Pride Isn’t Over: Queer Joy, Belonging, and the Real Party Begins
Haaaaiiii friends! As Pride month has come to an end, Anny and I reflect on our entire Pride Month, the Cincinnati Pride Parade and Festival, the diocesan Teen Zone booth, Cincinnati Pride Mass and Twilight Tea, and the many sacred moments where queer joy, faith, and belonging showed up in real time.
We also took time to get other folks to weigh in and answer questions! You will hear voices from across the community responding to questions like: Can faith and queerness coexist? What does belonging feel like? What gives you hope right now? Where have you experienced queer joy recently? And what do you wish the church better understood about LGBTQ+ people?
What emerges is a chorus of witness: queer people have always been here. Queer youth of faith are not a contradiction. Drag belongs at the table. The church is at its best when it makes room, gives the platform, and remembers that every body is sacred.
Quotes worth pondering:
“Pride isn’t over. It’s just beginning.”
“Queer people have always been here, and they always will be.”
“What gives us hope is our joy.”
“We literally give them the front of the room.”
“Faith and queerness can coexist because they are intricately connected.”
“Without my queerness, I wouldn’t be the Christian that I am today.”
“Belonging is the work of actually engaging with the people we are in this with.”
We want to hear your answers!
What does belonging feel like to you?
OR…
Can faith and queerness coexist? Why or why not?
OR…
What do you wish the Church understood about LGBTQ+ folks?
OR…
What gives you hope right now?
OR…
Where have you experienced queer joy recently?
Pride Month may be ending, but Pride is not over.
The real party, the real work, and the real joy are just beginning.
Sacred Art, Queer Joy, and the Audacity of Creation
Hey friends! We are back this week with Kirsten Marron where Anny continues the conversation in part two about sacred art, creativity, music, and liberation. Together they reflect on God as creator, the sacramental nature of human relationships, Hildegard of Bingen's legacy, and the unique witness queer people bring to the church. It's a thoughtful, joyful conversation about storytelling, community, and the sacred work of becoming ourselves.
Memorable Quotes
"Art is story. And story is sacred."
"What if we just viewed the whole world as sacred?"
"The queer community brings something unique... not 'I guess you're allowed,' but 'we are coming to minister to you.'"
"When we can be ourselves and be loved for our whole selves, it is so much easier to open ourselves to others."
"We can be that safe space. We can encourage and foster and nourish this community to then go out and live that liberation."
Questions for consideration
What makes something sacred to you?
OR…
What do you think would happen if we could view the entire world as sacred?
OR…
What did this episode bring up for you this week?
Thanks for being part of our little, sacred community!
Lesbian Nuns, Hildegard, and the Slow Work of Trusting Yourself
In this episode of The Priesthood of All Queer Believers:
Today, we sit down with musician and sacred arts coordinator Kirsten Marron for a conversation about growing up in conservative Christianity, finding the Episcopal Church, queer friendship, Hildegard von Bingen, lesbian nuns, communion, deconstruction, and the long, holy work of learning to trust yourself.
Kirsten shares about her childhood in the PCA, her family’s missionary legacy, the impact of fundamentalist theology, and the unexpected grace of finding a church where communion, liturgy, and community created room for transformation. Together, all three of us talk about how harmful theology gets lodged in the body, why “reading yourself into a new belief” does not always undo what was deeply formed, and what it means to reconstruct faith around grace, relationship, and belovedness.
Also discussed: Hildegard’s queer-adjacent mysticism, the strange universality of church camp, Jennifer Knapp, youth group songs, and why stories from queer people in the church still matter so much.
This conversation is about story, grace, queer belovedness, and what it means to reconstruct a faith that is not built on fear.
Quotes to ponder:
“We are not saved by doctrine. We are saved by grace.”
“God is big enough to cover up any mistakes I am making with my theology.”
“There is no lesbian representation in the church unless you go back to Hildegard.”
“I was a really good ally for a long time.”
“Communion was at the center, and that changed something.”
Join in the conversation:
What are some beliefs you have chosen to let go of? Have new ones replaced them?
OR
What happens when you grow up believing you can’t trust anything that comes from within yourself?
OR
What is this episode bringing up for you in this moment?
Being Wonderfully Made: Faith, Freedom, and Taking Your Place
What happens when faith stops being about certainty and starts being about becoming?
In Season 2 Episode 4, we have our first episode of our sapphic series where we sit down with the Rev. Ryan Hawthorne, an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Texas, for a conversation about identity, calling, embodiment, liberation, and belonging.
Beginning with Psalm 139, Ryan reflects on growing up in the Black Baptist tradition, discovering the Episcopal Church, discerning a call to priesthood, and ultimately embracing her queer identity as an essential part of who God created her to be.
Together, we explore womanist theology, reading scripture from the margins, trusting intuition, living authentically, and why queer people are not asking for a place in the Church...we are taking the place that has always belonged to us.
This episode is an invitation to embrace curiosity over certainty, trust your own becoming, and remember that you are wonderfully made.
In this episode:
Growing up Black Baptist and attending Catholic school
Discovering the Episcopal Church
Womanist theology and reading scripture from the margins
Coming out during discernment for priesthood
Faith, doubt, and curiosity
Trusting intuition and embodiment
The priesthood of all queer believers
Taking your place in God's story
Quotes to sit with:
"Representation matters because sometimes seeing someone else gives you permission to become yourself."
"I realized I could not faithfully discern if I did not come out."
"Jesus doesn't need you to be right."
"Faith is also based on curiosity."
"What if we stopped committing to being right?"
"We are not alternative. We are part of what God called forth from the very beginning."
"When queer people stand as leaders in the church, we are not coming in to take over. We are simply taking our place. A place that was already prepared from the foundation of the world."
Questions for Reflection:
What parts of yourself have always been wonderfully made, even if others taught you to hide them?
OR…
What might it look like to thank God for the parts that others have told you to hide about yourself?
OR…
What has this episode brought up for you today?
PRIDE: A Protest Against Shame
Happy Pride Month, friends! To kick us off for OUR month, we have Season 2 Episode 3 coming at you with why Pride still matters in a world where some people claim progress has already gone far enough.
We talk about the small-town queer kid who needs to know there is a larger community, the difference between Pride as parade and Pride as festival, and the way Pride holds together celebration, protest, remembrance, and joy.
We also explore Pride through a theological lens: Pentecost, public witness, the ministry of reconciliation, the communion of saints, and the kingdom of God here and now. For us, Pride is not the opposite of humility. It is a refusal to agree with shame.
This conversation also looks toward the podcast's upcoming sapphic series and invites you to consider how you are entering Pride Month as people of faith, queer people, allies, or seekers.
In This Episode
Pride as public witness
Why visibility still matters
The connection between Pride, protest, and queer history
Pentecost, language, embodiment, and belonging
The Church's call to reconciliation
Why queer joy is sacred
What Pride reveals to the Church today
The difference between shame and holy pride
Showing up as your full self
What we carry into Pride Month
Quotes to ponder…
What if pride is not the opposite of humility, but a refusal to agree with shame?
Pride still matters because we have not yet gotten to a place where full reconciliation has happened.
Just knowing Pride exists can be life-giving.
Queer people have existed forever.
When we are able to show ourselves, we are better for it as a community.
Pride is public witness. It says: we exist, we are beloved, and we are not alone.
What if Pride Month is a mini revival?
Make our pride a witness of love, a protest against shame, and a glimpse of God’s many-colored kingdom.
Questions to answer…
What are you carrying into Pride this year?
OR…
What do you think about pride not being the opposite of shame, but a refusal to agree with shame?
OR…
What things does this podcast bring up for you this week?
We are stoked to celebrate this month with you - whatever you may be bringing into it!
Doubt, Becoming, & the Faith We Carry Together
Hey there, friends! Excited for another week together. Today, we return for season two episode two with a conversation about doubt, becoming, and what it means to keep showing up when faith feels uncertain.
We begin with the question: Can doubt be part of faith instead of the opposite of faith? From there, we reflect on the church traditions that shaped us, the difference between asking questions in safety and asking questions under authority, and how doubt can feel especially complicated for queer people who have been taught to question the truth of their own lives.
I (Tym) share about growing up in a church context where questions were technically allowed, but often answered in ways that made me feel like I should not have asked. Anny reflects on growing up in the Episcopal Church, where confirmation, catechism, common prayer, and liturgy created containers for questions rather than requiring absolute certainty.
Together, we talk about scripture, tradition, reason, experience, deconstruction and reconstruction, hell, the afterlife, Thomas, the Ascension, the baptismal covenant, and the power of saying, “I will, with God’s help.”
At the center of the episode is a deeply hopeful claim: doubt does not have to isolate us. When held in community, doubt can become part of our healing, part of our becoming, and part of a faith that is honest enough to be real.
Key themes
Doubt as part of faith
Queer becoming
Faith and uncertainty
Deconstruction and reconstruction
The Episcopal tradition and common prayer
Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience
Thomas and the need for “receipts”
The Ascension and “some still doubted”
The baptismal covenant
Community as a container for questions
Naming doubt without rushing to solve it
Faith that does not have to be fearless
Quotes to sit with
“Doubt is not the absence of faith. Doubt is what leads to greater faith.”
“Faith can’t exist without doubt.”
“Naming doubt can break isolation.”
“Community can hold questions we cannot hold alone.”
“Faith does not have to be fearless to be real.”
“The thing that binds us together is not common belief, but common prayer.”
“Doubt can reveal where theology has harmed us.”
“I will, with God’s help.”
Listener questions
How does this wondering feel to you: What if I don’t need certainty in order to keep showing up?
Or…
Jesus made room for Thomas. God mad room for all the Old Testament leaders and prophets - the ones who doubted their call, their place, and even God’s words… What would it mean for the Church to do the same?
Or…
What is this episode bringing up for you this week?
And remember: You belong here! <3
Back At It Again!
Welcome back to The Priesthood of All Queer Believers... Season Two is here.
In this first episode of the new season, we ease back into the podcast with honesty, humor, and reflection. We talk about taking a short break after a full year of producing this podcast, moving to a Wednesday release rhythm (and away from our Tuesday release rhythm), and what it means for the podcast to become more fully our own while remaining deeply shaped by our context at Church of the Redeemer in Cincinnati.
The heart of the episode centers on rest. Not rest as laziness. Not rest as avoidance. But rest as Sabbath, reset, deep listening, and spiritual practice.
We explore how rest shows up in scripture, in the Daily Office, in the Benedictine rhythms of stability and conversion of life, and in queer bodies that have often had to stay guarded in order to survive. Together, we wonder what it means to return to ourselves, to God, and to community with a little more tenderness and capacity.
This episode also marks a new season of connection. We invite YOU, the listeners, to interact, respond, and share what you are carrying as the podcast continues to grow. Share your comments here, whatever they may be.
In this episode
We talk about:
Beginning Season Two
Moving to Wednesday releases
The podcast becoming more fully their own
Church of the Redeemer as part of the podcast’s ongoing context
Being named on a top queer Christian podcast list (curated by Million Podcasts)
Rest, Sabbath, and spiritual reset
Martha and Mary
The Prodigal Son
Benedictine deep listening
Queer embodiment and the discomfort of becoming
The Daily Office as a rhythm of pause
Queer joy, relationships, weather, and rest
Listener questions
What does rest make possible for you?
Or:
Where do you need permission to pause?
Or:
What is this episode specifically bringing to mind for yourself?