Chapter 1 The First Eighty Years Chapter 2 Fr Anthony McGuire Chapter 3 Bearing Witness in a Time of AIDS Chapter 4 Father Zachary Shore Chapter 5 A Queer Sanctuary?
Donal Godfrey, S.J., is executive director of university ministry at the University of San Francisco.
Gays and Grays is a fascinating history of a congregation in a
changing neighborhood that decides to continue ministering to its
existing congregation (the grays) while including a radically new
constituency (the gays), and grow numerically in the process. In
some ways this book could be a handbook on organizational change:
Godfrey gives the reader intimate details of the step by step
process through which the leadership of the congregation, clergy
and lay, took initiative, resisted restraining forces, and stayed
faithful to its missions (to gay and gray). What is special about
this book is that it does not see change as happening through a
single denouement that sets everything on the path to fulfillment;
rather it documents the many, many actions and accomplishments
needed to finally add up to significant change. The book is rich
with understanding of the various voices within the gay community,
the complexity of the Catholic Church (including the Archdiocese
and Rome), and the interconnectedness of this congregation with
other churches and groups with the community. If you’re looking for
a good read, deeper understanding of the gay community in San
Francisco, how to initiate and carry out change in a congregation,
this is the book for you.
*Speed Leas*
Gays and Grays tells the story of a colorful community of Catholic
Christians that in theory cannot exist but which maintains a
vibrant ministry in a community where it doesn't seem to fit. Donal
Godfrey has given an important gift to all who care about
congregations and their ability to adapt to changing communities.
It belongs in the libraries of bishops, seminaries and students of
congregational life in America across the usual lines of
denomination and sexual orientation.
*William McKinney, President Emeritus, Pacific School of
Religion*
Gays and Grays provides an excellent local history of Catholic
culture and gay and lesbian issues.
*Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture*
This book shows how a very ordinary parish has shown remarkable
pastoral strength in very changed and often hard times.
*Studies 2008*
Donal Godfrey has wriitne a loving portrait. . . . This study is
filled with surprising stories and everyday heroes. . . . Godfrey
has written a sensitive study that gives ample material for
reflection on what it means to be church.
*American Catholic Studies, Fall 2008*
Those who love Most Holy Redeemer Parish, a group far more
widespread than those lucky enough to be regular worshippers there,
will be delighted to have this gem of a history. It chronicles how
a 'run of the mill parish' became a globally-known mission outpost.
More than that, MHR found itself, through dark decades, keeping
alive the deep and tender hopes of many gay people and their
straight friends and relatives that the Catholic institutional
structure might one day catch up with the richest directions of its
own Faith. And MHR did, and does, this by manifesting that what is
theoretically impossible, a normally Catholic and normally gay life
of faith, is not only possible, but appears to be especially
blessed by the Holy Spirit. Donal Godfrey, a master in the art of
letting many different voices speak, has given us more than a
record of the warts-and-all history of the parish, lovingly
researched and readably retold: he offers us a theological witness
to the work of the One who makes all things new.
*James Alison, priest, theologian, and author*
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