HomeCommentaryChurch, university join in Shower of Stoles

Church, university join in Shower of Stoles

By: Tracy Simmons

Date:

March 13, 2012

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Bethany Presbyterian Church and the Eastern Washington University Pride Center are teaming up April 22-29 to present Shower of Stoles.

The Shower of Stoles project began in the mid 1990s when Presbyterian ministerMartha Juillerat wasfaced with the threat of being defrocked by the church it was discovered she was a lesbian. She and her partner, also a Presbyterian minister, asked friends and colleagues to send a stole to hang at a presbytery meeting. According to the Shower of Stoles website, the couple received 80 stoles overnight. Stoles have been coming in ever since, along with cards and letters. Now the Shower of Stoles Project (which includes other sacred items representing LGBT people of faith)tours constantly around the country, being exhibited in local congregations, universities and seminaries, and regional and national denominational gatherings.

An online peak at the exhibit is available here.

Tracy Simmons

Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of FāVS.News, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Associate Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.

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