Creating safe and welcoming spaces in our churches and community for LGBTQIA+ people and bearing authentic public witness to the loving, liberating, life-giving God that we follow.

The Episcopal Church is dedicated to full inclusion and equality in the church as well as in society as a whole.

Jesus calls us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In our Baptismal Covenant, we promise to respect the dignity of every human being. When we use the name and pronouns that someone asks us to use for them, we respect their dignity as a beloved child of God and we treat them as we would hope others would treat us.

Online Merch Store Open Until June 27th

We have an online merch store for our “You Are Beloved” shirts and sweatshirts! The store is only open for 2 weeks, so get your order in by June 27th. There’s no minimum order and they ship straight to you. These are at cost - the diocese does not make any profit on these. Order today!

Order here

We are incredibly thankful to have received an Evangelism Grant from The Episcopal Church for our Episco-PRIDE ministry, allowing us to equip teams with the tools and training to create these safe, welcoming spaces.

Why is this ministry needed?

Because every person is a beloved child of God and deserves to be treated with dignity and affirmed in that belovedness, but that is not what is happening in many places across our state.

In 2023 Iowa passed a record number of anti-LGBTQIA+ laws that significantly limit queer students’ and families’ ability to thrive in our state. From book bans, forced outings of trans students without consent, bans on youth gender-affirming care, and bans on discussing gender identity or sexual orientation with K-6 students, these laws are already negatively impacting LGBTQIA+ lives. Nationally the Trevor Project reports that nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQIA+ young people said their mental health was poor most of the time or always due to the anti LGBTQIA+ policies and legislation. Nearly 2 of 3 young people said that hearing about potential state or local laws banning people from discussing LGBTQIA+ people at school made their mental health worse. The laws are supported by a growing network of Christian organizations in our state, and in far too many areas the local Episcopal church is one of the only safe and affirming places of faith where an LGBTQIA+ person might hear that they are a beloved child of God. This grant will allow the witness of those outposts to be amplified in their communities in ways they do not yet have the capacity to do themselves.

Participating Teams

Teams from these congregations are participating:

Ames, St. John’s by the Campus
Boone/Fort Dodge/Harlan/Webster City
Cedar Falls, St. Luke’s
Cedar Rapids, Christ
Coralville, New Song
Davenport, Trinity Cathedral

Des Moines, St. Andrew's
Des Moines, St Paul's Cathedral
Grinnell, St. Paul’s
Iowa City, JustChurch
Iowa City, Trinity
Mason City, St. John’s

Teams Commit to:

Meetings/Trainings: having at least 1 representative present at each meeting/training date, and those representatives sharing what they learn with team members who couldn’t attend.
- Already done: Information session; Safe Zone Training; Workshop with Iowa Safe Schools; Evangelism workshop with all participating teams.
- Next Up: August 21, 6-7pm: Debrief meeting - share learnings
Participating in a Community Event
- Such as: PRIDE events, farmers markets, community festivals, campus fairs, or other gatherings
Sharing learnings
- with other team members/congregation
- at our debrief meeting in August
- filling out an evaluation survey
- sharing pictures, videos, stories with diocesan Communications Missioner

Teams Receive:

Trainings and support
Customized materials to share at their community event (may include custom graphics, stickers, postcards, signage, videos, and social media posts, & more)
Access to borrow a festival kit (including 6ft table, banners, pop-up tent, chairs, wagon for transporting, & more)
All of the above at no cost
- However, there may be a cost to your team to have space at your chosen community event, or if you would like more materials (stickers, postcards, etc.) than what is included in our kits, so you may want to factor these into your planning.

Local Events:

Teams are participating in the following events

2024:

Quad Cities Unity Pride (Davenport to Rock Island): June 1

Grinnell Farmer’s Market: June 6 & 13

Capital City Pride Fest (Des Moines): June 7-9

Iowa City Pride: June 15

Vocal Recital: Two Voices, One Diva (Des Moines): June 16

Fort Dodge Pride: June 22

Valley Junction Pride (West Des Moines): June 30

Cedar Rapids Pride Festival: July 6

Mason City Pride: July 20

Cedar Valley Pride (Waterloo): August 23-24

Ames Pride: September 14

2025:

Iowa Safe Schools’ 20th Annual Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth: April 11

Boone Pride: April

Questions? Contact:

Amy Mellies, Children & Youth Missioner

Traci Ruhland Petty, Communications & GILEAD Grant Missioner

Rev. Cn. Meg Wagner, Canon to the Ordinary

Resources

CONGREGATION GUIDES

Interfaith Alliance of Iowa created "Becoming an LGBTQ Ally in Your Faith Community: best practices for welcoming persons into sacred spaces," a guide designed specifically for helping faith communities become more welcoming to people who are LGBTQ

The Rainbow Initiative Toolkit for Congregations, for those who work with and for people who have been forced from their home countries in search of safety; from Episcopal Migration Ministries.