Link to the archived videos...

A big thanks to the 34 participants that joined us in person and the 44 individuals who joined us on our live stream for our conference.

Now that our conference has ended, you can watch our archived videos here:
Click here to see the archived videos.

Please see the amended schedule above.  Due to extreme weather conditions in San Francisco, the Thursday events of our conference have been cancelled.

We hope you will still join us on Friday and Saturday and that you will stay safe and warm during the storms.

Be well,

Conference co-ordinator
Pastor Megan Rohrer

Featured Panalist

Rev. Lee Whittaker, MDiv

Rev. Lee Whittaker is an ordained minister with the Progressive Christian Alliance. He earned his Masters of Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry and is currently taking classes at the Pacific School of Religion towards Certificates in Sexuality and Religion and Advanced Professional Studies. Lee serves on the Ministry Team for Tapestry Ministries DoC in Berkeley, CA. He also serves on the Leadership Council for the Progressive Christian Alliance, advisory board for the Coalition of Welcoming Congregations, and is also on the Transgender Task Force at the Pacific School of Relgion. Lee originally comes from the east coast and moved to Berkeley in 2010 to attend seminary.  He proudly identifies as a progressive Christian transman.

Introducing Pastor Megan Rohrer

The Rev. Megan Rohrer is the first openly transgender pastor ordained in the Lutheran church, was named a 2014 honorable mention as an Unsung Hero of Compassion by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, received an Honorary Doctorate from Palo Alto University and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in transgender nonfiction.

Currently the pastor of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco, CA, Pastor Rohrer's Bible Study that Doesn't Suck mobile app and contemporary music masses (Lady Gaga, Beatles, etc) inspire 3,600+ participants a month interact with the weekly justice-centered bible studies. Since 2002, Pastor Rohrer has also served as the Executive Director of Welcome- a communal response to poverty and raised over a million dollars, served 603,000 meals, given away 404,000 pounds of groceries, grown 5 tons of produce in community gardens, given away 18,000 pairs of socks and 1,000 pairs of prescription glasses.

Introducing Luciano Kovacs

Luciano is currently serving as North America Regional Secretary for the World Student Christian Federation and has held this position since January 2008. In this capacity, Luciano coordinates the work of the WSCF in North America (Canada and US) and has global responsibilities as member of the global staff team, which includes, among other staffing and co-moderating the WSCF Advocacy and Solidarity Committee. Luciano has facilitated the rebirth of the Student Christian Movement USA

Luciano previously worked as Social Justice Director for Jan Hus Presbyterian Church in New York coordinating its homeless Outreach and Advocacy Program, its Global Concerns Program and its Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender Advocacy Program. In this capacity, Luciano sat on the board of Presbyterian to End Homelessness and co-founded East Side Congregations for Housing Justice, a Manhattan-based coalition of churches and synagogues working on affordable housing and housing justice in New York City and the USA. Luciano produced six off-off Broadway plays at the Jan Hus Playhouse in New York City.

Luciano holds a Laurea degree in Foreign Languages and Literature from the University of Turin with a "Laurea" thesis on "A Gender critique of R.K. Narayan's novels" as part of his specialization in Literature of English speaking countries. Luciano holds a teaching certificate in English language and literature from the School Board of Parma Province, Italy and a Junior and Senior Fellowship on Non-Profit Management from Baruch College in New York, USA. Luciano studied acting at HB Studio in New York City. Luciano also studied at the University College of Dublin, Ireland for his European Erasmus Exchange Program, English Literature at the University College of London and researched his thesis at the University of Glasgow.

Luciano is a member of the Waldensian Church of Italy in his hometown Torre Pellice. He has been a member of the Agape Political Camp planning committee since 1998 and was a member of the Theological Camp staff in 1997. Luciano was involved in leadership positions in the Federazione Giovanile Evangelica Italiana (Italian Youth Protestant Federation) and the national representative to the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). From 1995-97 he sat on the European Regional Committee of the WSCF.

Luciano writes poetry and lyrics for an Italian band, Pellicans, whose second CD came out in October 2012. Acting and wild dancing are among his most-cherished passions and ubiquitousness his most sought-after desire. Luciano considers himself a long-life justice and peace activist!   

Featured Leader: Sarah McCune

Sarah McCune is the current Student Christian Movement-USA National Organizer. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Birmingham-Southern College and was active in her colleges' Allies movement. In 2010 McCune was a Hess Fellow partnered with the United Nations Alliance and Civilizations and a member of the 2011 Moore Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program cohort at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is currently enrolled at the Graduate Theological Union, affiliated with the Pacific School of Religion, in Berkeley, California where she is a Master’s candidate in Art and Religion.  Highlights of seminary have included SCM-LTP meetings, designing sacred spaces, meeting Pat Schneider, and meeting people excited about good news. Sarah has used her seminary education as foundation for new artistic exploration: her first exhibition, “Ossuary: Exhuming Poetry” was inspired by Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones, her mixed media piece “Prayer in a Time of Distress” won first place for visual art in the National Religion Campaign Against Torture’s Call for Art--Life in a Box - Solitary Confinement: Torture in Your Backyard, and she is currently working on a new series about biblical call stories using candle wax.  Recently she launched her new website Thy Flesh and Thy Bone, which explores art as incarnational theology. 

Art Project: Altar*ed 

Sarah will lead an art project that  extend for the three days of the conference with a concrete outcome of displaying the art in welcoming congregations across the country. 

The project will be a photographic exploration of bodies as church altars. Participants will be required to sign a waiver and be willing to help implement this project idea.

Leadership Training Leader: Lauren Quock

Lauren Quock is a queer Chinese American artist, activist, and aspiring elementary school teacher. She grew up attending the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown in San Francisco and went to a Lutheran Missouri-synod school from kindergarten through 8^th grade.

Lauren first recognized the need to create safe spaces for LGBTQ people of faith in college, when a debate about same-sex marriage pitted the queer community against the faith community and left little room for queer people of faith.

While on the staff at the PANA Institute at Pacific School of Religion, Lauren opened the conversation about LGBTQ justice with youth leaders of color by holding Queer 101 workshops and sharing her experience as a queer Asian American Christian.

Lauren has been involved with the Network on Religion and Justice for Asian Pacific Islander LGBTQ People since its founding in 2004 and currently serves as the organization’s Coordinator. With her team of volunteers, she creates community spaces, including a talking circle and an intergenerational choir, for API LGBTQ people of faith and allies who have been alienated by the church. She also facilitates educational workshops at API churches to break the silence around LGBTQ experiences and to help them to be more welcoming of LGBTQ people.

Lauren currently lives in Berkeley, CA.

The Network on Religion and Justice for Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People (NRJ) is a culturally respectful, LGBTQ-affirming, spiritually grounded, justice seeking network of API-LGBTQ organizations and individuals

their faith communities, family and friends working to nurture and support efforts toward a fully LGBTQ-inclusive Asian Pacific Islander faith community.

NRJ creates community spaces and leadership development for Asian Pacific Islander LGBTQ people of faith and allies through monthly organizing meetings and Talking Circles. NRJ provides education to Asian Pacific Islander churches to increase their understanding of LGBTQ people and support their efforts towards full inclusion of LGBTQ people. NRJ creates resources for Asian Pacific Islander LGBTQ people of faith and Asian Pacific Islander faith communities, including a director of LGBTQ-friendly API churches,directory of LGBTQ-friendly API pastors, library of sermons and articles, and videos! Check us out at www.netrj.org.

Featured Panelist: Pastor Israel Alvaran

Israel I. Alvaran is an ordained Elder in the Philippines Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. He has served in various ministry settings as pastor, youth minister and faculty at a UMC university and seminary in the Philippines. A long-time activist, Israel worked as Person-in-Mission of the UMC General Board of Global Ministries for the Manila Episcopal Area, focusing on advocacy for low-wage workers. For a number of years, he was a community outreach organizer for UNITE HERE Local 2 (the hotel workers union) and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice of California. Prior to joining RMN, he served as national organizer for economic justice with the UMC General Board of Church and Society. Israel lives in San Francisco, CA and is immersed in the life of his community. Until recently, he was an officer and board member of San Francisco Pride at Work, an organization committed to LGBTQI rights in the workplace. He is currently on the executive board of the Jobs with Justice chapter in the SF Bay Area. Israel has a Masters of Divinity degree and a Masters of Theology degree from Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines. With a dissertation focused on faith-rooted organizing, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA in 2010 as a recipient of the UMC Crusade Scholarship. When not in the thick of rallies and picket lines, Israel loves to cook and bake for friends, and spends quality time with his adorable dog Waui Kush

Closing Worship Speaker: Pastor Tita Valeriano

The Rev. Tita Valeriano is currently building up an evolving progressive faith community in the East Bay Area, California while raising a son, Taal, with her spouse, Jennifer. She has served in various ministries of the church, as parish pastor, campus ministry pastor, and the Lutheran World Federation’s Youth/Young Adult Secretary in Geneva, Switzerland and Regional Officer for North America. Her work has focused on nurturing an ecumenical, multicultural, missional church that invites and includes youth and young adults and people from various cultures, race and class. She is also very involved in justice-oriented and advocacy ministries in the community especially on immigration and economic justice. Recently she participated in various advocacy and accompaniment work on the recently passed bills, Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals, Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, LGBTQ immigrants. Born and raised Lutheran in the Philippines, she was trained in holistic mission. Also trained as a musician contextualizing church music and liturgy, she has traveled in different parts of the world, where she has learned from and worked with renowned church global musicians, and regularly leads creative worship and world music celebrations. Currently she is serving a house church, Way of Grace. For fun, she loves photography, international cooking, traveling and most of all to gather people from various walks of life around a bountiful table.

Conference Chaplain: Pastor Amanda Zentz

The Rev. Amanda Zentz is the pastor at Central Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon.  With a passion for baptism and funerals and a love for liturgy, Pr. Amanda digs deep into the traditions of the church to teach the deeper meanings of our ritualized actions.  Growing up outside of the church, Amanda was baptized on December 14, 1997 while studying for her undergraduate degree in Theatre Arts from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. Amanda went on to receive her MDiv from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berekeley, CA in 2004.  She was ordained into service in the ELCA in 2005.  She is currently in her third call, having served in Medford, OR and Mount Vernon, WA before her call in 2013 to Portland.

Walking as an ally for many years, Pr. Amanda is honored to serve an RIC congregation with passion around welcoming all people to congregational life.  She continues to learn and grow in what it means to serve as a public advocacy voice for the LGBTQ community, and other minority groups. Amanda also happens to skate modern Women's Flat Track Roller Derby under the name FeeNix.  (For we proclaim that, in his death, Christ Nixed the Fee for our salvation.)

Featured Presenter: Marga Gomez

Marga Gomez is a native New Yorker who makes San Francisco her home and identifies as a bicoastal Gemini. As the daughter of a Cuban comedian and Puerto Rican dancer Marga made her stage debut in New York at age 7 and was hooked ever since. Her long and colorful career includes achievements in comedy, theater, film and television. She tours nationally and internationally as one of America’s first openly Gay comics. Her awards include “Best Comedian 2009 and 2008 Reader’s Choice Award” from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Her college appearances landed her on the 2009 Campus Pride Hot List as one of their “top 25 LGBT Favorites.” Marga’s television credits include LOGO’s “Wisecracks” and “One Night Stand Up,” Comedy Central’s “Out There,” HBO’s “Comic Relief VI,” and Showtime’s “Latino Laugh Festival.”

Her comedy career is profiled on Here Network’s “Laughing Matter’s” (also available on DVD.) Marga Gomez is the author/performer of eight solo plays: "Long Island Iced Latina", "Los Big Names", A Line Around The Block, Memory Tricks, Marga Gomez is Pretty, Witty & Gay, Jaywalker, The Twelve Days of Cochina and "Proud and Bothered", which, along with her collaboration with Carmelita Tropicana on an erotic horror comedy Single Wet Female, have been produced nationally, internationally and in New York at The Public Theater, The 47th Street Theater, Performance Space 122, Dixon Place and La Mama. She frequently collaborates with director David Schweizer on her theater pieces.

Marga is a Drama Desk award nominee and the winner of the GLAAD Media Award for Off-Broadway Theater, Theater LA’s Ovation Award for “Best Featured Actress,” New York’s Hola Award for “Best Solo Performance.” Marga’s acting credits include roles in the Off Broadway and national companies of The Vagina Monologues working alongside Rita Moreno, Vicki Lawrence, Lisa Ling and Jo Beth Williams. Selections from Gomez’s work have been published in several anthologies including Extreme Exposure (TCG Books), HOWL (Crown Press), Out Loud & Laughing (Anchor Books), Contemporary Plays by American Women of Color (Routledge) When I Knew (Harper-Collins) and Out of Character (Bantam Books.)