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 in Chicago
LGBTQ+ Ministry at Old St. Pat’s Parish in Chicago
Pneuma LGBTQ+ Faith Sharing
Last Sunday of the Month | Following the 5 PM Mass | Rectory (718 W. Adams)
LGBTQ+ members and friends are invited to enjoy fellowship and faith sharing after the last 5PM Mass of the month. Snacks and refreshments are served, with opportunities for social time and informal conversations.
WHO ARE WE?
We are parents, grandparents, siblings, friends. We are cisgender, gay, lesbian, transgender, non binary, gender fluid.
WE ARE ONE!
We are a safe place. We come together to connect with each other. To share our stories. To listen. And to grow into lives of love, compassion, and a true sense of unity.
One In Love meets the 2nd Saturday of each month. Please join us for safe and respectful conversation. You are free to share your story or whatever is on your heart that day, or just listen to others. This ministry offers both community and communion for the LGBTQ+ community, their families, friends and allies.
Throughout the year, One in Love will host a variety of events to provide education, explore and discuss issues surrounding sexuality, gender and our faith, to listen to our stories and to discover ways to serve our community.
If you plan to attend or have questions, please contact Chris Evon (Holy Family Parish, Inverness, IL) or Kathie Nash (Oak Park Catholic Parishes, IL).
Mass Join us for AGLO Mass every Sunday at 7p.m, celebrated by compassoinate, LGBTQ+
friendly priests at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 708 W. Belmont Ave. Make new friends at
our social afterward!
Reconciliation
Every second Sunday of the month the Sacrament of Reconcilation is offered before the AGLO Mass. Confessions are heard in the east alcove of the church from 6:10-6:40 p.m.
Saint Clement, located at 642 W Deming Place in Chicago, IL, has a welcoming space for members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community. The Affirmed Community is a group dedicated to building a sense of belonging within our parish, where all are seen, known, and loved by God and this faith community.
We gather monthly to connect, grow in faith, and support one another on our spiritual journeys. Whether you’re looking for meaningful conversations, fellowship, or simply a space to be yourself, we welcome you with open arms.
Contact: Joseph Schneider
Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach AGLO in Chicago
Who still needs the Church? When suffering becomes familiar
By Fabian Adderley, Black Catholic Messenger, July 17, 2026
In the News
All Are Welcome! Are All Welcome?
by Ariell Watson Simon, New Ways Ministry, June 10, 2026
Excerpt: “Not all ministries have welcomed us. A church leader called us personally to explain that because of our marital status, we would not be allowed to serve as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. We could not be endorsed as ‘Catholics in good standing,’ so we could not be registered with the diocese for this ministry. The tone of the call was apologetic, and it was made clear that our contributions in other aspects of parish life are welcome.”
“…our need for one another’s gifts draws us into relationship. My parish community cannot simply say “We don’t need that gay couple” because in fact, they do! They need us to sing. The shortage of musicians has reminded our church body that it needs us to be part of it. I hope that as we work together as members of one body, they will come to recognize and value us for our other contributions as well.”
“…The church needs the gifts of the LGBTQ+ faithful. Perhaps God designed it that way, the Holy Spirit distributing gifts among the baptised so that no one member of the body can say to another ‘I do not need you.’”
Article Excerpt: "There is a difference between being attacked and being overlooked. Sometimes what wounds a community is not open hostility but neglect that feels normal. Not a decision that says you do not matter, but a pattern that assumes you will manage without much help. Over time, being overlooked becomes its own form of abandonment, even when no one uses that word.”
“…And this is where the gasp should come, because the Church knows how to recognize mission when it is new. It knows how to respond when need appears suddenly. It knows how to mobilize when growth demands adaptation, but when suffering is longstanding, it risks being interpreted as environment rather than emergency. And if suffering becomes environment, then the urgency fades.”
“No one says this aloud, but it can be felt when a community must fight to keep basic ministries alive while new initiatives flourish elsewhere. It can be felt when leadership energy is directed toward future demographics while present wounds remain structurally unchanged. It can be felt when the Church speaks passionately about expansion but quietly assumes that some communities will continue carrying what they have always carried.”
“We can hold Juneteenth, we can hold July 4th together. But when we fail to do that, when we fail to tell the full truth of our history, as some folk might say, ‘the true truth,’ it prevents us from healing. It prevents us from appreciating the richness of this country in order to solve the real challenges that we face as a nation and a society.”
—Bishop-elect Robert Boxie III, a newly appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, in the June 15 Public Dialogue “250 Years Towards Racial Justice: Progress, Promise, and Challenges.”
Online Events
Transgender Ministry of Accompaniment
A Catholic formation program for those called to walk with transgender and non-binary persons in faith, compassion, and hope, featuring the ministry and experience of Sister Luisa Derouen, OP.
Learn how to accompany transgender and non-binary persons and their families with compassion and pastoral sensitivity, informed by Catholic theology, tradition, and spirituality.
Participants engage with: expert-led formation videos, facilitated cohort discussions, practical resources, theological and pastoral reflection, guidance for accompanying transgender and non-binary persons and their families.
Topics include: faith and spirituality, catholic teaching and conscience, medical realities, family dynamics, transgender children, and more!
Priority deadline July 31
Spiritual Growth
About the Author
Rita Sommers-Flanagan is a guest writer at Spiritual Wanderlust. She lives somewhere between acceptance and agency on a busy farm by a beautiful river just outside a host of questionable realities. She is an avid repurposer, rock collector, and scavenger. People she trusts have proclaimed her to be a fantastic psychologist, professor, and mentor. Her writing has been called honest, wrenching, hilarious, whacky, and troubling. She’s quite pleased with those descriptors. Her first book, Godblogs: The Vernacular of Grace written in The Mother Tongue can be found here. Her second book, Who's to Say What Starlight Might Do to the Skin can be found here.
What If We Could Rest Like That?
God and I stayed up really late last night, watching pretty much anything we could get on regular TV. Except we avoided the news, or anything like the news. Being both omniscient and omnipresent, God has a harder time avoiding current events than I do, but we colluded as best we could. I ate left-over soup. God wasn’t hungry.
God stretched out on the loveseat, and I got my yoga mat, intending to do a few sit-ups during advertisements. The TV droned on.
“What’s on your mind?” God asked.
Nothing,” I said. “Why do you think we’re watching Big Bang reruns? Just call me Empty Mind. Checked Out. Clueless. In fact, let’s not talk right now.”
“Okay,” God said. The TV droned on. God got another pillow and dozed. I turned the lights down low and watched her instead of the TV for a while.
“What’re we going to do?” I silently asked the sleeping God. She was so beautiful. The steady rise and fall of her chest, the perfection of her eyebrows, her out-breath filling the room with a wild mixture of sage and lilac, animal musk, homelessness, and newly-minted money.
My human condition crept into the room, and settled beside me. I tried to slap it away and just watch God at rest, but it snuggled up, greedy, ugly, lazy, mortal, needy, vengeful, and as afraid as ever.
”Look,” I whispered to it. “What if we could rest like that?”
My human condition gave me a sideways glance. Almost a dare. Then it eased itself alongside God and went to sleep. I curled up fetal on the floor. The TV flickered, grabbing at my attention like it was for sale. Which it is. Everything is for sale. We all have our price. Except God. Some may not realize this, but you can’t buy God off. And God really isn’t into tax breaks that hurt the poor. With God, it’s more of an all or nothing kind of thing. But she’s never believed in trickle down economics. Never.
God stirred. “Rough week,” she said sleepily. “C’mere.”
My human condition had sprawled itself into all the available space. The loveseat looked uncomfortable to say the least, and I was about to refuse, but God had opened her eyes. I can never resist those deep pools of unspeakable welcome.
So I awkwardly squeezed in, between my human condition and God. In the tangle of all those urges, elbows, and defeats, God found my hand. “Tomorrow, do what you can do,” she said. “Tonight, rest.”
“But that’s the problem,” I said, already drowsy. “I don’t know what to do.” Then I slept. And now she’s gone. And my human condition is awake, demanding breakfast. I’m struggling to be hospitable.
“That’s it,” I hear from the corner. I make more toast and watch the snow drift down.
Book Club Suggestion
Art is How God Loves Us
Art Is How God Loves Us is an exploration of art as a spiritual gateway. In this deeply personal book, Merideth Hite Estevez, Juilliard-trained oboist, writer, and creative coach, beautifully illustrates how a spiritual perspective on art guides us toward our Creator and our most authentic selves.
Through stories of music, visual art, nature, and everyday life, Estevez reveals how beauty and brokenness alike can become places of divine connection. Whether standing before van Gogh's olive trees, listening to Brahms in a moment of doubt, or witnessing the chaos of parenting, we see how God's love is expressed through the creative process--both for those who appreciate art and for those who create it.
Estevez redefines art not as a measure of talent but as "Atoms Responding to Transcendence"--a way God speaks, heals, and draws us closer. With poetic language and theological depth, she encourages us to see ourselves as works of art: beloved, unfinished, and held by a Creator who never stops creating.
Complete with reflective exercises ("Ars Nova"), a study guide, and a creative creed, this book is ideal for anyone longing to reconnect with joy, beauty, and divine presence. Art Is How God Loves Us is a celebration of creativity as communion--and a call to live as God's art in the world.
Watch
“American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story,” is a feature-length documentary narrated by acclaimed actor Martin Sheen that tells the extraordinary true story of an American priest who was murdered for refusing to abandon his people. Born on a wheat farm in Oklahoma, Father Stanley Rother left behind an ordinary life to serve the Indigenous Tz’utujil people of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, during the country’s brutal civil war. He learned their language, shared their suffering, helped translate the New Testament into Tz’utujil, and became a beloved spiritual leader for the people he served. As violence and persecution closed in, Father Stan made a choice, returning to Guatemala from the safety of the US knowing it could cost him his life. A few months later, masked gunmen entered his rectory and murdered him. Through powerful storytelling, moving testimonies and unforgettable historical footage, “American Martyr” reveals the witness of Blessed Stanley Rother, the first American-born priest recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church.
Podcast
The Spiritual Life Podcast - Fr. Jim Martin, SJ Guest: Fr. Bryan Massingale
America, February 24, 2026
Whiplash with Maxwell Kuzma
Fr. Mike Schmitz Encourages Scrupulosity in Gay Catholics
What kind of God is being presented to LGBTQ Catholics? In this episode, Max and Emma respond to Fr. Mike Schmitz and Kim Zember's recent EWTN video "Can You Be Gay and Catholic?" and argue that beneath the conversation lies a troubling image of God—one that encourages self-doubt, scrupulosity, and fear rather than dignity, relationship, and freedom. From purity culture and evangelical testimony narratives to same-sex weddings and Catholic teaching, they explore how theology shapes people's lives and ask a simple question: if the Gospel is good news, why does this message feel so bad?
The Long Ride to Freedom:
A Civil Rights Pilgrimage Through the Deep South
This pilgrimage tells a story. This story marks a point in our history when nonviolent response transcended violent hostility and ultimately transformed our society. Although the Civil Right Movement drew people of all faiths and none, the heart of the movement remained in Black Christian churches. Our tour will highlight the churches that hosted key events in the movement’s progress and fueled the activists’ spirit.
We invite you to join us on this life-changing adventure, which includes stops in Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Tuskegee. Come experience with us the spirit that inspired the brave members of the Civil Rights Movement.
To register:
Download brochure and registration: www.GoCatholicTravel.com/26036
Telephone: (800) 553-5233. Ask for Alina. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST.
Email: Scott@GoCatholicTravel.com
Space is limited—contact us today!