Queering Ecclesiology and Rites

Across Asia, Africa, and Latin America we are witnessing the emergence of queer faith-based communities in very dissimilar contexts and with very different histories. Exploring the way that these communities address issues of ecclesiology and rites would benefit students to explore the ways that our global village is moving in terms of the intersections among religion, gender, and sexuality. This asynchronous online course investigates what are the struggles and mechanisms that these communities have to cope in their context with ingrained homophobia, transphobia, lesbophobia and the like. At the same time, it will examine how those communities enact interreligious and multireligious dialogue and rituals and how faith and activism are coupled to counter oppressive discourses and colonial performativities in their own situations. The course also features the voices of queer ministers and activists from different context to whom we can turn to learn from their experiences. The target audience is both MA and MASC students.

This course fulfills the following Thresholds: 1. Life in Religious Community and Interfaith Engagement; 2. Prophetic Witness and Work; 3. Sacred Text and Interpretation; 6. Thea/ology in Culture and Context; 7. Educating for Wholeness and Liberation. The course also complies with the following MFCs: 1. Worship and Rites of Passage; 2. Pastoral Care and Presence; 3. Spiritual Development for Self and Others; 7. Leads the Faith into the Future.

[Max enrollment: 20. Auditors excluded.]