Writing for a safe, sacred space.
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The Gay Man Who Launched the Jesus Movement
Alejandro and I watched the documentary Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher (available to rent on Amazon Prime Video for $1.99) a few weeks ago, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Friends, the simple fact of the matter is that the Calvary Chapel and...

Launching Common Sanctuary
Two weeks ago today, in my friends Lynne and Rod Wallace's beautiful backyard here in Santa Rosa, thirty of us gathered for wine and hors d'oeuvres and songs and stories and conversations. I called it a "soft launch" for friends and family to learn about my new...

Celebrating Pride 2021
Every year around this time, I hear from well-intentioned Christian people who are very concerned about my embrace of Pride. After all, they reason, pride is a sin. Proverbs 16:18 makes this clear: "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." In...

Bittersweet Goodbyes and New Beginnings: Introducing Common Sanctuary
The email went out this afternoon. Although I've known for over a month, I was not free to talk about it publicly until now. After four years as the associate transitional kindergarten teacher at Sonoma Country Day School, I'll be moving on to something new. Here's...

I Don’t Believe in Ex-Homosexuals
On Thursday, I had a conversation with some fundamentalists on Twitter who were convinced God does not love and affirm LGBTQ+ identities and relationships. One of them told me that I had never really known God, because if I had, God would have taken away my "same sex...

Meeting God in a Gay Spa
God met me in a gay spa in Puerto Vallarta last week. Alejandro's Valentine's Day gift to me was two hours (deep tissue massage and Vichy body scrub) in one of Puerto Vallarta's best spas. It's in Zona Romantica, the gay district, it's for men only, and it is staffed...

Sin
I've been thinking a lot about the fundamentalist/Evangelical understanding of sin. I remember spending a lot of time and energy trying to figure out whether something was or was not "a sin." It was never about the consequences or impact of a behavior, it was about...

The Glorious Miracle of Simply Being
(This was a Twitter thread Wednesday night. I was encouraged to turn it into a blog post.) Y'all. I have finally accepted I will never win a Tony award. And honestly? I have to grieve that a little bit. Because let me tell you, when I was a kid, that was my biggest...

2020 in Review
Last year at this time, I was in Fort Lauderdale for my first Q Christian Fellowship conference. I spent several hours writing a "2019 in Review" post, and it turned out to be a beautiful opportunity for reflection and gratitude. We had no idea what was right around...

The Light Is Coming
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. For centuries, Christians have observed this liturgical season, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the birth of Jesus. But Advent is bigger than a birthday celebration. Since the time of Bernard of Clairvaux in the...
Liz Budd Ellmann, MDiv, former Executive Director, Spiritual Directors International