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Keep us in mind

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Keep us in mind

This letter of thoughts and prayers was shared with Alliance members and friends in mid April.

Greetings –

I’ve had meaningful conversations with so many of you. In this season, when many of us are online all the time, I am enjoying my phone calls with you. I’m sending mail (my wife assures me we don’t have to Lysol our mail, but I do.) Speaking of mail and letters, did you see our letter about addressing the impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ+ communities? Also, we’re beginning to use Vertical Response for our newsletter and important correspondence. If you did not receive Crossbeams last week, please check your spam folders and allow mail from “vrmailer” or Vertical Response with our name on it. And now:

In a regional team meeting last week it was a joy to pray for those on the call. Pastors pray for their church members. The Alliance is praying for you. You are on our minds. All of you. Sometimes my toddler participates in my prayers. While I read your names and speak them aloud, she scribbles on the pages. I’m sure several churches have received mail with the addition of her artwork. At bedtime she concludes our prayer—often an interruption, I guess I’ve prayed too long!—and she says, “all people.” In Greensboro, NC, we are praying for you and your city.

Of the many meaningful conversations, one challenged me. The conversation was about money (surprise that there all kinds of feelings about money). Someone asked me if I were planning to invite you to keep the Alliance in mind if you receive a stimulus check. He said none of us expected the check, some of us desperately need the money, some of us don’t need the funds. What will we do with $1,200 or $2,400 or…?

I had just read “What to do with your stimulus check” by financial wellness expert, Pete the Planner®. This article and other resources come to me through The Pension Fund. The article suggested three things: stabilize, save or support.

Honoring YOUR wisdom to discern how to stabilize your own situation, save or support, I invite you to do what you can however you can to provide direct aid in your community and sustain the ongoing work of the Alliance: our work for wellness and wholeness, for justice.

Keep the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance in mind. Your gifts make the ministry of the Alliance possible. Mark Johnston wasn’t exaggerating when he said he saw lives transformed and lives saved. Read this article from Amy Spangler-Dunning about the prevalence of suicide attempts in the LGBTQ+ community. Amy’s story is about the intersection between faith, gender identity and mental health; the story is from a Palm Sunday small group at her Disciples of Christ congregation in Virginia.

  • Support our justice response team and increase our engagement with partners who are addressing the impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ+ communities. AllianceQ is working with the National LGBT Cancer Network to address the LGBTQ+ communities’ increased vulnerability for the virus. >>More here. <<
  • Enable the Alliance to secure trainers for our ongoing racial justice training. The base cost for trainers is $1,000.
  • Reserve display space and set the table for General Assembly 2021. This expense is at least $5,000.
  • Improve our resources for building an inclusive online worship experience and sustain O&A ministries. AllianceQ developed these strategies for living out LGBTQIA+ welcome in your online gatherings. The 2020 budget for BIC trainings is $12,250.

Keep us in mind. And: know that you are on our minds. We are praying for you. Thank you for the ways you have supported this ministry with your dollars, your time and talents, your prayers.

Blessings, Alliance. We’re all in this together. Apart, but together. You’ll be in our prayers again tonight.

Be well,

Melissa Guthrie Loy

 

Support the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance: Contribute online. Mail gifts to P.O. Box 44400, Indianapolis, IN 46244.

 

 

Hope in color with us: Colors of Hope invites us to experience the divine and all of creation through refreshing practices that require little or no online activity. What does hope look like in our changing landscape? What color is hope?

 

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