Cornerstones. What paths in churches for LGBT+ Christians?
"What paths in churches for LGBT+ Christians?". This is the question that opens this second volume dedicated to the Proceedings of the meeting Cornerstones of the Cornerston Projectis (Florence, 5 April 2025), which takes us into the paths, often courageous and sometimes tiring, that many LGBT+ Christians are building in our churches. Paths made of openings, resistances, new possibilities and a lot of shared life.
In the preface to the volume, the pastor Gabriele Bertin reminds us that «cas churches, both evangelical and Catholic, we need to get ourselves moving and to undertake paths that are an antidote to the withdrawal into ourselves that so fascinates our society today». And he adds that these paths must be born «from listening to the stories, the differences and the strengths and weaknesses of those who are other than me." Because, he writes, «listening to otherness is a biblical mandate".
The theologian also moves from this perspective Elizabeth E. Green, which starts from an uncomfortable and necessary question: «Where have we arrived, as churches, in our relationship with LGBT+ people?». His answer is clear: it is not enough to welcome. We need to affirm the dignity, identity and faith of LGBT+ people. It's not just about opening a door, but about walking together, recognizing that God also speaks through these stories and that their gaze opens ever new spirals of understanding.
The journalist Luciano Moia instead it enters into the crux of the relationship between the Catholic church and transgender people. He frankly denounces that too many communities are unable to offer encouraging perspectives or scientifically coherent reflections on "unconventional" sexuality, risking becoming «a besieged stronghold, where misunderstandings, bans and alarmism dominate». Hence his invitation to listen, educate yourself, let yourself be changed. Because the dignity of transgender people is a human and evangelical fact, not an option.
Through their voices, this second volume of the Pietre d'Angolo series launches an invitation to imagine Christian communities in which difference is not an obstacle, but a point from which to start again. Places where stories become teachers, theology breathes with life and our churches allow themselves to be converted by the richness of humanity that passes through them.
This publication was created and distributed free of charge by La Tenda di Gionata with the contribution given by the Otto per Mille of the Waldensian Table to cornerstone Project OPM/2023/41829.
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CORNER STONES. WHICH WALKS IN CHURCHES FOR LGBT+ CHRISTIANS?
INDEX
Foreword by Gabriele Bertin
Elizabeth E. Green, A spiral path: in the footsteps of diversity in our churches
Luciano Moia, Children of a lesser god? You walk with transgender people in the Catholic Church
Afterword
The four cornerstones
