A queer eye for worship

More Light Presbyterians offer a roll-up-your-sleeves workshop at Springdale Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

Facilitators for Saturday’s More Light Presbyterians workshop were, from left to right, the Rev. Adrian White, the Rev. Claudia Aguilar Rubalcava and the Rev. Abbi Heimach-Snipes. (Photo by Mike Ferguson)

LOUISVILLE — First, the people attending Saturday’s More Light Presbyterians’ workshop on constructing inclusive worship, “A Queer Eye for Worship,” talked about what meaningfully designed inclusive worship can look like.

Then they got to work writing and experiencing a moving afternoon worship service — with only themselves in attendance — at Springdale Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Three pastors with More Light Presbyterians led the workshop, which about 15 people attended: the Rev. Abbi Heimach-Snipes, pastor of Covenant Community Church in Louisville; the Rev. Adrian White, associate pastor for youth and young adults at Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville; and the Rev. Claudia Aguilar Rubalcava, More Light Presbyterians’ director of engagement, who lives near Denver, Colorado.

“Throughout the Bible, we read stories of God transforming life through worship,” Aguilar Rubalcava said. “The words we use can carve a space where few are welcome or where most are welcome. Queering worship is centering queer people while proclaiming what God has known from the beginning: Queered worship when done well creates justice for all people.”

After asking participants to identify names for the Almighty, White noted our language for God “will never be complete because our language cannot capture the totality of God. But it can put us a little closer to knowing who God is, and the expansiveness of who we might be.” As people who generally script their worship, “We have a chance to think about the language we use. It’s easy to fall into familiar language, but when we write it ahead of time and develop it in groups, it allows us to think one degree bigger.”

At Covenant Community Church, “We work to create a space where people can show up how they are,” said Heimach-Snipes. “My sense of the history [at the church] was to include more people in leadership who were traditionally excluded, and we try to do worship as collaboratively as we can.”

“We don’t have a particular way of doing worship, but we want to be intentional while being collaborative and following the Spirit’s guidance, seeking ways to have a flat hierarchy and be playful and informal during worship,” she said. “Sometimes that’s written liturgy. Sometimes it’s someone sharing a story. Sometimes people prepare what they’re going to say, and other times they’re willing to be on the spot. The idea is to be playful and not get stuck in the same boxes and binaries in the way we often worship as a Presbyterian church. The best way to understand ways to queer worship is to just do it, and that’s what we’re going to do today.”

“I invite us to trust as we plan a worship service, that we are open to experimenting and getting to know our community and to really have fun,” Heimach-Snipes said.

Those gathered studied Mark 9:30-37, the lectionary’s gospel pericope for Sept. 22. They designed a worship service around three components: liturgy, music and proclamation.

The small groups produced as many questions as answers around Mark’s account of Jesus once again foretelling his death and resurrection and the disciples arguing about who is the greatest: “What are we afraid to ask, and why? Who is this message for? Who do the disciples think is taking over after Jesus leaves? What are the disciples afraid to ask? Are they afraid to ask, or are they afraid to know?”

Those and other questions became part of the worship service, which included new lyrics to familiar hymns, including “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine!”: “Blessed assurance that I am loved/Freed from the need to prove I’m enough/Fully embodied, image of God/Welcomed like children, here and beyond.”

As they took a journey to reconciliation, worshipers were asked to notice their body. “Where in your body do you experience shame or anxiety? What does that feel like? What are you not feeling? What human truth are you not letting in? What does it feel like to not be able to meet the needs of people and Creation near and far, which feel so beyond our ability to heal?”

Worshipers were then invited to respond the way the disciples did, with a number of questions: “Are we going to be OK? What’s really required of me? Am I doing enough? Is it too late for the planet?”

They sang updated lyrics to another hymn, “For Everyone Born”: “For sighted and blind, a place at the table/For hearing and deaf, all brain types and speech/Accessible space, rethinking our language/All eager to learn from those who would teach.”

As part of their offering, worshipers turned to their neighbor and said what they felt called to offer because they’d had this worship experience together.

For additional resources, go here, here, here and here.

On Sunday, More Light Presbyterians celebrated Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, which has been a More Light church for more than four decades.