Students at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

From Dr. Douglas E. Wingeier
Emeritus Professor of Practical Theology
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Evanston, Illinois

This stole is presented in honor and appreciation of the scores of gifted and dedicated gay and lesbian students and graduates of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary during my 27 years of teaching there, who either were denied ordination and thus their gifts and graces have been lost to the church, or else are living a double life while serving "under wraps" and hence unable to be themselves fully and publicly.

This stole was given to us in advance of the 2000 General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Cleveland, OH.  Dr. Wingeier contacted me and offered to donate one of his own stoles with the hope that it could be used to honor LGBT students at GETS.  Through correspondence with Dr. Winger, I encouraged him to think of some specific students that he might want to remember.  In fact, he had a long list, "scores of gifted and dedicated students," that he had come to know over his nearly three decades of teaching there.  It was quite evident in his e-mails that the thought of all those good and faithful students excelling in seminary, only to be rejected by the church or forced to lead "double lives, weighed heavily on him.  In the end, Dr. Wineier chose this simple statement to remember all those many LGBT students, creating a "Signature Stole of memories, rather than names or signatures."

 In 1999, the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) inquired about the possibility of having a display of the Shower of Stoles at the General Conference the following April.  At the time, there were only around twenty United Methodist stoles in the collection.  We decided to introduce the Shower of Stoles to the Reconciling community by bringing the twenty UM stoles and about a hundred others to RMN’s Convocation in Denton, TX over the Labor Day weekend.  Stoles started to trickle in during the fall, and by February they began coming in droves.  In all, we received 220 United Methodist stoles – the vast majority of them arriving within eight weeks of the Conference.  Thanks to a monumental effort by a number of volunteers who pitched in to help record, inventory, sew labels and make last-minute repairs, all of the new stoles were present in Cleveland.  Twenty more people brought stoles directly to Cleveland, bringing the total number on display to 240.

 Towards the end of the General Conference, twenty eight lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender United Methodists and allies stood on the Conference floor in silent protest over the Conference’s failure to overturn the ban on LGBT ordination – a profound witness and act of defiance for which they were later arrested.  As these twenty eight moved to the front of the room, another 200 supporters stood up around the balcony railing, each wearing one of the new United Methodist stoles.  Hundreds more stood in solidarity as well, in the balcony and on the plenary floor, wearing symbolic “stoles” made from colorful bands of cloth.  A group of young people from Minneapolis, members of a Communicant’s Class, had purchased bolts of cloth the preceding evening and stayed up all night cutting out close to a thousand of these “stoles”.  In less than eight months, a handful of stoles had grown to become a powerful, visible witness to the steadfast faith of LGBT United Methodists nationwide.

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006