Town Hall with Two Spirit and LGBTQ Lutheran Faith Leaders
Town Hall with LGBTQ and Two Spirit faith leaders in the Lutheran church.
Moderator:
Lenny Duncan (he/him) is a follower of Jesus Christ and is in a passionate love affair with grace. Lenny spent most of his teens homeless after leaving home at age 13. He has spent time in all 48 contiguous states, sleeping by the side of the highway or in penthouses along the way. He has been a prisoner of war in the so-called war on drugs. After systemic oppression or drugs didn't kill him, Lenny found himself in a strange place: the church.
Lenny has been everything from high school drop out, drug dealer, sex worker, street corner poet, hitchhiker, dharma bum, small town drifter, seminarian, political activists, father, pastor, lover, public theologian, and writer. Now he parties dead sober and thrives in the PNW.
He is currently the Mission Developer Pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church launching their third site in downtown in Vancouver WA. You can find out more at churchwithnoname.org
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Panalists:
The Rev. Beate (“Bea”) Chun is a native of Germany. A post-graduate exchange program with the World Council of Churches brought her to the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio where she earned her Master of Divinity Degree. On January 21, 1991 Pastor Chun was ordained into the ELCA and has since served congregations in Texas, Wyoming, and California. Prior to coming to St. Francis Lutheran Church, she served as pastor at Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. She has a passion for preaching, worship leadership, and social justice.
Pastor Manda Truchinski serves at Christ the Good Shepherd in San Jose. After obtaining her undergraduate degree she earned a Masters of Divinity at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She has been involved in faith communities of many kinds in her life, all over the US. Manda has insatiable wanderlust that she satiates by visiting friends and family all over the world and planning for her future home in a bus. She also enjoys visual arts, sustainable living, and the hot mess of communal living.
Vance Blackfox, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is an alumus of Texas Lutheran University and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Vance has served the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in a variety of ways throughout his life, from taking a post as National President of the Lutheran Youth Organization during his TLU days, to later working for the Women of the ELCA, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, California Lutheran University, ELCA Youth Gathering, and LSTC’s Youth in Mission. At present, he is the Indigenous Theologian and Coordinating Team Member for the ELCA’s Theological Round Table. Building on this foundation, he has also created Other+Wise, a cultural immersion experience for youth across the country.
In addition to his extensive work with the ELCA, Vance is a devoted advocate for Native causes. He has held executive director positions at the Haskell Foundation and Oaks Indian Mission, and he currently works as the Communications Director for Native Americans in Philanthropy. He was recently elected President of the Board of Directors for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, and he has been appointed Guest Curator at the University of Texas at San Antonio Institute of Texan Cultures. He is also the Indigenous Theologian for the Faith-Based Initiative for the City of San Antonio, where he currently resides.
Drew Stever is the co-founder and executive director of Queeranteen Camp, a free, online, interfaith camp for LGBTQ youth. They are a queer, transgender candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (aka he has studied to become a pastor and is waiting for a congregation to ask him to be their pastor.) Drew recently completed his Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary. Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, they now reside in Southern California. Drew loves birkenstocks, dogs, his partner’s home cooked meals, and building things.
