Award History

May 2008 at the Buffalo Convention Center
Pilgrim-St. Luke's Receives Buffalo's Highest Gay Award for a Ministry of Inclusion

In May of 2008, at the 12th annual Buffalo Brunch hosted by the gay community and their supporters at the Buffalo Convention Center, Pilgrim-St. Luke's was awarded organization of the year for it's work in welcoming and offering spiritual healing to gay people who have been abused in other settings.  The following text was read from the podium by Carol Speser, a long-time leader in the gay community, just prior to the presentation of the award.

Pilgrim-St. Luke’s United Church of Christ (PSL-UCC) has changed what it means to be a modest-sized neighborhood church in Buffalo.  By establishing a powerful pro-active Christian ministry, it has begun to rise above the homophobia and resistance to social change found in so many Christian religious settings, significantly healing and empowering the lives of gay and lesbian Christians.  The fruits of this ministry include:

(1)   the recovery and nurture of Christian faith after abuse in other church settings
(2)   the opportunity to openly express a deeply personal witness of the gay Christian journey in worship
(3)   the encouragement and  development of leadership skills in community action to “further God’s reign in the world.”

Between 1998 and 2000, over 70 one-on-one conversations were held as the church moved toward its current open and affirming status.  To augment this work, the church has successfully engaged resources of the national UCC’s God Is Still Speaking campaign, including its controversial, national award-winning “bouncer” TV commercial.   Gay Christians have been nurtured in lectures by a psychologist and a Colgate-Rochester Divinity School professor.  The church has held Bible Studies addressing issues of sexuality and sexual orientation and explored the lives of Gay Saints.

With the formation of Outside/In, a gay-straight alliance, PSL became the only church in the city to sponsor its own fundraiser nights for Cause For Celebration.   The gay and non-gay members of PSL have raised $4,000 for AIDS Community Services.  One gay couple in the church has been called to donate $14,000 to the Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus in honor of Pilgrim-St. Luke’s to address Buffalo’s racial divide and homophobia.

The church is well-networked.   Mary Hewitt (whose son Ross received the Brunch award in 2002) is a longtime leader in PFLAG.   Marsha Jackson has chaired the board of directors of AIDS Community Services.   Doug Charles serves openly as moderator, the highest lay leader in the congregation, and is active with ESPA which conducted marriage ambassador training at the church.  Jason Ward, Mike Rogers, and Larry Van Heusen sing in the Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus, and others are leaders in Gay Bingo (a charitable organization), Gay Bowling, and Gay Baseball.  For many years, the church has paraded a 5-foot candle down Elmwood Avenue in the Pride Fest.

Indeed, it is well known that the UCC stands apart as the only mainline Christ-centered church to endorse marriage equality in both church and state (National Synod 7-4-05), to establish a $500,000 scholarship endowment for gay UCC seminarians (1999), and the first to ordain an openly gay Christian (William R. Johnson in 1972).  

Pilgrim-St. Luke’s pastor, Rev. Dr. M. Bruce McKay, has helped other pastors by sharing the journey to open and affirming status, and is recipient of the Citizen of the Year Award from the National Association of Social Workers local chapter for his extensive work in community organizing and the development of VOICE Buffalo.  He also works for the Gamaliel Foundation to develop community action nationally.

Because of Pilgrim-St. Lukes, Gay Christians, who found no other place as fertile, as Christ-centered, or as safe to practice their Christian faith, now have a home.