On Saturday, August 18th, the OASIS will take part in the Hudson Pride Festival, a community event located in Jersey City's Exchange Place, from noon to 7pm.
This event, celebrating its 12th anniversary, provides an opportunity for members of the LGBT population in New Jersey's Hudson waterfront communities to network and celebrate who we are. Organizations, merchants and food and drink vendors will line Montgomery Street between Washington & Hudson streets, and the main stage is located at Exchange Place & Hudson Street.
The OASIS will share the Episcopal presence at the event with Integrity NYC-Metro. We will have an information table and celebrate a Street Eucharist.
TRANSIT:
NJ Transit to Hoboken Station, Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to Exchange Place
OR
PATH World Trade Center-Newark line to Exchange Place
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
PRIDE SERMONS: Stacy Graffam at St. Mark's: Teaneck
Stacy Graffam, a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Teaneck, N.J., gave a reflection at the parish's Pride Service on Sunday, June 24th. Stacy blogs about her life with wife Donna and their two kids at Out In Suburbia and has also written for Gay Parent magazine.
PRIDE SERMONS: Michael Petti at St. Peter's: Clifton
Mr. Michael Petti, a long-time advocate of LGBT inclusion and former commission member of The OASIS, the LGBT Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, has shared with us the text of a reflection he gave at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Clifton on Sunday June 24th, when the parish observed its patronal festival and celebrated Pride Sunday using the readings for the Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul, which fell later in the week.
Michael compares Jesus' seemingly nagging Peter by repeatedly asking "do you love me?" to the distrust many LGBT people have for the institutional church, in light of how religious institutions have historically treated them. This is a distrust we, the church, have earned, and Michael urges us all to strive towards a place of welcome upon which our brothers and sisters can count.
Michael compares Jesus' seemingly nagging Peter by repeatedly asking "do you love me?" to the distrust many LGBT people have for the institutional church, in light of how religious institutions have historically treated them. This is a distrust we, the church, have earned, and Michael urges us all to strive towards a place of welcome upon which our brothers and sisters can count.
Newark Teen Deputy Gibson Oakley Cites LGBT Inclusion as Convention Priority
Gibson Oakley made no bones about what will be on his mind as he heads to General Convention this week. One of two teenagers who will be part of the lay deputation representing the Diocese of Newark, Gibson told those who would be voting for him that the church needs to be a welcoming haven for LGBT youth who encounter hostility on a daily basis.
"Over eighty-five percent of LGBT students have experienced some form of harassment at school," Gibson told those at an elections meeting at Newark's Diocesan Convention in January of 2011, when he was just 16. "Many of these teens feel that they have nowhere to turn and some, unfortunately, kill themselves. I believe that our own churches should be places where gay teens may turn in times of trouble."
Oakley also thinks the church should proceed with blessing same-sex relationships as marriages. “As a gay man,” he added, “I would like to walk down the aisle in a church and hear the celebrant utter the words 'I now pronounce you husbands'.”
Oakley's comments were met with a resounding cheer. And then, after several rounds of voting, he won. “When they put the results on the screen, I looked up but it didn't register. Then my friend said, 'You got it'. But it really struck me when Kai (Alston, diocesan Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministries) came over and gave me a big hug. I realized that what I had worked for was really coming true.”
Hardly a one-issue candidate, Oakley also cites domestic violence, volunteerism, and the environment as areas of personal focus. He and fellow deputy Caroline Christie worked with Integrity founder Dr. Louie Crew in advance of the election. As a long-time member of the Executive Committee and fixture at General Convention, Dr. Crew helped prepare the young candidates for the election and what will follow. Read more about Gibson & Caroline's election at the Diocese of Newark's special convention coverage site:
"Over eighty-five percent of LGBT students have experienced some form of harassment at school," Gibson told those at an elections meeting at Newark's Diocesan Convention in January of 2011, when he was just 16. "Many of these teens feel that they have nowhere to turn and some, unfortunately, kill themselves. I believe that our own churches should be places where gay teens may turn in times of trouble."
Oakley also thinks the church should proceed with blessing same-sex relationships as marriages. “As a gay man,” he added, “I would like to walk down the aisle in a church and hear the celebrant utter the words 'I now pronounce you husbands'.”
Oakley's comments were met with a resounding cheer. And then, after several rounds of voting, he won. “When they put the results on the screen, I looked up but it didn't register. Then my friend said, 'You got it'. But it really struck me when Kai (Alston, diocesan Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministries) came over and gave me a big hug. I realized that what I had worked for was really coming true.”
Hardly a one-issue candidate, Oakley also cites domestic violence, volunteerism, and the environment as areas of personal focus. He and fellow deputy Caroline Christie worked with Integrity founder Dr. Louie Crew in advance of the election. As a long-time member of the Executive Committee and fixture at General Convention, Dr. Crew helped prepare the young candidates for the election and what will follow. Read more about Gibson & Caroline's election at the Diocese of Newark's special convention coverage site:
- Youth Comes Knocking - Two Teens Elected General Convention Deputies
Virginia Citrano for the Diocese of Newark
Monday, June 4, 2012
Love Free or Die Screening at St. James': Hackettstown
The screening will be free. A freewill offering will be taken to support further promotion of the film. A discussion will follow the screening and refreshments will be available.
Winner of a special jury prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Love Free or Die is "compelling storytelling, even for those familiar with the outlines of Robinson’s story: his 2003 consecration as a bishop, the backlash from conservatives within the U.S. and global church, and the Episcopal Church’s decision at its 2009 general convention to continue to ordain gay bishops and to develop blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples," as reviewed by Peter Montgomery in Religion Dispatch.
Others in the church - both for and against Bishop Robinson's ordination - are interviewed, including the Right Rev. Otis Charles, who came out and married his partner after retiring as bishop of Utah; the Right Rev. Barbara Harris, the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion; and a Ugandan woman living with HIV.
Footage from some of the major public events in Bishop Robinson's episcopacy are featured, including a dramatic confrontation with a heckler while preaching in England.
St. James' Church is located at 214 Washington Street, Hackettstown.
PLEASE SHARE THE ATTACHED POSTER FOR THIS EVENT.
The OASIS honors Louie Crew , Awards Grant & Scholarship
The OASIS,
the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of
Newark, honored Dr. Louie Crew for a lifetime of justice ministry at a
reception Friday, and presented its first annual scholarship and grant awards.
The Right Rev. Mark
Beckwith, Bishop of Newark, and OASIS Commission Chair John Simonelli presented
Dr. Crew with a hand-illumined certificate of appreciation and announced the
first recipients of the scholarship and grant created in his honor.
Dr. Crew founded Integrity,
the national organization for LGBT Episcopalians, in 1974. A retired professor
of English (most recently at Rutgers University) he served on the Executive
Council of the Episcopal Church from 2000-2006 and represented the Diocese of
Newark as a member of the House of Deputies
from 1993-2011, among many other acts of service to the church. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Alabama,
Doctorates of Divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School and General
Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Human Letters from the Divinity School of the Pacific. Dr. Crew is extensively published,
on matters of English composition, social justice, faith, and poetry. Dr. Crew is a three-time recipient of the National
Endowment for Humanities, was honored by the Ragdale Foundation and the
Wurlitzer Foundation, and received the Bishop’s Cross from the Diocese of
Newark.
The first Louie Crew scholarship was presented to Darnell L.
Moore, a writer and activist who is currently the Associate Director of the Newark Schools Research
Collaborative (NSRC) and an Affiliate of the Institute on Education Law and
Policy (IELP) both at Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey-Newark. He holds a BA in Social & Behavioral
Sciences (Seton
Hall University),
MA in Counseling (Eastern
University) and MA in
Theological Studies (Princeton Theological Seminary).
Moore also serves as the Chair of Mayor Cory Booker of
Newark’s Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Concerns and Education, Chair of the Newark Pride Alliance,
and has served appointments as a Visiting Fellow at Yale Divinity School and
Lecturer in the Women & Gender Studies Department at Rutgers-New Brunswick,
as well as Visiting Scholar at the Center for
the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University. Moore plans to use
the scholarship money to participate in two writing retreats to further his
first book, tentatively titled To be Black, Queer and Christian: Essays on
the Black church and Sexuality.
The first OASIS Grant was awarded to the Montclair
Protestant Chaplaincy, an ecumenical collaborative, to support the work of the
Rev. Deacon Diana Wilcox as chaplain at Montclair State
University. A recent graduate of Drew Theological School
in Madison, Wilcox provides a progressive Christian presence at the university
with weekly prayer services, spiritual counseling and other programming. Wilcox studied at Montclair State University
and Fairleigh Dickinson University before pursuing her Master of Divinity at
Drew. Her campus group, the Web of Life Christian Community, became a Believe Out Loud Congregation in 2011,
and took part in the response to bias incidents on campus this fall and winter.
The OASIS, founded in 1989, is a justice ministry of the
Episcopal Diocese of Newark. Once providing “safe space” worship and spiritual
counseling, the organization has evolved into an educational and advocacy role. The Louie Crew Scholarship and Oasis Grant, which
were first announced at the 2012 Diocesan Convention, will be awarded annually at
the Oasis anniversary in June to individuals and groups working “at the
intersection of sexuality and faith.”
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Pride Events at St. George's: Maplewood
As a courtesy to a longtime Sponsoring Congregation of the OASIS, we are sharing word of the following events to take place at St. George's Episcopal Church in Maplewood to commemorate LGBT Pride Month:
St. George's is located at 550 Ridgewood Road, Maplewood, NJ., a very short walk from the Maplewood train station.
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- On Sunday, June 3rd at 12:00 p.m. (following the 10:30 Eucharist service), noted civil rights leader Joan M. Garry will lead a forum entitled LGBT People, Bullying, and the Deeply Held
Religious Belief Card.
Ms. Garry is former Executive Director of GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and came to prominence in 1993 by successfully challenging New Jersey's second-parent adoption law to become the first lesbian in the state to adopt her partner's biological children. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communications and writes a blog for The Huffington Post. - On Saturday, June 9th, members of St. George's will host a table at SOMA Pride at Memorial Park in Maplewood.
- On Sunday, June 10th, IntegrityUSA Founder Dr. Louie Crew will be the guest preacher at both the 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Eucharist services. In addition to a lifetime of advocacy for LGBT people, Dr. Crew is a retired Professor of English, most recently of Rutgers University, an accomplished writer and poet, and a longtime member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.
- On Sunday, June 24th, members of St. George's will be joining us marching in the annual Heritage of Pride in New York City.
St. George's is located at 550 Ridgewood Road, Maplewood, NJ., a very short walk from the Maplewood train station.
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