Today we hear from guest blogger Rebecca Seely, 2012 Workin Scholarship recipient and Proclaim member. Other seminaries have created or are in the process of  starting similar LGBTQ student alliance groups. ELM will feature guest blogs from them in the future.

Greetings from the delightfully foggy campus of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. The fall semester has gotten off to a great start. Study, worship and fellowship are all in full swing. The big news from September is that an official LGBT/Queer Student Alliance has been founded at PLTS. While there have been groups of LGBTQ students meeting for years at PLTS, this is the first time that the group will be officially recognized as part of the PLTS Student Association. This recognition is exciting because it will hopefully help to facilitate more support (and even funding??) for the group from the institution. Sean Raghailligh and I have agreed to take the lead as alliance coordinators.

While we have not yet planned any official events, a highlight of the semester was a dinner party thrown by Pastor Jeff Johnson for Lutheran LGBTQ seminarians, clergy and friends in the Bay Area. The dinner was an awesome opportunity to connect with old friends and meet new people. As a seminarian, it was particularly meaningful to have the chance to be around so many amazing LBGTQ church leaders in one place and to be welcomed into that community. It was like a mini Proclaim retreat!

We will be meeting soon as a group to discuss our priorities and plans for the months to come. We look forward to keeping the Proclaim community up to date on the happenings here at PLTS!

Rebecca Seely graduated in 2012 from Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. She is fulfilling her Lutheran Year at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary this year.