The Welcome Table
An Inclusive Spiritual Community for Seekers, Doubters, and Believers
You Are God's Beloved Child
Mission and Opportunities
The Welcome Table inclusive spiritual community includes LGBTQ and other marginalized people who are active, struggling, or former Christians, as well as families and allies. We are committed to bringing our whole selves to God and each other as gifts to share in love.
Catholic teaching on our common human dignity, the unconditional, limitless, and intimate love of Jesus found in the Gospels, and the primacy of the individual conscience as formed in relationship with our Creator, the Word of God, and tradition, are the foundations on which our community stands.
Those interested in cultivating their relationship with the Divine in a safe space will find information about spiritual accompaniment with Vicki Sheridan, MDiv, certified spiritual director, here.
Want online events and resources like the ones below sent directly to your inbox monthly? Sign up here.
Featured Events and News
Gatherings
Women of Dignity Spring 2026 Retreat
Join the Women of Dignity for the Spring 2026 Retreat, Rivers of Grace: Honoring the Flow, Crossing Thresholds, May 29–31, 2026, at the Siena Retreat Center in Racine, Wisconsin.
Nestled on wooded grounds with an accessible lakefront, Siena is a sponsored ministry of the Racine Dominicans, inspired by St. Catherine of Siena and grounded in a mission of truth and justice. Facilitated by Marilyn Bugenhagen, Ph.D., President of Resonate & Thrive Associates LLC, this retreat offers space for reflection, connection, and renewal.
Check-in is Friday, May 29 from 3–5 PM with dinner at 5 PM; the retreat concludes Sunday, May 31, with the program ending at 11 AM, lunch at noon, and departure by 3 PM. The cost is $330, which includes the program, two nights of lodging, and six meals ($314 if not staying for Sunday lunch).
Registration closes April 23, 2026.
Colombian Cardinal Washes Feet of Trans Sex Workers
by Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, April 10, 2026
In the News
Article Excerpt: “This is the second year in a row that Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio performed the traditional ritual action imitating the servant-leadership of Jesus at the Last Supper. When the ritual was added to the Holy Thursday liturgy after the Second Vatican Council, originally only men were chose for foot-washing, but with the passage of time, women were included in this symbolic action in many places. Pope Francis had expanded the category of participants by washing the feet of prisoners and homeless people…
According to a them.us, the cardinal, who was appointed by Francis, went to the Santa Fe neighborhood of the capital, a police-supervised “tolerance zone” for sex work to perform the ritual. The news article also reported that the cardinal used the occasion to speak out against discrimination, saying:
“What societies do through discrimination is fracture. They create a kind of caste system that has long since been abolished and has no place in society. We are all accepted in the House of the Lord.”
Aparicio initiated the tradition last year to honor Sara Millerey, a trans woman who had recently been murdered.”
Online Events
Join DignityUSA and Dr. Lucas Wilson (editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy) on May 20 at 8pm ET/5pm PT for Conversion Therapy: Understanding and Confronting Harm. Conversion practices—commonly referred to as conversion therapy—constitute the damaging efforts to change queer individuals' sexual orientations and/or gender identities and expressions. Despite the common misapprehension—in North America, at least—that conversion practices are a thing of the past, such anti-LGBTQ+ efforts persist and continue to wreak havoc on countless queer and trans individuals, particularly those in high-control religious contexts. As a survivor of conversion therapy himself, Wilson will present a broadened definition of conversion practices before discussing the prevalence of conversion practices in North America. Wilson will flesh out the ways by which conversion practitioners seek the eradication of LGBTQ+ communities in North America and beyond.
Registration is required. A $10 donation is recommended to support the mission of DignityUSA. (See book purchasing info below.)
Spiritual Growth
Take Action
Showing Up for Racial Justice: A home for white people working for justice
“White Christian nationalism creates theological justification for xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynistic laws and attitudes. It is also powering the genocide in Gaza, war in Iran, the climate crisis, and racist ideologies like the Great Replacement Theory.
Luke 10 Congregations is a 9-month-long program to train congregations to fight Christian nationalism and show up for justice. As a part of a national cohort, congregations will study together to deepen their understanding of Christian nationalism’s relationship to poverty and racism, and then develop plans for how to faithfully respond in their own communities. The second Luke 10 Congregations cohort concludes soon, and the deadline to apply for the third cohort is June 1, 2026.”
Book Club Suggestion
Dr. Lucas Wilson is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Toronto Mississauga and was formerly the Justice, Equity, and Transformation Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Calgary. A current Humanist Thought Fellow through the American Humanist Association, Lucas is the editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy (Jessica Kingsley Publishers). His public-facing writing has appeared in The Advocate, Queerty, LGBTQ Nation, and Religion Dispatches. He is currently working on two new anthologies: Don’t Ask, Tell All: Stories of Christian Colleges’ Anti-Queer Regimes (under contract with The University of Georgia Press) and Queer and Trembling: Stories of LGBTQ+ Religious Trauma (under contract with Jessica Kingsley Publishers).
DignityUSA members can use the code WILSON20 for a 20% discount on Shame-Sex Attraction. Order yours today to get your book on time for the discussion (see above).
Watch
These are the first days for Luciana, Maia, and Yenifer as caregivers in a nursing home. As trans women, this marks the first time they have secured formal employment; until now, they have worked exclusively in prostitution. As the days go by—sharing their lives within those corridors, isolated from the outside world—caregivers and residents forge increasingly deep bonds. Little by little, this strange place becomes—for them, too—a home.
Podcast
The Spiritual Life Podcast - Fr. Jim Martin, SJ Guest: Fr. Bryan Massingale
America, February 24, 2026
The Gender Accompaniment Project
Developed by McGrath Institute for Church Life Professor Abigail Favale, Ph.D., bestselling author of The Genesis of Gender, The Gender Accompaniment Project is a ten-part series featuring the stories of Christians who experience a sense of discordance with their gender.
Blending personal testimonies with thoughtful commentary from experts in theology, psychology, and medicine, The Gender Accompaniment Project illuminates forms of accompaniment rooted in Christian anthropology and models how to speak about gender with both compassion and depth.