1. Voices: Center Queer voices and experiences in all things - but especially in staff and lay leadership.   
   

2. Pronouns! Distribute and wear pronoun buttons, use name tags that use pronouns, during worship include when doing introductions and on email signatures. Be mindful of the pronouns used when taking about God (try using they/them or she/her)! 

   Shop pronoun buttons at More Light Presbyterians
   

3. Education: continually circulate resources, books, literature, exegesis by queer authors and queer perspectives. Stock queer authored or centered bible studies and congregational reads, in the bookstore /online stores etc.  
   

4. Money Matters: what does our budget reflect? Are we investing in queer educators, causes, ministers, organizations, people?  
   

5. Congregational Life: have small groups specifically for Queer ppl & allies. Parents of/ppl who are, etc. Small groups make a difference and create big change across the broader congregation.  
   

6. Worship: Queer representation matters - should be a lens through which readings, prayers, music, sermons, and casting is viewed. Everything done in worship either reflects affirmation for queer siblings or doesn’t.  
   

7. Justice/public witness: are we in the world/outside of the church doing and saying what we preach/espouse to be? Are we represented at the marches, round tables, rallies, writing congress, calling representatives about issues that affect Queer folx? 
   

8. Beyond Binary: Are we intentional about our words? Do we understand that when we say brothers and sisters we omit nonbinary and gender-non-conforming people? Use the language you mean, if it sounds stilted at first it won’t over time. 
   

9. Early Childhood Development: we cannot silo this work from our youngest congregants. Are the books and lessons in the nursery and kids spaces queer affirming and by queer folx? Do we sing songs and play games that don’t separate boys from girls and perpetuate tired gender stereotypes? What about in our children’s messages? 
   

10. Website and Communications: your website and social handles are your first pastors. Do they reflect that you’re a Queer affirming place? In a Religious world that still largely chastises the LGBTQI+ community, failure to do so is complicity in oppression.  Do you have receipts (here’s where we preached / marched / sang / studied about the work), affiliations, testimonies etc. clearly on your online spaces? These are easy to gather and record and make a big difference with your online presence.  

Reverend Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft is the Executive Minister for Justice, Operations, and Movement Building at Middle Collegiate Church where the church mission includes the aim “to heal the soul and the world by dismantling racist, classist, sexist, and homophobic systems of oppression.” The pronouns Amanda uses are she/her/hers. Amanda is an ordained minister in the Baptist Church and received her M.Div. from the Baptist Theology Seminary of Richmond, VA.  

In addition to her work at Middle Church, Amanda is the founder of Raising Imagination, a social media platform that blends her passion for social justice and activism, parenting, and faith. She brings a queer hermeneutic to her work as pastor, author and activist – one that is shaped equally by inputs, who and what she is reading, watching, and working with, as well as outputs, what Amanda is preaching, posting, and protesting.  

Amanda and her husband Graham put their faith and activism to work every day parenting three young children in New York City, raising changemakers, citizens, and imaginations.  

RaisingImagination.com 
Instagram: @raisingimagination
Twitter: @raisingimagine 

Middle Collegiate Church 
50 East 7th Street New York, NY 10003 
https://www.middlechurch.org/ 

Middle Collegiate on YouTube