Award-winning Open Hands Magazine Now Available Online

The LGBT Religious Archives Network, in collaboration with the Institute of Welcoming Resources, has released a new online exhibit displaying the complete run of the award-winning Open Hands magazine. This long-running journal—exploring the intersections of Christianity and LGBT concerns—began publishing in 1985 as Manna for the Journey by the Reconciling Congregation Program (United Methodist). Years later Open Hands became an ecumenical magazine, co-published with Welcoming Church Programs in other faith traditions. Publication ceased in 2002.

The Open Hands exhibit can be viewed here. You can download and peruse individual issues, each of which explored a particular theme related to LGBT concerns and Christianity. Or you can search the entire collection for the appearance of particular persons or subjects since the exhibit is fully text-searchable.

The great diversity of writers appearing in Open Hands over the years includes most of the major thinkers and activists in LGBT Christian movements of the 1980s and 1990s. Through the issues of Open Hands you can trace the unfolding of much of the ideological and strategic thought that propelled and undergirded these movements.

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LGBT-RAN was launched thirteen years ago to preserve the history of LGBT religious movements around the world. Its innovative use of digital technology makes historical data and artifacts easily accessible. LGBT-RAN is a program of the Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies in Religion & Ministry (www.clgs.org) at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley (www.psr.edu).

The Institute for Welcoming Resources was created in 2002 to provide the resources to facilitate a paradigm shift in multiple denominations whereby churches become welcoming and affirming of all congregants regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2006, IWR became a program of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

GLAD is a founding organization of the Institute for Welcoming Resources.