On Wed., June 19, Cicero's Wesley United Methodist Church (UMC) will officially launch an LGBTQA youth ministry group with "Spirituality and Spaghetti: An LGBTQ Experience." The dinner and panel discussion will feature a variety of pastors and other individuals, with Katya Mazon of Illinois Safe Schools Alliance and Cesar Robles Santacruz of Morton College's Gay Straight Alliance moderating the event.
The genesis of this group grew out of an all-church planning meeting in fall 2010, Wesley UMC in Cicero's Rev. Cathryn Caliendo explained. During that meeting, Caliendo said that a parishioner came out to the congregation and called on the church to provide a welcoming place for LGBTQ youth.
"I distinctly remember that the first comment made was 'Why don't they go to church?,'" said Caliendo. "When the parishioner told the congregation about how often both families and church communities rejected LGBTQ youth and adults, the Wesleyans were stunned. This loving group of people couldn't imagine a Christian community which wouldn't accept everyone. The people of Wesley UMC believe that no matter who you are, you are welcome here."
From that conversation, lay leader Irene Nance put together a team to look at the church's mission and vision which progressed to Wesley UMC joining the United Methodist Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN).
The new group will be run by parishioner Alicia Tellez Vega on a volunteer basis. Vega and her partner were looking for a church to join and decided on Wesley UMC after they learned that the church was a member of the RMN. Vega has worked in child youth and family services for over 15 years and for two years she served as the Program Director for the LGBT youth program at the Center on Halsted. She is also a board member of Amigas Latinas and served as a community engagement leader for the LGBT Chicago-Metro Community Needs Assessment.
"From the moment we stepped into the church building, we felt so welcomed and embraced. Our experience has been so rich in this church community that we wanted to share it will others," said Vega. "As a person who has worked in youth services, I have seen the negative impact that some churches and religious teachings have had on LGBTQ young people and how it has contributed to youth homelessness, suicide, and poor self-esteem. The goal of developing the LGBTQA Youth Ministry is to engage LGBTQA youth in leadership development, service learning and job training while enhancing spiritual development and self-love. This project will create a safe space for youth to be accepted, loved, and embraced."
The goal of the kick-off dinner and panel discussion, Vega explained, is to bring together diverse members of the LGBTQA community to discuss how LGBTQ people have been harmed by some religious institutions and how these cause particularly damaging effects on youth; present role models and positive leaders of religious institutions so LGBTQ people, especially youth, understand that they are loved by God and can find positive spiritual communities; and announce the development of the program "LGBTQA Youth Ministries- Building Future Leadership for Cicero."
Vega said that the group received their first grant from the UMC Northern Illinois Conference as a part of the Creative Ministries Fund. "This funding will be used to hire five youth leaders who will be accepted into a 10 month Youth Ministry Leadership program where they will develop and lead a Youth Program Planning and Service Retreat for 10 other youth," she said. "As a group, the 15 youth will create at least two community-service projects that they feel will have the greatest impact on the community from a social-justice perspective. ... The goal is for this program is to continue annually so that many generations of youth will be impacted and trained as church leaders."
Although Vega will initially lead the group and provide leadership training for the youth leaders who are hired the youth leaders will ultimately drive the programming. Vega noted that they collaborated with the primary youth serving organization in Cicero (Corazon Community Services) and two LGBTQ serving organizations in Cicero (RAICES and Entre Familia). They also reached out to Rev. Lois Parr of the Broadway United Methodist Church for guidance and she was very open to sharing information on their youth program, said Vega.
Since announcing intentions to start an LGBTQA youth program, Vega noted that they have only received positive feedback and have heard from several pastors and lay leaders who are attending the event with an eye towards following Wesley UMC's lead and starting their own LGBTQA youth programs.
"Despite what we have may been told by religions, churches and adults, we are all children of God and are loved by God unconditionally," said Vega. "This love is not despite our LGBTQ identity, but it is because of how we love one another. Come hungry to the event. We will have a free spaghetti dinner made special by my partner, Sofia Sarabia."
To register for the event, visit www.eventbrite.com/org/4094456965. To make a contribution to the program, contact Vega at engageyouth@hotmail.com or 773-426-2406.
