated serving women…

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Pushing Back

Is it okay to be a woman? Hi everyone, I’m Ara. Though I’m not anymore, I was a candidate for ordination in the RCA, and I’m currently a board member of Room for All. I grew up in the RCA, and I’d like to say that I remember the denomination being a wonderful influence on…

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A Letter of Support

This summer, Room for All celebrated its 10th anniversary with a banquet in Schenectady, NY, where Rev. Dr. Norm Kansfield’s trial took place at General Synod 2005. We were overwhelmed and delighted to welcome friends and supporters from all over the East Coast, one of whom was our former board member Tom Dibble. Tom brought…

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To Be Loved All the Same

My whole adult life, I’ve felt like a problem that needed to be managed. There’s no one person or circumstance that has made me feel this way, it’s just a pervasive impression that I’ve gotten. I went to college at an institution that regularly makes the Princeton Review’s list of the Top LGBT Un-Friendly Colleges.…

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Live and Learn

Living is intended to be a lifelong learning process, beginning with childhood. In my case, I missed knowing my father, who died when I was eight. Three years later, out of necessity, my mother became a round-the-clock caretaker in another town. I learned during those years to grow up in a hurry. I met a…

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