St. Lydia’s Dinner Church is where I go for good food, good conversation, and beautiful worship. If those were the only ways St. Lydia’s fed me, it would be enough. But St. Lydia’s nourishes me in an even deeper and more meaningful way. 

St. Lydia’s has long identified itself as a Queer Church. This community has always been intentionally welcoming, and has always realized that being welcoming is NOT enough. The congregation is queer in its unconventional liturgy. Queer in its bold preaching. Queer in the way it mashes up a sacred meal with an actual meal to step into God’s presence together. And that’s still not enough. St. Lydia’s is a church that wants to know how Queerness makes us better – all of us, whatever our sexual and gender identities.  

A few months ago, I received a generous honorarium to speak about the spiritual violence that LGBTQ people face every day. Today, I am putting that entire honorarium into a matching grant to raise crucial operating funds for St. Lydia’s. I am doing this for one simple reason: if we are going to make a dent in confronting and dismantling spiritual violence against queer and trans people, we need more faith communities like St. Lydia’s: communities that boldly and proudly call themselves Queer, that preach a gospel rich with affirmation, energy, joy, curiosity, and power.  

However St. Lydia’s has touched your life – whether you’ve been a congregant, an occasional visitor, or one of the many intrepid souls from all over the world who has bellied up to the dinner table to experience a new way of doing church – please consider supporting this precious community now. I will match every penny, dollar, fiver, and, yes, benny that you put in.  

Thanks for your love and support.

-Liz

Rev. Elizabeth M. Edman