Letter from National Bishop and Acting Primate

Credit: Image by BrutallyHonest from Pixabay

~ posted on May 13, 2025 to the In Full Communion: Anglicans and Lutherans Working Together in Canada website

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) and The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) join with people and communities around the world in observing the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) on May 17, 2025.

Raising awareness of the violence and discrimination experienced by members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is an important step in creating safe, healthy communities for all people. An ongoing concern is that deliberate disinformation takes aim at care and safer spaces for transgender and gender non-conforming youth; hateful rhetoric, discriminatory legislation, and restrictions directly place their health, safety, and well-being at risk.

The 2025 theme for IDAHOBIT is The power of communities, reflecting the diversity and richness within 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, from the grass roots to the global, and celebrating our varied and intersecting backgrounds, identities, and experiences. The theme for 2025 highlights the strength and resilience that emerges from our collective solidarity, recognising the contributions of human rights defenders, 2SLGBTQIA+ civil society groups, allies, and millions of people in our communities who support human rights and collective liberation.

Please join us in:

• praying for the dignity and acceptance for all people, for the safety of those made more vulnerable by recent government actions, for a world where everyone finds loving community, and for God’s guidance in our thoughts, words, and deeds;
• providing spaces and opportunities for safe, respectful conversations, where people feel support and love, and experience ongoing affirmation and transformation;
• celebrating the gifts for witness, service, spiritual care and leadership that 2SLGBTQIA+ people offer to faith communities;
• learning more about human rights, terminology, and pathways to liberation for 2SLGBTQIA+ people;
• speaking out against rhetoric that dehumanizes and demonizes anyone made in the image of God, and promoting accurate information about our neighbours and issues of public concern;
• advocating for 2SLGBTQIA+ rights at the local, provincial, and federal level; and
• preparing for the possibility of providing welcome to those fleeing persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

May the God of love and liberation hear our lament. May each of us be bold in our witness. May we all work to bring an end to attacks against people God has named beloved. May the power of communities enrich the life and work of the church.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
         Psalm 139:13-14

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Susan Johnson
National Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Most Rev. Anne Germond
Acting Primate
Anglican Church of Canada