Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

This list, curated by the AuSable Inclusion Center of the Episcopal Diocese of the Great Lakes, offers resources that your small group can use to have conversations around justice, inclusion, and faith. Whether you're exploring LGBTQ+ allyship, racial equity, or scriptural reflection, each book can be used to facilitate meaningful group discussion.

Filled to Be Emptied: The Path to Liberation for Privileged People by Brandan J. Robertson

• Entry-level liberation theology for the rank-and-file Christian! Not specifically oriented towards LGBTQ+ inclusion in itself, but lays a great scriptural and theological foundation for more topical discussion. Discussion questions are at the end of each chapter.

Trans Allyship Workbook: Building Skills to Support Trans People in Our Lives by Davey Shlasko

• Focused on trans, nonbinary, and other gender expansive identities. Does not include Christian perspective. Includes discussion questions and activities within the materials for each chapter. Facilitators will need to adapt each chapter for discussion in different ways.

The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate by Jeannie Gainsburg

• Expansive “101” style, targeted towards general audiences. Not specifically Christian, but contains helpful considerations for folks in faith communities. Can be approached chapter by chapter, but the discussion guide goes “part by part” so it isn’t as “open and go” as others.

Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen Hartke

• Offers an exploration of transgender inclusion and faith from a Biblical perspective and includes the voices and perspectives of a variety of different transgender people. Offers a 4-6 session group study AND a “sermon series guide” that could be adapted for use as a short bible study.

Unclobber: Rethinking our misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality by Colby Martin

• Part memoir, part biblical apologia. Oriented from and towards an evangelical/exvangelical perspective, but provides a really helpful entry-point for discussions around the “clobber passages” Offers a 6 session group discussion guide AND a sermon series guide that could be adapted for use as a short bible study.

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt, PhD

• Focused on racial bias, not LGBTQ+ inclusion, and not specifically Christian, but provides an excellent foundation for “doing the work” of dismantling systems of oppression. Folks who have done this work are better positioned to approach the other texts on this list. Offers chapter by chapter discussion questions at the back of the text. Very “open and go.”

No Innocent Bystanders: Becoming an Ally in the Struggle for Justice by Shannon Craigo-Snell and Christopher J. Doucot

• Discusses allyship in terms of both LGBTQ+ inclusion and anti-racism through a Christian lens. Every chapter has a series of discussion questions at the end.

Not quite what you’re looking for? Email Deacon Beckett Leclaire for MORE recommendations ([email protected]) or visit the AuSable Inclusion Center website: https://www.ausableinclusioncenter.org/