Thomas Martin

AIDS STOLE
From Rev. Thomas Martin
Pacific Northwest Conference

I became involved in the Conference Task Force on AIDS Ministries early in its inception in the early 1990's.  A significant program of the Task Force has been "Strength for the Journey" retreats for persons living with full-blown AIDS.  While not all, many of the men and women not only struggled with the disease but also the Church's rejection of their homosexuality.  One of the first activities at the retreat is a white sweatshirt with a current logo which the participants paint with colorfast paints.  At my first retreat I invited the participants to sign my sweatshirt and this became part of the tradition.  I call the sweatshirts my personal AIDS quilt for over 90 of the signers have died.  The retreats always close with a prayer for healing, footwashing, and communion.  One year I had stoles with the logo made of linen for use in the final service.  Several of the participants signed my stole and since then I have worn it many times during services of communions as a reminder of the folks who became an important part of my spiritual journey.

As a Christian I do not believe that physical death is the ultimate tragedy.  It is spiritual death.  Many in the church have practiced spiritual genocide on the Gay and Lesbian community.  The lack of faith in the movement of the Holy Spirit in the heart of each believer (good Wesleyan style) has led these folk to assume the role of defenders of God and, indeed in many cases, have become God themselves (so they act).  There is no humility in words or actions that prevent the Holy Spirit from working out her will in the hearts of the earnest seekers.  Unfortunately the rhetoric (and rules formed out of opinions -- read Wesley's sermon "The Catholic Spirit") has less to do with earnestly seeking after God's will than it does with human fear and distrust.

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