Openly gay North Texas pastor reflects on path to the pulpit

The sanctuary of Trinity UMCD in Duncanville is a secure house. Its pastor and participants welcome everybody.

“I just know God is with us because of everything that we’ve been through,” mentioned Graner.

Graner grew up in the church, and in highschool, she started to understand that she was once gay. She knew that being gay in the church isn’t generally one thing this is authorised. The path to the pulpit wasn’t simple for her. Graner believed that by means of the time she completed faculty and seminary, gay clergy could be extra authorised in the church, however she discovered that the adventure would take for much longer than anticipated.

“Every door was closed to me. I would try to go to this door, and it was closed. And I sat there in the dark for a while with all the doors closed, but before any windows were opened,” Graner remembered.

It took Graner 40 years from her first name to pontificate to her ordination in 2019. Many name her a pioneer and consider she’s the first brazenly gay pastor ordained in the southern jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church.

“One of the things I really want is for young people who are part of the LGBTQ community to know that being in ministry in the church is a possibility for them,” Graner mentioned.

Trinity UMCD participants mentioned the church’s venture is to be inclusive, accepting, and inviting of quite a lot of other people from other races, cultures, backgrounds, and stories. The church is making plans to release a podcast, asking participants of the group what they suspect the church wishes to pay attention. No query, they mentioned, is out of bounds.

For the first time, Trinity UMCD will take part in Dallas’ Pride Fest actions at Fair Park this weekend.

“What I want the community to hear is that there are churches out there that are fully inclusive and fully welcoming,” Graner mentioned. “We need to get the word out, better than we do now.”