For the past few weeks, we’ve been sharing with you the importance of getting to know the stories of gay missionary disciples. If Catholics in leadership don’t know what discipleship looks like in gay people’s real lives, how can they believe that they, as leaders, can find and form gay disciples?

Now we are asking for your help with a major project. The Encounter Project begins with a simple survey. We’re seeking responses from as many people as possible who experience same-sex desire and have ever been devout Catholics.

We want to know how your experience of orientation affected your relationship with the Church: Were there ways that being LGBT/SSA+ made the Catholic faith appealing to you? Were there ways that experience made it harder to be Catholic? And, importantly, who made a difference for you? Were there specific people or encounters—with a teacher, a parent, a priest, or a friend—that opened doorways to faith, or seemed to slam the door shut?

Once we have a large number of responses, we’ll conduct in-depth interviews with a selection of respondents. We’ll share the results of our research in several different ways: as a white paper exploring best practices and “worst practices” in pastoral ministry; as video testimonies and profiles of gay Catholics and the encounters that made a difference for them; as a devotional for LGBT+ believers and seekers; and much more!

We’d love for you to share the survey as widely as possible, with all the LGBT/SSA+ people you know who are currently practicing Catholics or ever have been.

We’re exploring grant funding for this project, but in the meantime, it’s a part of BCF’s work that is supported entirely by your donations. If you’re as excited by this project as we are, consider what you can give to bring it to fruition as quickly as possible.

And we’ve received plenty of responses to our call for photos of your prayer corners, icons, and holy cards! Here are two:

Alex Long sends this photo of the whiteboard in his parish office--many of us live like this, amid prayers and practicalities!

Eloy Jesús Hernández González sends this photo of the saints who shape "my Latino Queer Catholic heritage": Our Lady Caridad del Cobre, the Virgin of La Leche, St. Sergius and St. Bacchus, St. Sebastian

Keep ’em coming! Send your photos to [email protected]

And please keep us in prayer.