Utah interfaith service focuses on 'healing' for LGBTQ families

Jesus "sought out people who had been marginalized in society," says co-organizer.

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune
Kate Kelly, Mormon feminist, human rights lawyer, and a former member of the LDS church, reads the poetry piece entitled "The Mother of Life," during a Christmas interfaith service is held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled "Seeing Christ In Every Child," was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith.

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune
A Christmas interfaith service is held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled "Seeing Christ In Every Child," was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith.

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune
People attending a Christmas interfaith service held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake lay down a pebble representing a burden upon a millstone to "receive something beautiful instead" following the service to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled "Seeing Christ In Every Child," was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith.

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune
Alexis Baigue, center, attends a Christmas interfaith service held at St. Paulís Episcopal Church in Salt Lake where people set down a pebble representing a burden to "receive something beautiful instead" following the service to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled ìSeeing Christ In Every Child,î was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith.

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune
The Rev. Tom Goldsmith repeats "we are here to proclaim the Christ in every child," as a Christmas interfaith service is held at St. Paulís Episcopal Church in Salt Lake to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled ìSeeing Christ In Every Child,î was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith.

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune
Michael Adam Ferguson, left, and his husband J Seth Anderson, repeat the joyful Aramaic exclamation of praise, "hosanna, hosanna, hosanna, for justice and peace for all" concluding a Christmas interfaith service is held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled "Seeing Christ In Every Child," was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith.

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Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Kate Kelly, Mormon feminist, human rights lawyer, and a former member of the LDS church, reads the poetry piece entitled "The Mother of Life," during a Christmas interfaith service is held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled "Seeing Christ In Every Child," was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune A Christmas interfaith service is held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled "Seeing Christ In Every Child," was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune People attending a Christmas interfaith service held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake lay down a pebble representing a burden upon a millstone to "receive something beautiful instead" following the service to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled "Seeing Christ In Every Child," was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Alexis Baigue, center, attends a Christmas interfaith service held at St. Paulís Episcopal Church in Salt Lake where people set down a pebble representing a burden to "receive something beautiful instead" following the service to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled ìSeeing Christ In Every Child,î was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune The Rev. Tom Goldsmith repeats "we are here to proclaim the Christ in every child," as a Christmas interfaith service is held at St. Paulís Episcopal Church in Salt Lake to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled ìSeeing Christ In Every Child,î was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith. Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Michael Adam Ferguson, left, and his husband J Seth Anderson, repeat the joyful Aramaic exclamation of praise, "hosanna, hosanna, hosanna, for justice and peace for all" concluding a Christmas interfaith service is held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake to affirm the dignity and worth of all people. The service, titled "Seeing Christ In Every Child," was prompted by ongoing spiritual isolation and pain expressed by LGBTQ people of faith.

The Salt Lake Tribune

· December 29, 2015 3:55 pm

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Worshippers gathered Sunday evening at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City for an interfaith Christmas service devoted to LGBTQ families who sometimes face increased isolation from disapproving families and friends during the holiday season.

The hourlong service — titled "Seeing Christ in Every Child" — is designed, according to a news release, to "provide healing to those who suffer as a result of being forced to choose between their families and their faith tradition."

The devotional, open to people of any sexual orientation or gender identity, also came in the wake a newly unveiled policy by the state's predominant religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that labels same-sex Mormon couples apostates worthy of possible excommunication and forbids their children from baptism and other LDS rites until they become adults.

"The Jesus of the New Testament sought out people who had been marginalized in society," J. Seth Anderson, co-organizer of Sunday's service, said in the release. "He didn't add new policies to ostracize special categories of people."

Anderson and his husband, Michael Ferguson, were the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Utah.