I come from a very humble, devoted Catholic family. I attended private Catholic school from kindergarten to high school thanks to a generous scholarship. Every Sunday my parents would put it a few dollars in the basket. We were not required to pledge an annual amount or to practice tithing.
As I grew up and went to college, I learned about my sexuality and realized that I am lesbian. I struggled with my Catholic faith for over five years because being gay is not accepted in the Catholic church. I became the “special occasion” Catholic. Time went on, and I learned to adapt and I joined a Christian/Catholic LGBT support group which helped me to deal with my troubled faith.
In the meantime, I got involved in a meaningful and loving relationship with my current wife Griselda. We have been together almost 17 years.
In 2008 there was plenty of political controversy about legalizing gay marriage. The Catholic church was strongly supporting Prop. 8. Griselda and I felt very hurt and rejected by our own local church. How can we be ourselves and live a secret life, when we know that God love us unconditionally?
Then we decided to explore other local churches that were at least gay-friendly and where we could be ourselves without hiding the fact that we were a married couple.
St. James’ opened their arms and support from the beginning. The St. James’ community has shown through the years plenty of non-judgmental love, support, wonderful friendships, and, importantly, respect. Griselda and I feel that we are “home” at the altar of God.
We are grateful for all the generous donations to all of our fundraiser events for breast cancer, leukemia, etc. We are also very grateful for the prayers we received when Griselda’s parents were ill and later passed. In fact, when my father-in-law was close to death and we were desperately looking for a Catholic priest to perform the Last Rites in the middle of the night, and we could not find anyone, we suggested Lori’s name, and the family agreed to call her. She arrived just in time, around 2:30am, and performed the sacrament. God’s presence was there through Lori.
I was also very touched for the support of our St. James’ community when Lori preceded the prayers of peace a few months ago for the Florida’s LGBT victims of violence. For all these above reasons, I give my annual pledge to St. James’.
Recently I became a Vestry member, and I learned about so many church expenses behind the scenes that I was not aware of. Now I realized that I should increase my stewardship because I’m definitely grateful for God’s goodness for me and my family.
~Evelyn Martinez, Vestry Member