Deaconess Community,

This Pride Month, I offer my reflection with vulnerability—trusting that readers can hold space and tension and can see themselves on this journey, where multiple truths can be held at once. This is my truth: I am a Christian leading a Christian organization. My faith shapes how I understand the world—human identities, purpose, and my role in it. Scripture is my anchor; it speaks to me with clarity and conviction. I believe we are called not to impose our truth upon others, but most foundationally, we are all called to love. Love coaxes us to sit in tension rather than rush to resolution. Love is the lasso. It pulls me toward justice, accountability, and humanity.

Too often, faith institutions and philanthropy have been performative or silent—or worse—complicit in the harm done to LGBTQIA2S+ people. At Deaconess, we reject that muscle memory. We affirm the dignity of our LGBTQIA2S+ siblings and commit to being a healing force in a world that too often chooses and reinforces harm.

I was deeply moved by the apology offered by Bishop Deon K. Johnson, Episcopal Diocese of Missouri and Deaconess Trustee, who named the Church’s role in exclusion and called us all to walk a new path—one rooted in justice, reconciliation, and radical love. I have included Bishop Johnson’s full piece below and encourage readers to reflect on the ways they too can more fully affirm and support LGBTQIA2S+ individuals.

Bishop Johnson reminds us that true transformation and healing requires an apology that is “more than words.” Our affirmation must include a commitment to tangible support for LGBTQIA2S+ safety, visibility, and joy. In following this directive, Deaconess stepped in with financial support in response to erasure efforts that target local Pride efforts. We acted because we believe in an inclusive democracy where every person is seen, valued, and protected.

I know I’m not alone in wrestling with how to faithfully hold what I believe to be biblical truth, while also standing fully against the harm done in the name of that same truth. My faith doesn’t give me permission to cause harm. My faith will not allow me to be silent in the face of injustice—especially when that injustice is erroneously justified by the very faith I claim. As Dr. Barbara Love reminds us, “I do not want people working to eliminate racism on my behalf. I want you to eliminate racism because you are offended and affected by it and because it is contradictory to the world you want.” The same is true for me in this fight. I am offended and affected. This current world is contradictory to the world I’m fighting for—a world where “sides” are met with mutual respect, and allyship is received with openness to multiple truths. One of those truths is that Christianity is an activating force for justice—despite how the oppressor has retooled it. It is especially important to recognize how the weight of anti-Blackness intersects with LGBTQIA2S+ identity, often leaving Black LGBTQ people feeling isolated and at the margins of both movements. Deaconess Foundation and Deaconess Center will always remain open and affirming sanctuaries for the LGBTQIA2S+ community—a reflection of our values and our rootedness in the liberating faith heritage of the United Church of Christ. In that spirit, we continue to cultivate a space where all can belong, be seen, and be free.

We encourage our peers and partners to push yourselves to become better allies. At Deaconess, as part of our commitment to on-the-clock liberatory consciousness practice, we’ve engaged Gateway Equity Institute to lead in-service experiences that help us build shared language, deepen understanding, and confront individual and organizational bias and blind spots. This work emboldens my leadership and strengthens our internal processes so that inclusion isn’t just intended—it’s embedded.

Our team spent our Staff Energizer Day visiting the Missouri History Museum’s exhibit honoring local champions of LGBTQ justice, including our own Rudy Nickens—past chair of the Deaconess Board and Founder of our Institute for Black Liberation. Rudy’s story is testimony to what it means to lead with integrity, joy, and justice. We encourage you to see the exhibit before it closes on July 6, 2025, and be inspired and activated as you experience these stories of a valiant fight, hard fought wins, and local legacy for yourselves.

When they come for one, they come for us all. Solidarity does not require sameness or 100% agreement. It requires stretching, a celebration of difference, commitment, and conviction. We stand in solidarity not for but with others, because our own sense of righteousness, responsibility, and vision for a just world demand it.

May we continue to be a community of bold action, rooted in faith, led by love, and committed to justice.

Love is the lasso,
Bethany Johnson-Javois, President & CEO
Deaconess Foundation

With appreciation, I share the words of Bishop Deon K. Johnson:

With humility and deep sorrow, we, in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, offer this statement of apology to the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

We acknowledge that the Church universal has played—and in many places continues to play—a harmful role in the persecution, rejection, and exclusion of LGBTQIA2S+ individuals. Too often, the sacred teachings of a loving, liberating, and life-giving God—in whose image every human being is created—have been misused to justify prejudice, discrimination, and violence. These distortions have inflicted deep wounds and denied the dignity and belovedness of LGBTQIA2S+ people.

We confess that we have not lived into Christ’s command to love one another as God has loved us. We have turned away from the call to justice, chosen silence over solidarity, and clung to comfort at the expense of compassion. For our willful ignorance, for the harm caused by our actions and inactions, and for our failure to affirm and support our LGBTQIA2S+ siblings, we are truly and profoundly sorry.

We repent of the times we have allowed tradition, fear, or institutional self-interest to take precedence over truth and love. We recognize the deep pain caused by the Church’s complicity in systems of oppression and the personal and spiritual trauma endured by LGBTQIA2S+individuals within our communities.

With God’s help, we commit to walking a new path—one rooted in justice, reconciliation, and radical love. We pledge to listen with humility, to learn from those we have harmed, and to work tirelessly to ensure that The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri is a sanctuary of belonging and affirmation for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

May our apology be more than words. May it be the beginning of lasting transformation and healing. And may the light of Christ guide us into ever-deeper truth, justice, and love.

Rt. Rev. Deon K. Johnson

Read the full June 2025 newsletter here.