Jonathan James Vigne

JONATHAN JAMES VIGNE

Colorado

From Jean Vigne

I am sending the much used communion stole of my late husband, Pastor Bill Vigne (William G. Vigne, Troy Conference, UMC) in honor of our gay son, Jonathan, who had hoped to follow in his father's footsteps.  On my advice he decided not to go to seminary.  He ministers everyday as a teacher of the deaf at the Colorado School for the Deaf in Colorado Springs.

The brief narrative on this stole barely begins to tell the story of a young man who embraced the faith of his parents and whose father inspired him to consider the ministry.  Knowing, however, that her son would face a world of pain and rejection from the United Methodist Church that he hoped to serve, his mother encouraged him to offer his gifts in the service of those who would embrace him.  No son or daughter should have to face this kind of discrimination; no mother should feel such urgency to protect their child from the church!

 This stole was given to us in advance of the 2000 General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Cleveland, OH.  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