National church shares LGBT+ History Month prayer by Open Table pioneer
Pam Gold, Coordinator of the Methodist LGBT+ Solidarity Circle and founder of two Open Table communities.
FEBRUARY is LGBT+ History Month, an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans & non-binary history. In the UK. The aim is to be an exciting, informative and celebratory month, to educate out prejudice and make LGBT+ people, in all their rich diversity, visible.
This year the Methodist Church in Britain has shared a prayer for this month by Pam Gold, coordinator of the Methodist LGBT+ Solidarity Circle. Pam was the former Co-Convenor of the Evangelical Fellowship of Lesbian & Gay Christians (EFLGC) and founder of two Open Table communities.
Read Pam’s prayer below. She references the Methodist Church’s Report on Marriage and Relationships, God in Love Unites Us, which led the Methodist Conference in 2021 to allow same sex marriages conducted on Methodist premises or by Methodist office-holders, making the Methodist Church the largest denomination in the UK to make this change to date.
A prayer for LGBT+ History Month 2024
Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
We praise you creator God for creating all in your image, an image of pure love.
God of love, we pray for your forgiveness where we have fallen short of your call to mirror your love to others.
God of Love, as we prepare to celebrate LGBT History Month we hold before you those who bear the scars of rejection, isolation, and feelings of unworthiness. We pray for your healing touch.
God of Love, we give thanks for all the work undertaken in ‘God in love unites us’. We give thanks for the courage of those from the LGBT community who have shared their stories, their lives, and their ministries within the Church.
We give thanks for those who have been open to change as the Church took the journey of discovery, culminating in the decision to be fully inclusive. We give you thanks for the grace shown by all.
God of love, we pray for the continuing work of the Church as we encourage all to fully embrace the diversity of our siblings.God of all
God for all
God within all,
We praise you.
Amen.
Originally published on the Methodist Church In Britain website. Republished here with permission and thanks.