Episcopal campus ministries offer grace, acceptance to LGBTQ students

By Brede Eschliman, October 28, 2010

Episcopal News Service] Many feel disgust at the bullying of teenagers perceived to be different, and many mourn the loss of young people who have ended their own lives as a result. Sympathetic individuals are trying to reach out to these young people, to assure them that things will get better.
On some college campuses, Episcopal ministries are already making things better. Campus ministries that boldly affirm transgender, gay, straight, bisexual, and lesbian students improve lives and uplift spirits.

I have seen the potential for hate and hurt in the church. I listened to a devoutly Christian high school classmate call homosexuality "disgusting" without fear of reprimand from a teacher who agreed with him. I drove countless times past a truck covered with signs reading "God Hates Fags" in my hometown. I watched as the Episcopal Church where I was baptized and confirmed, where I attended elementary school and served as an acolyte and sang in the choir, divided painfully over questions of human sexuality. Before it broke apart, I sat in its pews and read St. Francis' prayer over and over while trying not to listen to sermons condemning entire groups of people. After 18 years in the church, I knew anger and controversy. I did not know grace.

And then I found the Episcopal Church at Yale, and I found grace without measure. There was grace in the sermons, which taught us to be swift in love and slow to judge. There was grace in the chaplain who welcomed all congregants, gay and straight alike. Grace was embodied in the seminarian who sat patiently in a coffee shop while I garnered all my courage and tentatively inched out of the closet. Who, a few weeks later, even though he had a term paper due the next day, insisted on talking to me because he knew I was too scared to talk to anyone else.

Open and affirming campus ministries have enormous potential to serve LGBTQ students and welcome them into the fellowship of Christ. Queer peer liaisons may lend a sympathetic ear, but they are not trained in pastoral care as clergy are. Secular friends may offer love and support, but they do not provide assurance of God’s love. At a time when so many religious institutions offer only enmity or begrudging tolerance, Episcopal college ministries can offer enthusiastic affirmation and teach students that it is indeed possible to be both LGBTQ and faithfully Christian. They can reach out to young people, who may be confused or terrified or desperate, and offer them a place at the table and the peace of God’s grace.

-- Brede Eschliman is originally from the Diocese of Colorado but has lived and worshiped in Connecticut for the past four years. She graduated from Yale College in May 2010 and is currently pursuing a master's in public health at the Yale School of Public Health.