Donna Riley

DONNA RILEY
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

To the leaders of San Marino Community Church (San Marino, CA) who nurtured me in the faith:

You taught me from infancy that Jesus loves me.  You helped me memorize the Lord's Prayer at six, the books of the Bible and the twenty-third Psalm at eight, and the Apostle's Creed at fourteen.  Youth choir showed me the power of praising God through music.  You provided me with dynamic junior- and senior-high programs and mountain-top experiences at Forest Home and Camp O-Ongo.  Your rigorous eighteen-month Confirmation class taught me church history, theology and polity and the responsibilities of membership.  You facilitated my growth as a passionately committed Christian and Presbyterian.

You fostered my sense of integrity which enabled me to face the challenges of coming out to my family and current congregation (Sixth Presbyterian, Pittsburgh), who welcomed me with open arms.  You gave me the strength to take a risk and answer my call to serve as an out deacon.  You offered me so much, yet some of you would now seek to remove my ordination and would not allow my partner and me to celebrate our relationship in the sanctuary where I received my first Bible.

Others continue now the education and caregiving you began with me as a child, but I will always be grateful to you who taught me first that I am a child of God.  No matter how soundly you reject me now, I remain a part of your church and community, certain that I belong -- just as you said.

Donna Riley is an extraordinary young woman.  Donna received her Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University and her B.S.E. in chemical engineering from Princeton University.   She was the Clayton Postdoctoral Fellow in Industrial Ecology at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Princeton University and later was awarded the AAAS Environmental Science and Engineering Fellowship assigned to the Superfund Office of the Environmental Protection Agency.  In 2002, Donna became one of a select number of academics chosen to form the inaugural faculty of the new engineering department at Smith College, the first such department at a women's college in the U.S.

Donna is also a woman of integrity and faith.  A life-long Presbyterian, ordained Deacon, and bisexual woman, Donna served as the Co-Moderator of the national board of More Light Presbyterians, working for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons into the life and leadership of the Presbyterian Church.

On a number of occasions Donna talked with me about making a stole for the collection.  Her hesitancy came in trying to shape a narrative.  Instead of focusing on her own story, she found herself wishing she could have a conversation about her experience as a bisexual woman of faith with the church of her childhood -- a church which once embraced her but would now just as passionately reject her.  At one point I suggested to her, "Why don't you just write a letter to your home church.  Even if you never send it to them, it would give you a chance to say what's on your heart."  Soon thereafter, Donna sent me a stole with this letter -- a simple, eloquent statement of faith.

It is, I believe, a letter that could be written to churches everywhere.

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006