Jay A. Wiesner

This stole is given in honor of Jay A. Wiesner, my seminary classmate and friend. Jay and I entered the ordination track in 1995, planning to graduate in 1999. During the years in which we studied together, I recognized in him many gifts for the practice of ministry: love for the study of Scripture, exceptional taken in vocal and instrumental music, deep compassion for people, and a sharp sense of humor.

I couldn’t understand Jay’s frequent assertion that he felt like an outsider to the seminary community, until he revealed to me that he was gay, and had come to fully realize this truth in the context of all the difficult personal work which the candidacy process encourages us to do. Ironically, that same process now told him that he could only pursue ordination if he would agree to celibacy for the duration of his career, a gift with which Jay did not feel he had been blessed.

Jay made the agonizing decision to withdraw from the ordination track, and from our class, to determine how to live out the call to ministry with integrity, in the full realization of his God-given identity. He’s not completely certain of his future in the church, but he’s made a conscious decision not to leave.

I submit this stole as a sign of the future church, one which not only allows, but encourages gay and lesbian candidates, like my Brother Jay, just as enthusiastically as it had welcomed me to serve as an ordained minister of Word and Sacrament.

Wendy Sherer, 1999 M. Div. graduate

Originally a part of the collection of stoles housed by ReconcilingWorks (formerly known as Lutherans Concerned), this stole was donated by them to the Shower of Stoles Project in 2015 .