St. John’s United Church of Christ will celebrate its first year as an open and affirming congregation by displaying the Shower of Stoles exhibit. It will be displayed at the church, located at 218 N. Church St. in Boalsburg, Feb. 9 through 11.
The church’s website states, “The Shower of Stoles is a collection of over a thousand liturgical stoles and other sacred items representing the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people of faith. These religious leaders have served in 32 denominations and faith traditions, in six countries, and on three continents. Each stole contains the story of a LGBTQ person who is active in the life and leadership of their faith community in some way: minister, elder, deacon, teacher, missionary, musician, administrator or active layperson.
“This extraordinary collection celebrates the gifts of LGBTQ persons who serve God in countless ways, while also lifting up those who have been excluded from service because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The collection bears witness to the huge loss of leadership that the church has brought upon itself because of its own unjust policies.”
An open and affirming congregation is United Church of Christ’s designation for congregations ‘which make a public covenant of welcome into their full life and ministry to persons of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions,’ according to UCC.
John Poorman told a story about how the stole project started.
“In the 1990s, two women clergy fell in love, but they had to hide who they were. When they had to give up their pulpits, they asked other friends to send a stole of theirs to display,” said Poorman. “The first week, they received 80, and then hundreds more, until now there are over 1,000. The National LGBTQ Task Force is in charge of them now and they send out stoles when they are requested.”
The Boalsburg UCC will receive 50 of the colorful stoles for its display, which will open during the 10:30 a.m. church service on Sunday. The church will display the stoles until 1 p.m. On Monday and Tuesday, the public may view them from 2 to 5 p.m. upstairs in the sanctuary.
Poorman will take the stoles to the Faith UCC in State College on Feb. 16. The Penn Central Conference will hold a winter gathering on Feb. 22 at the Colonial Park UCC and the stoles will be shown there also.
