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Wrestling with God and Names

Sermons are deeply contextual, and they also speak throughout their time and place to people hearing regardless of time and place. Here’s a sermon for Pridetide, delivered at University Church Chicago on 2 June 2019. Good Morning, Church! It is a joy to be with you here, in God’s house, celebrating Pride month. Thank you […]

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A Thanksgiving for Names

This pride month, I’ll be offering a few liturgical and worship resources for celebrating pride in a faith context. The first is A Thanksgiving for Names. You are welcome to use and reproduce as needed. Please credit me as the author, and I’d be delighted if you sent me an order of service of bulletin […]

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Challenging Visiblity: Transgender Day of Visibility 2019

There’s been a meme going around – particularly earlier this year saying “it’s 2k19, what should we give up?” Today is Transgender day of Visibility. Resisting the dominant narratives in transgender discourse, I’ve reached the conclusion that visibility plays into the hands of cis-normative white-supremacy, and perhaps this is the year to let it go. […]

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Toward an ace/aro-inclusive Valentine’s Day

February as a month is all about Black History, Valentine’s Day the Beginning of Lent and Ash Wednesday.  Not all of these things are my lane, so while I support and educate myself on Black History, while I’ll probably go to church on Ash Wednesday, I want to focus on my lane – LGBTQIA+ people […]

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On Being Bisexual+

This year for Bisexual+ Visibility Week, I came out, again. I’ve become much more intentional about claiming space within the bisexual umbrella. You see, for a long time I understood bisexuality to denote attraction to cisgender and transgender binary men and women.  As I have made clear, I don’t understand myself as functioning within the binary. […]

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Screaming with Jesus: Transgender Day of Remembrance 2018

Special thanks for editorial assistance to Rev. Emily E. Ewing. The time of changing seasons often sits with me and grows me. I write anticipating the onset of Advent and the commemoration of the Reign of Christ. During these days, we commemorate transgender awareness month and transgender day of remembrance. These are my favorite days of […]

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Transgender Lifecycle Rituals: Christian and Christopagan Resources for the Journey.

River recently completed their most recent paper, Transgender Lifecycle Rituals: Christian and Christopagan Resources for the Journey and offers it here for your consideration and feedback. If you wish to use the rites offered in the paper, please contact River for permission details.

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Queerying the Text

I have had the privilege to collaborate with Rev. Ewing on an RCL-based resource engaging queer theory and the text.  I’ve got a master post of every week I’ve collaborated, from the most recent to the oldest. 7th Sunday after Pentecost – Year C 6th Sunday after Pentecost – Year C 5th Sunday after Pentecost […]

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Welcome!

Welcome to RiverNeedham.org.  Check out the About River page, find out more about River’s interactions with the world and ways you can engage with River’s work. If you want to contact River, check out the Contact page and River will be in touch with you as soon as they can. Thank you!

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Our Shepherd is Leaving Us. Easter 5A- A Sermon for a time of Crisis. (John 14:1-14)

When I sat down to begin writing this sermon, I imagined what I might write about – what crisis is going on that I could speak to. It seems most realistic that I would imagine something to use as a crisis; the night after nuclear warfare broke out, or the day after a shooting in […]