Interfaith Service
Naper Pride hosted an interfaith service as a way to unite the LGBTQ community and religious faiths.
“There’s a lot of people who are LGBTQ that feel very unwelcome by religious entities and the goal of the interfaith service was to not only bring other faiths together to show that everyone worships very similarly, we can all be together. But also to welcome the LGBTQ community in,” said Joshawa Stell, IT specialist at Naper Pride.
Congregation Beth Shalom, Wesley United Methodist Church, and Community Methodist Church joined the service to show their support and lead the prayers.
“So many things that divide us that we need to come together with themes that unite us and certainly God’s love is a great theme that unites us all together,” said Congregation Beth Shalom past president Bernie Newman.
Hope for Progress
About 90 people of all ages participated in the service that is “a celebration of God’s love for all.”
Naper Pride and these religious institutions hope they can lessen the disconnect and more faiths become accepting of the community.
“You know, like my hat says. We’re normal human beings, we just want to be included. We want to be a part of the community. We don’t want to take anything away from anybody,” said speaker Eva-Genevieve Scarborough.
Naperville News 17’s Aysha Ashley Househ reports.