Inclusive, affirming, and embodied liturgies reflect the radical hospitality of the Gospel and helps us create worship spaces where all people – regardless of gender, sexuality, race, class, or ability – can fully experience belonging in the presence of God.
Inclusive liturgies can help us foster a more welcoming faith community, where everyone’s story is honored as part of God’s calling toward love and liberation.
This Pride liturgy aims to create sacred space to celebrate the dignity and sacred worth of LGBTIQ+ people. It offers a counter-narrative to exclusionary theologies by affirming that God’s love – and communities gathered in God’s love – embraces all, without condition. It also serves as a prophetic witness, calling the Church to deeper inclusion and embodying the gospel’s message of radical belonging. Whether you use it as a whole or incorporate individual elements into your existing liturgies, this resource is flexible and adaptable to your community’s needs.
RCL Texts
Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)
Intro
This Sunday is, in some traditions, the Sunday of Transfiguration. It is also the Sunday after Cape Town PRIDE. Transfiguration Sunday celebrates the moment Jesus is revealed in divine glory on the mountaintop, a transformative encounter that affirms identity, calls for courage, and offers a vision of hope. In many ways, this moment mirrors the journey of Pride—a time when people step into the fullness of who they are, embracing their dignity and sacred worth.
Brian Flanagan* writes: “This basic reading follows the pattern of a classic LGBTQ+ coming out story: Jesus lets himself be seen, really seen, as the Christ, as God’s Beloved Child, as our Lord and Savior. And, as in a classic coming out story, his friends’ reactions range from awkward attempts to be present, amazement, fear, and – eventually – a greater understanding of who Jesus is.”
Just as Jesus’ radiance was not for himself alone but to strengthen his disciples for the road ahead, so too does the visibility and celebration of Pride empower individuals and communities to live authentically. The transfiguration reminds us that divine presence is found in transformation, in embracing who we are called to be, and in the courage to descend the mountain and continue the work of justice and love.
*Associate professor for theology at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, and the President of the College Theology Society, writing for New Ways Ministry.
Liturgical Elements
Call to Worship
ONE: Since we have hope, we are very bold –
not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face
so that the Israelites might not gaze
at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.
ALL: Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom
ONE: Their minds were hardened.
But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Now the Lord is the Spirit
ALL: And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
ONE: And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
ALL: Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom
ONE: This comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
ALL: And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
From 2 Cor 3:12-18, adapted by Bianca Truter-Botha
Prayer of Invocation
God of wild love and extravagant acceptance
Spirit of boldness and beauty
You are faithfully present in both the grit and glitter of life,
and you are present here with us now.
Awaken us to your dream for creation:
A (colourful) world in which every member of the human family is free
to flourish however you have made them.
Forgive us for the moments we have held back
your ever-flowing current of love, dignity, and justice.
Remake us into a people eager to see you
in the faces, bodies, and expressions of all people.
Remind each of us to step out of the shadows of our lives
and shine fearlessly and courageously.
Ignite the Divine Light within us to sparkle through the prism
of our bodies and brighten every corner of this Earth.
Holy One, You call each of us beloved.
Each of us cherished.
Each of us desired.
Each of us sacred.
And so, we give you thanks now and forever.
Rev. Sam Lundquist, written for LGBTQ Pride Month worship at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, CA. Available online. Accessed: 24/02/2025
OR
Holy One,
(Yesterday many of your children) celebrated Pride — the gift of living into the fullness of who you have created us to be. Bless all who celebrate this weekend with joy in the knowledge that they belong.
We come with gratitude, Holy Mystery, for all the ways you are known to us and for all the ways you confound our comprehension. We give thanks to you, gender-bending God, who is both mother and father and still between and beyond all our categories of understanding. We celebrate the queerness of Spirit that beckons us out, to new horizons of hope and fuller communion with your being.
We give thanks, we give thanks for all the ways that Love finds us.
Keep within us the memory that Pride is also protest — a prophetic witness to the struggle of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual, and every non-conforming ancestor who has gone before us. We remember today that joy and love dancing are courageous acts of sacred resistance: a testament to the goodness of your creation, a celebration of triumph over the forces of dehumanization and shame.
With gratitude, we call to mind the faces of all the holy trailblazers, in our own lives and in our larger story, who fought and suffered much, who modeled wisdom and compassion to show us how wide and inclusive Love’s welcome is. We hold these people in our hearts. Bless and keep also the saints among us now — those still using their gifts to speak out in myriad ways and showing us the continuing revelation of beloved kin-dom.
This morning we remember especially those for whom living authentically has meant loss and grief. We remember those struggling to come out to themselves or their loved ones. We remember those who have been cast aside by family and friends, those abused, silenced and all lives cut short by shame, stigma, and prejudice. Forgive us, O God, when we let fear shrink our hearts and we try to place limits on your boundless love. May we keep striving to make a world where all people know dignity and can enjoy a life of love and health and equal rights.
We pray that this remembering will strengthen our commitment to create sanctuary and deep welcome for those who have been marginalized. May our worship increase our awareness of grace — that we might give and receive it more freely with one another and all those we encounter. And may our worship reveal the work that is ours to do.
We offer this prayer with Jesus, our sibling & our friend.
Amen
A Prayer for Pride Sunday by Laura Palmer. 2021. Available Online. Accessed 23/02/2025
Hymn
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord, God Almighty!
Altered lyrics:
Holy, holy, holy!
Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee
Holy, holy, holy!
Justice wed to mercy,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy!
All the saints adore thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and seraphim,
falling down before thee,
Who was and is and evermore shall be.
Holy, holy, holy!
Sacred darkness cloaks thee,
Granting us mere glimpses of thine untold Mystery.
Still, thine image shows thee
in each human body:
Thou art our breath, our love and artistry.
Holy, holy, holy,
Although almighty,
Thou stripped off omnipotence to share our frailty.
Only Thou are holy,
yet thou chose the lowly —
With the despised, there shall thy Spirit be.
Holy, holy, holy!
God of the lowly!
All thy works shall praise thy name
In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy!
Justice wed to mercy,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Binary Breaking Worship. Available Online. Accessed 25/02/2025
Confession to God and LGBTQI people
ONE: In response to the Holy Spirit’s action in its midst
(We come) before God in the presence of one another
to confess (our) sins to God, and to LGBTQI people.
The church has wounded many
through its practices of exclusion and hurtful treatment.
The church seeks your forgiveness, O God,
and the forgiveness of all whom we have harmed.
ALL: We offer this confession in humility, desiring to go a new way.
ONE: Creating and Covenanting God,
you created us in your own image.
In Christ, you call us to be a welcoming and nurturing community,
to love one another as Christ has loved us.
Yet we have ostracized and excluded LGBTQI people
from full life within the body of Christ.
We have often turned the courts of the church into places
where those who are not straight or cisgender
are attacked, shunned and belittled.
We confess that we have failed
to love one another as Christ commanded us
and we have disrupted our covenantal relationship with you.
ALL: For these wrongful and unjust actions, we ask forgiveness.
ONE: The church has enacted policies and adopted customs
that have dehumanized and harmed LGBTQI people.
In doing so the church has led many people to believe
they have to choose between
embracing their sexuality and gender identity
or being a part of the church.
ALL: For these wrongful and unjust actions, we ask forgiveness.
ONE: The church has often perpetuated
harmful lies that LGBTQI people are dangerous and abusive.
The resulting stigma fosters an environment
where gifted people are discouraged and excluded
from providing leadership in the church.
The church’s prejudice contributes to
hatred and neglect of LGBTQI people
making them targets for physical, spiritual and emotional violence.
ALL: For these unloving and unjust actions, we ask forgiveness.
One: The church has no higher calling
than to offer the worship that belongs to God.
In worship, we find strength and hope
for proclaiming God’s reign in the world.
Yet often our language in worship is not inclusive
and renders many people and their families invisible.
This makes worship
a wounding and alienating experience.
ALL: For these unloving and unjust actions, the church asks forgiveness.
ONE: The church has been dismissive of and indifferent to
LGBTQI people when they have named
the harm the church has caused
to their mental, physical and spiritual well-being.
ALL: For these unloving and unjust actions, we ask forgiveness.
ONE: O God of justice and mercy,
you have called us to love and nurture the vulnerable among us,
yet we have not been loving and supportive role models
to young LGBTQI people.
We have failed to listen to their cries for healthy pastoral support.
Our actions have abandoned them to a future
that often includes internalized homophobia, self-loathing, depression,
substance abuse, self-harm, homelessness, and suicide.
ALL: For these unloving and unjust actions, we ask forgiveness
ONE: In this church called home,
some LGBTQI people still long
for the love and security of home.
In this church called home,
some of us have witnessed
demeaning conversations and attitudes
that belittle LGBTQI people.
Yet we choose to be silent in the face of such injustices,
becoming complicit in the resulting oppression.
ALL: For these unloving and unjust actions, we ask forgiveness.
ONE: Creating God,
your creation bears witness
to the vastness of your diversity.
In carrying out the mission entrusted to it,
the church has embraced ideologies and narratives
that have normalized the exclusion
of those it deems different.
ALL: For these unloving and unjust actions, we ask forgiveness.
One: To those of you whom we have harmed
by our unloving and unjust actions,
we confess that we have failed you.
We acknowledge that the church has wounded you deeply.
ALL: In humility and with sorrow, we ask for your forgiveness.
ONE: Come Holy Spirit come.
Be present in this time of silence.
(Hold a moment of silence)
ONE: God of justice and mercy,
we praise you for the presence of the Holy Spirit
prompting us to work
purposefully and compassionately,
to find new and just ways
of living out that larger story
of loving God and neighbour.
Help us to overcome
the pride that covers up wrongdoings,
the indifference that stands in the way of feeling,
and the fear that stalls change.
ALL: God of justice and mercy, we turn to you.
Only you can help us to do this hard work
of repairing, restoring, reconciling and healing.
Fill us with courage and hope
as we commit to working
for the restoration of your church and
our relationship with one another, and
for the collective flourishing of all people
for your glory.
Amen
Adapted from: The Presbyterian Church in Canada’s Confession to God and LGBTQI People: Adopted on 06/06/2022 Available Online. Accessed 23/02/2025
Hymn: Affirmation of Forgiveness
God is forgiveness – Taize
Affirmation of Faith
I know this Confession only as a Spanish Confession of Faith that was read by Dr Marina Strydom during the Dutch Reformed Church’s 2015 General Synod. She herself cannot remember where she originally got it from and I haven’t been able to track down the original. All credit to the creators – whoever they may be.
We believe in God the Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth;
Creator of all nations and churches;
Creator of all languages, races (and gender identities).
We believe in Jesus Christ, the Son, our Lord,
God who became flesh as a human for humanity,
God who became flesh in time for all times,
God who became flesh in one culture for all cultures,
God who became flesh in love and grace for all creation.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom God’s presence
is made known in Jesus Christ, in our people, and in our cultures;
through whom God, the Creator of all that exists,
gives us the power to become new creations,
whose infinite gifts make us one body: the Body of Christ.
We believe in the Church,
which is universal because it is the sign of God’s reign,
whose faithfulness is revealed in all its shades,
where all colours together paint one landscape,
and all tongues sing the same praise.
We believe in the Reign of God—the day of the great Fiesta,
when all the colors of creation will form a harmonious rainbow,
when all people will partake in a joyful feast,
when all tongues of the universe will sing the same song.
And because we believe, we commit ourselves
to believe for those who do not believe,
to love for those who do not love,
to dream for those who do not dream,
until the day when hope becomes reality.
Prayer for Illumination
Invite worshipers to take a few deep breaths, then slowly lead the following prayer as they breathe.
Breathe in Come Holy Spirit.
Breathe out Ignite our hearts.
Breathe in Come Holy Spirit.
Breathe out Open our minds.
Breathe in Come Holy Spirit.
Breathe out Relax our bodies.
Breathe in Come Holy Spirit.
Breathe out Speak to us.
Breathe in Come Holy Spirit.
Breathe out We are listening.
Wehrung A, Golden J, Wheeler N, Penmore R. 2024. UWorship Resource, UKirk Collegiate Ministries. Available Online. Accessed 23/02/2025
Reading and Message
Invitation to the Table
If you ask, “Does anything prevent me from this communion table?
Would anyone tell me I am not welcome here?” this is Christ’s reply:
“Nothing and no one can keep you from God’s table, from God’s community, from God’s love.
Let no one tell you otherwise.”
Friends, come to the feast! You are not only welcome; you are needed and appreciated.
Binary breaking worship. 2020. Available Online Accessed 24/02/2025
Prayer
Gracious God,
you give us food from heaven,
to strengthen our love;
grant, we pray, that through our works of justice
and acts of loving kindness,
the perpetual light of your truth would shine:
through Christ our Lord.
Amen
Inclusive Liturgy for LGBT History Month by Dignity & Worth (Organisation). Available online. Accessed 24/02/2025
Baptism Remembrance
Into their light
God has brought us out of darkness into their glorious light.
Receive afresh the light of Christ: in this light you are revealed as a child of God,
in this light you are guided to the fullness of life,
in this light you are found the person God created you to be.
All Shine as a light of the world to the glory of the God who made you
wonderfully in their image.
Pastoral Liturgies for Journeys of Gender Affirmation and Transition: Rites and Prayers Supplemental to The Book of Alternative Services Of The Anglican Church of Canada. Available online. Accessed: 24/02/2025
Prayer for the Offering
To be whole; to be safe; to be fully alive –
this is our prayer for all your people.
Receive our offerings and bless them to this work.
Amen
M Jade Kaiser, Prayers of dedication #4. Enfleshed. Available Online. Accessed 25/02/2025
Hymn
We are the Church Alive
Words and music by Jack St. John and David Pelletier. 1980. Available Online.
Accessed 22/02/2025
Blessing / Benediction
Bless the trembling bodies and the traumatized bodies.
Bless all the bodies still ringing with the bell of grief.
Bless the tender bodies, the transitioning bodies,
the intersex bodies, the non-binary bodies.
Bless the bodies longing for touch.
Bless the bodies lonely and alone.
Bless the bodies that live between worlds.
Bless the queer bodies that transgress imagination
and transmute new futures into being just by breathing.
Bless the trans femme bodies and the blistered-heel-but-head-held-high bodies,
bless the sex worker bodies and the night shift nurse bodies
and the drug using bodies and the sober bodies.
Bless the disabled bodies, the aging bodies,
the menstruating bodies, the chronically pained bodies.
Bless these bodies changed and changing, familiar and strange, ours.
Bless the bodies of water, the water that brings life.
Bless the birthing bodies, the worn-out parenting collapsed-in-bed bodies,
the bodies that have miscarried, the bodies misinterpreted and maligned.
Bless the dissociated and dysphoric bodies,
the diasporic and displaced bodies.
Bless the scarred bodies,
the plants, roots, and tree bodies,
the sea bodies.
Bless the Earth body changed and changing, familiar and strange, ours.
In Exaltation of Queer Bodies, Hybrid Bodies, Borderland Bodies: A sermon-essay for Transfiguration Sunday, by Céline Chuang, for Holy Spit Blog. Available Online. Accessed 24/02/2025
OR
May the shining radiance of God warm you.
May the dazzling splendor of God surprise you.
And the glory of God transform you.
May you come up to the mountaintop.
May you remember the experience with wonder and awe.
And may you come down renewed and empowered
For the glory of God and the hope of the world.
Worship Ways: Worship Resources for the United Church of Christ. Transfiguration Sunday Year A. Available Online. Accessed 23/02/2025
Art
Glitch by Kelly Latimore: https://kellylatimoreicons.com/blogs/news/glitch-transfiguration
Rainbow Christ by Micheal Donnoe:
https://qspirit.net/rainbow-christ-prayer-lgbt-flag-reveals-queer-christ/
Transfiguration by Laura James: https://c4so.org/visio-divina-transfiguration/
Transfiguration by Lewis Bowman:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/transfiguration-lewis-bowman.html
