One In Love LGBTQ+ Ministry
Educate, Advocate, Ally and Serve.
A friendly and safe place for:
- Families to share stories and experiences with other LGBTQ+ families.
- LGBTQ+ community to share stories and insights.
- Friends to come together with the common goal of love, acceptance, and support.
One In Love welcomes all to explore and discuss issues surrounding sexuality, gender, and our faith in a safe and loving atmosphere. We gather in prayer as we walk through our spiritual journey toward a deeper relationship with God. One in Love offers resources and companionship to the LGBTQ+ community, family, and friends during all of life’s moments.
One In Love, LGBTQ+ Ministry, was created in 2014, from the pain and confusion caused by the firing of Holy Family’s Director of Liturgy and Music, after he publicly announced his engagement to his long-time same-sex partner. Our pastor encouraged us to learn more about our faith and its teachings on LGBTQ+ issues as well as related societal issues.
From this research, a position paper was created and shared with many in leadership within our Church, including Cardinal Cupich (CLICK HERE TO READ THE PAPER). In addition to the position paper, this group was born, with our Pastor’s blessing. Holy Family created a safe, non-judgmental space to gather together so no one feels alone on this journey.
Message from Chris Evon
June, 2021
“ALL THINGS ARE UNEXPLANABLY, INVINCIBLY ONE, IN ENDLESS DIVERSITY FOREVER.” (James Finely reflecting on teaching of John of the Cross.)
As soon as One In Love ‘discovered’ zoom during the pandemic, the group quickly re united. The beauty and gift of this time was that we were able to include people who for various reasons outside of the virus, would not have been able to join us at Holy Family. One long time member moved to North Carolina and was very appreciative of the opportunity to re connect with us all. She even invited a friend and during this past year they created another ministry in their home parish called ‘Remain In Your Love’!
God also led many new faces to the ministry. Parents, grandparents, and other members of the LGBTQ community who were searching for a safe place to unpack their story. They quickly discovered they did not have to go on this journey alone. Companionship and education are keys to this ministry. We are very blessed to have the support and encouragement from Holy Family and that we have been able to continue to share God’s blessing and promise, that we are all “One In Love”.
Chris Evon
You And I
We meet as stranger, each carrying a mystery within us.
I cannot say who you are. I may never know you completely.
But I trust that you are a person in your own right,
possessed of a beauty and value that are the Earth’s richest treasures.
So I make this promise to you: I will impose no identities upon you,
but will invite you to become yourself without shame or fear.
I will hold open a space for you in the world
allow your right to fill it with an authentic vocation and purpose.
For as long as your search takes, you have my loyalty.
Anonymous
Catholic Church Teaching on LGBTQ+ Individuals
Catholic Church Teachings always evolve in various aspects of life and faith, based on mounting and continued evidence and learning within various fields. The Catholic Church Teachings on Homosexuality include two basic points:
It varies from the order of human procreation
The inclination toward homosexuality is not a sin
Many aspects regarding the genesis of our sexuality are unknown. One of these aspects is homosexuality thus the church’s teachings in this area must continue to evolve.
Our Holy Family One in Love LGBTQ+ Ministry advocates strongly for the Church’s teaching that “all are welcome to the table”. They gather God’s people to seek to carry out what Pope Benedict XVI in his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate states, that the impulse to love authentically never abandons us and is central to what God has planted in the heart and mind of every human person.
Synod Statement From One In Love Ministry
The One In Love Ministry is a safe place, inside the Catholic Church, for LGBTQIA+, their family and friends, to come together to share their stories and their personal struggles. We strive to become educated, and to assure each person, they do not have to go through any part of life alone. What really happens, is we become witnesses to the very intimate presence of the Holy Spirit, not only in our midst, but deeply inside the holy heart of each person and each story. We experience the gospel in action. We know we are being led by love. We experience the true meaning of Church in our relationships and our love for one another. We follow the teachings of Jesus by honoring those who feel marginalized by the institutional church and society.
Our hope for this beautiful Church of ours is to be a beacon of light for all God’s children. Our hope is that our Church can see that loving relationships are always good and should be encouraged and nurtured.
Our hope is that God’s children are loved, respected, and accepted. That each child, each person, is lovingly allowed to be who they really are.
Our hope is that the Church is a leader and role model for families and society so that NO child experiences violence or is abandoned in the name of God.
Our hope is that all LGBTQIA+ will be welcomed AND encouraged to work or serve in the church in any capacity. Our hope is that the Church will nurture all of God’s people into the community through invitation to complete sacramental life in the Church without regard to gender or sexual identity.
Our hope is that Church leaders will be a part of the ministry of listening to people’s stories. Hear about their lives. Come to know them personally. Open your hearts to love. And most importantly to NOT BE AFRAID of those you do not know or understand.
Pope Francis asked priests to be ‘shepherds who smell like sheep,” in encouraging leadership to have a deeper engagement into people’s actual lives. May we invite the Holy Spirit into everything we do.