By Lois Maassen, Hope Church and Room for All board member
Hope Church joined the roster of Room for All churches in 2012, joining other congregations committed to affirming that all persons belong to God. In a more normal year, many of us would participate in Room for All events, and we’d welcome Room for All leaders and members to our in-person fellowship. To keep us in touch with the organization and its plans, I planned a conversation with Cameron Van Kooten Laughead, executive director.
Cameron, the pandemic has made it difficult your first year to introduce yourself in your new role as executive director. Could we start with just a bit of your background?
While I’ve had the privilege of visiting Hope Church and meeting many of you over the years, it’s been a while. I’m a native of Pella, Iowa, and a 2013 graduate of Central College. Through Central, I got involved with Room for All, joined the Board of Directors in Spring 2013, and the staff in 2015. My husband, Ian, and I have been married for five years; we relocated to his hometown of Des Moines in 2018, after some time in Ohio and New York City.
Uncertainty in the RCA denomination about its future has been prolonged by the pandemic, which prevented the General Synod from meeting in 2020. What has the impact of that been for Room for All?
At first, I noticed many churches just trying to keep their heads above water. I’m not a pastor and don’t know exactly what’s taught in seminary, but I’m confident there’s no class called “Pandemic Pastoring: throwing out the budget, managing your congregants’ anxiety, keeping your family safe, and doing it all from Zoom/6+ feet away.”
There were many congregations that in “normal times” would have kept digging in and doing work to journey towards an LGBTQIA-affirming ministry, but that needed that to take a back-burner. I’d say in mid-fall we began seeing congregations hitting their stride with digital worship and long-term planning in this new dynamic. The trauma has really clarified what’s important.
In the last month alone, we’ve seen increased interest in joining the roster; many pastors have reached out about resources for their congregations, and engagement with our online presence and email newsletters has skyrocketed. We all had a learning curve last summer, but it’s becoming clear that many folks are ready to reinvest energy in the justice issues they care about.
Room for All’s work has traditionally been quite relational, with in-person conferences, training events, and conversations. How has your work continued in our current conditions?
Our work, like that of so many others, has gone online! A significant portion of the RfA’s interpersonal communications has always been digital, but that’s the reality of having a small staff and a denomination-wide constituency. Room for All has spent this time working to provide resources that can help lighten the load for pastors and congregational leaders. One of these is our Theology Thursday Facebook Live program. We’ve been exploring other programming too, things that RfA can offer to engage folks so pastors and leaders can catch their breath every once in a while.
You mention the Theology Thursdays, for which our own Beth Carroll has been a guest. Say more about your intent for them. Where can we find them?
Rev. Beth wasn’t just a guest, she was the very first Theology Thursday guest! Theology Thursday is a weekly Facebook Live “podcast” where the guest/s and I look through that week’s lectionary passages with a queer-inclusive lens. A huge part of its creation was my own curiosity and difficulty finding an engaging breakdown of these weekly passages that make their way into so many of our pulpits. One surprise has been the incredible response from ministers who comment or even email and text me to say “Wow! I’ve never read this passage in that way. This is definitely changing my sermon for next week.” It’s been deeply gratifying see the ways in which this really simple, low-cost program is making its way into sermons around the denomination.
We aim to go live on RfA’s Facebook every Thursday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Eastern, although that can be flexible. RfA’s facebook page (www.facebook.com/roomforallrca) is the place to find the episodes and get notified of that week’s air time.
What else is in your plans for 2021?
We’re looking forward to a productive year. We’re in the beginning stages of expanding our staff, outlining educational modules, continuing to provide programs like Theology Thursday and other digital
plug-in opportunities for churches, and rostering congregations! We’re going to connect more meaningfully with the RCA’s LGBTQIA seminarians and college students and continue to educate ourselves on the ways racism/white supremacy intersect with our LGBTQIA-focused mission and how we’re responsible for dismantling that. I hope to provide a community-building space like conferences of yesteryear, even if it needs to be online. In short, RfA is going to continue providing the pastoral care and resources for LGBTQIA people that the RCA hasn’t figured out how to do yet.