Sterling Rainey

Music Ministry

Sterling Rainey

I am organist-choir director at the First United Methodist Church in San Rafael, CA, a position I have held for almost 45 years.  I am a gay man, have an 18 year relationship with my partner and am completely open with my sexuality.  My church has been totally supportive and affirming of my music ministry.

I became a Certified Director of Music in the United Methodist Church over 30 years ago, a recognition by the church of my academic qualifications and continuing study in the field of worship and music.  Last year when the church ended the ministries of Jimmy Creech and Greg Dell, ministries surely blessed by God, I felt it imperative that I make a statement of support for these servants of God and also the ministers threatened with the same punishment for their dedication to treating all people equal, a position the United Methodist Church does not seem to espouse.

I resigned my certification voluntarily in protest of these actions.  I am contributing this stole as a symbol of my unity with all those whose orders of one kind or another have been taken away because of who they are and what they stand for.

This stole was given to us in advance of the 2000 General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Cleveland, OH.  It is one of at least two dozen stoles in the Shower of Stoles collection honoring professional church musicians.  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