OUToberfest in Lafayette Sat., Oct. 11

Chapel of the Good Shepherd, the Purdue Campus Ministry in West Lafayette

The Integrity Indiana Network will help with Chapel of the Good Shepherd’s booth at OUToberfest in Lafayette Oct. 11. This is an outdoor, nighttime LGBT Pride festival during which Main Street downtown will be blocked off between 6th and 7th. (Zellweger’s bar is located right there.)

Being from West Lafayette, I am amazed that the city fathers and mothers have agreed to block off a street; this has caused a lot of comment, pro and con. It’s also caused a lot of excitement.

College towns often find Pride Day works better when the students are around than in June. Good Shepherd is located a block from Mackey Arena, Purdue’s basketball cathedral, and offers services Sunday morning and evening during the school year. Good Shepherd’s lay-led outreach to LGBTs helps get the word out that both Episcopal churches in the twin cities are fully inclusive. Each has its own priest and they share a third, the Rev. Hilary Cooke.

My parish, St. John’s, Lafayette, is located just a block away from the OUToberfest-ivities at 6th & Ferry Sts. I was pleasantly shocked last December to hear the rector of St. John’s mention LGBTs in his sermon at midnight mass on Christmas Eve!

Integrity is supplying brochures, a popular article called “Heterosexism: An Introduction” by Patricia Beattie Jung, Ph.D., associate professor of theology at Loyola University of Chicago, plus we hope to have stickers and other gear. Come and join us!

According to Mark Thomas, parish administrator at Good Shepherd, the impetus for grabbing a booth at the fair rose up out of a twice-monthly book group at the church which is currently reading Bishop Gene Robinson’s new book, In the Eye of the Storm. When crazy letters opposing OUToberfest started appearing in the local newspaper, the book group decided to do something besides just talking. Yippee!

It promises to be a fun time. I especially hope that LGBTs from Tippecanoe County and all the surrounding small towns will be able to make it. There is so little “liberation” in Indiana that it’s Good News when Jesus shows up in our midst. He’s scheduled for Saturday night, Oct. 11, right outside the Gay bar in Lafayette. Be there!

LGBT in Indiana? The Episcopal Church Welcomes You!

Hi, glad you found us! We are Integrity’s Indiana Network for LGBT Episcopalians and friends, with news and views about Jesus, God, prayer, social justice and unity for Gay-friendly folks in the Hoosier State.

Our mission is to help spread some Good News within and outside the churches of the two Indiana dioceses, called Indianapolis and Northern Indiana. Our coordinator, who goes by the screenname Josh Indiana, lives in the northern diocese and worships in the southern one.

The Episcopal Church is a broad denomination with ties to Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox; everybody’s welcome in this church, including Gene Robinson, the openly-Gay bishop of New Hampshire. You made have seen him on TV or in the movies; he’s an international celebrity, but he was born just down the road in Kentucky. If you were raised Christian but got alienated along the way because of your sexuality, you should check out the Episcopal Church.

Most of our parishes are pretty friendly, welcoming and inclusive, especially in the southern two-thirds of Indiana. Up by Gary, South Bend and Fort Wayne, your mileage may vary. Northern Indiana’s diocese is pretty conservative on gender issues, while the Diocese of Indianapolis has a woman bishop and a long history of inclusiveness.

Individual churches each have their own temperature controls, which is why we need an Integrity Network here. There are welcoming parishes up north and conservative parishes down south, so our goal is to spread the inclusive Word: Jesus loves you unconditionally and gave his life to save yours.

Our Integrity Network ties together the individual members of Integrity Inc. in this state and sponsors three events per year: an educational and networking presence at the two diocesan conventions, and a weekend spiritual retreat specifically for LGBT Christians of any denomination. Politics are one thing, but prayer is another. (In fact, we can’t do one without the other.)

For more information and to contact us, see our About page.