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Sometimes I can’t believe the places I find myself. God keeps opening doors that I never would have even imagined walking through.
This afternoon I spent time at the Ralston White Retreat Center with my new friends CJ, Leah, Sylvia and the legendary Marsha Stevens-Pino.
Kathy V. Baldock joined us via video and spent some time sharing her research about this site and the pivotal retreat that took place there back in 1964. It was the birthplace of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, and in many ways it launched the modern gay rights movement. It’s a fascinating story. She talked for maybe 25 minutes, but I could have listened all day. Thankfully she is working hard to get all of these stories into her new book, Forging a Sacred Weapon. I’m so excited to read it.
After we learned from Kathy, Marsha played some songs, and we spent some time in fervent prayer together. It was something I hadn’t done in a long time, praying together with people like that. It was a beautiful collision of worlds. Progressive, queer Christians praying like Pentecostals. We prayed for our world, for our churches, for the hearts of our families and friends. We prayed for a spiritual awakening in our nation, that people would experience the presence and the power of the risen Christ, that love would triumph over hatred and oppression.
Somebody was praying in tongues, y’all. This was serious business. God is alive and well. And God never ceases to amaze me.
