June 27, 2025

This is PRIDE weekend in Minneapolis!

If you have ever been to our state's largest Pride celebration, you know what a joyful - and huge - event it is. The first time I marched in the Minneapolis Pride parade was ten years ago, a few days after I was ordained in the Episcopal church. I was invited to participate with some clergy colleagues, all wearing collars and stoles. Some carried large bowls of holy water and others had pine branches for dipping into the water and blessing people. A few of my colleagues had big colorful signs that said, “Shout ‘Alleluia’ if you want a blessing!”

I was so uncomfortable. There, at my first official church function, I was keenly aware of all the atrocities The Church has afflicted on the LGBTQ+ community. I second guessed being there; I second guessed the church being there. Were we being performative? Self-serving? Would we cause more harm? As it turned out, despite all the harm The Church has caused, the people along the parade route in Minneapolis responded to our presence with the loudest, most joyful Alleluias I’ve ever heard. “Allelulia! I want a blessing!” they’d shout out. “Alleluia! Bless me over here!”

I walked most of the parade in tears.

The strength and courage it takes for someone who’s been hurt by the church to shout, “I want a blessing!” is a testament to the spark of divine in each of us. That kind of boldness - to ask for what you’ve been told you don’t deserve - is holy. To claim blessing not as something we earn, but as something we were always meant to carry. And when we dare to receive blessing, we also learn how to give it. We learn to see ourselves and others as God does. So claiming blessings creates more blessings, until we can all stand along the parade route, or wherever we find ourselves, saying with our whole hearts: “Alleluia! I want a blessing!” and “Alleluia! You deserve one, too.”

My prayer for you this week is that you don’t hold back when it comes to claiming your blessings. Shout it. Sing it. Whisper it. Just don’t forget that you are deeply loved. You are enough. And blessings are meant for you, not in spite of who you are, but because of who you are. My prayer for you this week is to find moments where you can stand tall, open your arms, and say with joy, “Alleluia! I want a blessing!” And may we each be the kind of people who then say it back — with love and truth and open hearts.