Rev. Frank Schaefer and Rev. Mike Tupper invite everyone to
the National Tent Night on Friday, May 13th. Gather your friends and
family. Put up a tent in front of your house, your church, your Wesley
Foundation or join us at the United Methodist General Conference in Portland.
Sleep outside on May 13 to symbolize
how the present policies of the United Methodist Church are pushing LGBTQ
people outside. Together we can send a message to the delegates at General
Conference that we want the doors of our church open to all, including the
LGBTQ community. It’s time to stop the discrimination. It’s time to stop the harm.
Pray on May 13 for our General
Conference delegates who are meeting over the next week. Pray for the Spirit of
God to give them discernment in how to bring God’s kingdom on earth as it is in
heaven. Pray they will end the war in our denomination against the LGBTQ community
and bring peace with justice.
One of the Old Testament holiday
feasts that is still celebrated by Jews is Sukkot. It’s also called the Feast
of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23 34-44). Sukkot is the plural of
sukkah, which is a temporary dwelling. It’s to represent the fragile shelters
used by the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert
wilderness. Jews today create these structures during the Sukkot holiday and
spend time in them, even sleeping overnight in them. They are like modern day
tents.
The LGBTQ community has been
wandering for the past 44 years in the desert-wilderness of the United
Methodist Church. We symbolize that by sleeping overnight in a tent on May 13th.
We do this while praying that the General Conference delegates lead us into the
Promised Land where the doors of our church are open to all people.
Join us at #NationalTentNight and
Facebook event: National Tent Night.
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