Young Adult March and Rally

MoSAIC and OnFire marched to General Worth Park to hear four speakers: Brian Schlemmer, Joey Heath, Mirriam Wood and Sean Delmore. "I have so many friends that will not come to church with me because they believe the church does not want them and God does not want them," Joey Heath told the crowd.  "If we are going to have policies like [Decision 1032], then we are going to have to stand before God and explain why we turned his children away," he continued.  Joey Heath is the young adult who was denied membership in a South Georgia Church he liked and wanted to join after graduation from college.  Heath told how he grew up in the church, at 11 was elected to the district youth council and then the conference youth council, then Wesley Foundation leadership.  When he came out at the Wesley Foundation, he was asked to step down from leadership.

Heath reminded the crowd that "John Wesley once said 'all the world is my parish.' We must be united in making all of the world our parish, including our lesbian, our gay, our bisexual, our transgender, our black, our white...our whatever!” These labels too often divide us and keep us from coming together as the body of Christ at his table.

Sean Delmar, a master's student and transgender person at Boston, on the deacon track, observed, "I see a church that is already doing what it is supposed to be doing.  Some of you have already heard my story, about how when I was in the midst of becoming a man and I did not know the love of Jesus, the local bishop's office reached out and said, 'how can we help you?' When I had no hope, this church reached out and said 'How can we love you?'"

If this church can find ways to do this kind of loving and welcoming, the young persons we so much want will begin to come back and transform this great church.

Photo Set

Video: Joey Heath

Video: Sean Delmore
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Video:  Mirriam Wood
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Video: Brian Schlemmer
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