Your Presentation, Science Fiction
Greetings everyone!
First of all, thank you to all of you who kept last night in your prayers. I felt the results of having your prayers. Rather than any nervousness, I had a deep sense of gratitude and peace. I might not be able to write a lot right now, so will give you the shortest summary. For those of you who do not know, I was asked to give a 45 minute presentation. The title and subtitle of my talk was, “Isn’t Religion Supposed To Be About Love? LGBTQ people narrating their journeys toward full inclusion in the church.” People who are in a post-graduate program called Human Rights and Education, former students, and members of LGBTQ groups were invited by email. We knew that since it was not a required class, there might be no attendees! So, to our delight, there were about 26 people. Most of them were people who are currently teaching school. They are already teachers, but are either taking classes for an advanced degree, or they were former students from this program. We estimate that about 85% of this group were women.
The age range in my best guess:
About 5-7 people age 50 or above
The bulk of the group was from age 25-49.
The director of this program attended, along with two professors, or more. I should have asked all them to tell me their job titles. When I asked how many of you are currently teaching, many in the group raised their hands. The presentation had four parts: the goals of my sabbatical, The Divine Spark description, rationale behind church attitudes toward LGBTQ people, and how churches move from suspicion and rejection to full inclusion, acceptance and celebration. The group members were more interested in listening than speaking. Villy said one reason for this could be that even though students need to be fluent in English to read, some may not be confident in their English speaking. They all knew I could not understand Greek.
At the very end when I said, “Before we formally end the presentation, any last questions or comments?” One person said something like this and I am paraphrasing: “I am a teacher and an activist. I am feeling kind of numb right now. What you have been telling us feels like science fiction.” Then I said, if others of you have this same reaction, please raise your hand. MOST of the participants raised their hands. The first person who came to the class (she was on time.). Many came a bit late. We started the class that was advertised to start at 6:00pm... we started at about 6:17 pm... One of the first persons who came as a participant identified herself as a queer theologian. She commented after he said science fiction something like, “And let me guess that I am also science fiction to you? As a queer theologian?”
Evie, the director of the Human Rights and Education post-graduate program asked the first question which was something like, “Decribe the juxtaposition of the ELCA and the Greek Orthodox Church.” The queer theologian (who teaches college and high school religion) said that there is no one single Greek Orthodox teaching on homosexuality. The predominate teaching surely is very negative, but we have a few gay-friendly priests within the G.O. Church.
Once the science fiction comment was made, then a few more people spoke. The general attitude, if I heard these participants correctly, is something like this: There are no gay friendly churches in Greece. There are no, or hardly any, Greek Orthodox priests who celebrate and see homosexuality and transgender as equal and whole. So, Nancy, what you are talking about does not happen here. And, actually, we cannot imagine it ever happening, based upon how the outspoken priests are when they get a chance to speak. They are speaking against homosexuality as well as gay people adopting children, another taboo here. That was something discussed in legislature recently. If I figure out how to add that link I will.
Many of the participants gave me their emails, so I can ask them more questions. The participants were so kind, gracious, seemed interested, stayed after class to talk more. They all received a copy of The DivineSpark, and a copy of the two chapter Greek version.
I took no photos of the class, bummer. Forgot. But this photo is one of Robert and I having a very late dinner. It is warm in Athens, so eating outside is comfortable and many people are outside eating. Thank you all for hanging in there. I guess this became longer than I thought. Love and prayers, Nancy
First of all, thank you to all of you who kept last night in your prayers. I felt the results of having your prayers. Rather than any nervousness, I had a deep sense of gratitude and peace. I might not be able to write a lot right now, so will give you the shortest summary. For those of you who do not know, I was asked to give a 45 minute presentation. The title and subtitle of my talk was, “Isn’t Religion Supposed To Be About Love? LGBTQ people narrating their journeys toward full inclusion in the church.” People who are in a post-graduate program called Human Rights and Education, former students, and members of LGBTQ groups were invited by email. We knew that since it was not a required class, there might be no attendees! So, to our delight, there were about 26 people. Most of them were people who are currently teaching school. They are already teachers, but are either taking classes for an advanced degree, or they were former students from this program. We estimate that about 85% of this group were women.
The age range in my best guess:
About 5-7 people age 50 or above
The bulk of the group was from age 25-49.
The director of this program attended, along with two professors, or more. I should have asked all them to tell me their job titles. When I asked how many of you are currently teaching, many in the group raised their hands. The presentation had four parts: the goals of my sabbatical, The Divine Spark description, rationale behind church attitudes toward LGBTQ people, and how churches move from suspicion and rejection to full inclusion, acceptance and celebration. The group members were more interested in listening than speaking. Villy said one reason for this could be that even though students need to be fluent in English to read, some may not be confident in their English speaking. They all knew I could not understand Greek.
At the very end when I said, “Before we formally end the presentation, any last questions or comments?” One person said something like this and I am paraphrasing: “I am a teacher and an activist. I am feeling kind of numb right now. What you have been telling us feels like science fiction.” Then I said, if others of you have this same reaction, please raise your hand. MOST of the participants raised their hands. The first person who came to the class (she was on time.). Many came a bit late. We started the class that was advertised to start at 6:00pm... we started at about 6:17 pm... One of the first persons who came as a participant identified herself as a queer theologian. She commented after he said science fiction something like, “And let me guess that I am also science fiction to you? As a queer theologian?”
Evie, the director of the Human Rights and Education post-graduate program asked the first question which was something like, “Decribe the juxtaposition of the ELCA and the Greek Orthodox Church.” The queer theologian (who teaches college and high school religion) said that there is no one single Greek Orthodox teaching on homosexuality. The predominate teaching surely is very negative, but we have a few gay-friendly priests within the G.O. Church.
Once the science fiction comment was made, then a few more people spoke. The general attitude, if I heard these participants correctly, is something like this: There are no gay friendly churches in Greece. There are no, or hardly any, Greek Orthodox priests who celebrate and see homosexuality and transgender as equal and whole. So, Nancy, what you are talking about does not happen here. And, actually, we cannot imagine it ever happening, based upon how the outspoken priests are when they get a chance to speak. They are speaking against homosexuality as well as gay people adopting children, another taboo here. That was something discussed in legislature recently. If I figure out how to add that link I will.
Many of the participants gave me their emails, so I can ask them more questions. The participants were so kind, gracious, seemed interested, stayed after class to talk more. They all received a copy of The DivineSpark, and a copy of the two chapter Greek version.
I took no photos of the class, bummer. Forgot. But this photo is one of Robert and I having a very late dinner. It is warm in Athens, so eating outside is comfortable and many people are outside eating. Thank you all for hanging in there. I guess this became longer than I thought. Love and prayers, Nancy