Anonymous ("This stole comes from a respected annual conference member, large church pastor, 2000 United Methodist Conference delegation member...")

ANONYMOUS
United Methodist Ordained Elder

This stole comes from a respected annual conference member, large church pastor, 2000 United Methodist Conference delegation member.

The depth of my sense of call has caused me to have to hide much of my true self, give up a relationship of true love, and go into places which often seem like exile.  I pray for the day my church reflects the gracious love of the God who sustains me in the journey.  It must and will come.

This anonymous stole was given to us in advance of the 2000 General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Cleveland, OH.  It is representative of dozens of United Methodists who have been forced to choose between following their call and hiding their true selves, or coming out and abandoning their call -- a choice no one should ever have to make.

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