C h u r c h  o f  t h e  R e d e e m e r,
M o r r i s t o w n,  N e w J e r s e y

The Church of the Redeemer is a Liberation Community in the Christian and Episcopal traditions. We experience God primarily within those actions and events that liberate people from that which keeps them from reflecting the dignity and value of who they are: Daughters and Sons of God. Building on our Christian and Episcopal roots, we are active creating a new model of what it means to be a community of faith.

Redeemer is a "come as you are party" that takes the word "family" seriously. Our diversity is our wealth. Our questions and dreams unite us rather than our answers. Everything we do in terms of our worship, our ministries, our education programs, our social life and the way we conduct our affairs is guided by this vision.

Given our vision, our commitment to support and affirm gay and lesbian people and their relationships goes to the heart of who we are and how we experience God. The first same sex blessing at Redeemer was in 1991 and to date there have been nineteen. Redeemer celebrates a number of what it calls "liberation holidays" throughout the liturgical year with Martin Luther King Sunday being a model. In the same way we celebrate every year in June, as a parish holy day, Gay and Lesbian Pride Sunday. Members of the parish, both gay and straight, march in the Gay Pride Parade in New York. About a third of the Sunday School is made up of children of same sex parents. The parish is 50% gay and straight.

The event that started Redeemer on its journey of inclusivity was when the son of deeply loved, life long members contracted AIDS and came home to live and then die with them. People in the parish began to realize that AIDS was our issue and also to experience the prejudice associated not only with the disease but about being gay. Members of the parish took AIDS buddy training and eventually the training was centered in Redeemer. People from the buddy training began to come to Redeemer. And, the rest is history.

The challenge to Redeemer is to maintain its diversity by providing programs and support for all the different groups who worship here. Both gay and straight come because of this very diversity.

What follows is a shortened history of inclusion at Redeemer:

  • 1988: First annual MLK Sunday as major parish liberation celebration.
  • 1990: Redeemer creates Creation Season for Oct. & Nov. Copied in other churches and dioceses
  • 1990: Vestry and rector commitment to use of inclusive language in all worship at the larger second service of the day,
                Prayer Book at 8:00.
  • 1991: First blessing of Same-Sex Union at Redeemer
  • 1993: Redeemer rectory on church ground becomes an AIDS Residence.
  • 1993: First annual Celebrating Women. s Journeys Sunday (on Mother's Day) as major parish liberation celebration
  • 1993: First annual Gay/Lesbian Pride Sunday as major parish liberation celebration
  • 1994: Gay & straight members of Redeemer march in NYC Gay Pride Parade.
  • 1994: First annual Recovery Sunday as major parish liberation celebration
  • 1994: Grape juice along with wine offered at communion.
  • 1995: Creation of AIDS Chapel and Redeemer AIDS Quilt in the Church
  • 1998: Parish has first in memory budget surplus without going into endowment to meet operation costs
  • 1998 (end of) Total of 19 Same-Sex commitment ceremonies performed.
  • 1999: Tentative Vestry proposal to support use of identical names for same and opposite sex commitment ceremonies: marriage, wedding, holy matrimony, etc.
  • 2002: 150th Anniversary of founding of Church of the Redeemer.

updated 17 March 2003, webmaster