I've been an atheist for longer than I was a practicing Catholic, and am newly Christian again, and to no one's surprise, am more than a bit out of practice on the Christian bit. (I'll spare you the details of my religious comings and goings.) I pray that this time, my experience as a queer Christian will be a happier and less lonely exiled one than the time I had before. As a Protestant rather than a Catholic this time around, I am trying to find the right Church for me. Perhaps it's the Catholic remnants in me, and I'm being a bit scrupulous, fretting over what Church and whose congregation to call home, but I am taking coming back to God very seriously.

What have your experiences been with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and The Episcopal Church (TEC)? I am blessed enough to have near me two congregations of the former, and one of the latter.

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The following are my own personal reflections and thoughts on pros and cons for me. Feel free to ignore.

The ELCA is the most appealing to me theologically, but I'm also interested in TEC. I'm tempted by the Book of Common Prayer, some of the more Catholic-seeming High Church decorum of the latter, the beautiful poetry of the likes of John Donne, the King James Version of Holy Scripture, the English theological literature for English speakers (much which I can still of course have as a Lutheran), but the theological meat and potatoes of Lutheranism are much more up my alley.

I've heard that there are such things as "Augsburg Anglicans" who are Lutheran in theology, since the Anglican umbrella is so large, and I see that the ELCA and TEC are even in full communion with each other since the Call to Common Mission. And up north, across the border in Canada, I've heard the Anglicans and the Lutherans are also quite comfortable with each other. Honestly, I'm very happy to see Christians coming together; it brings tears to my eyes that the ELCA and TEC are in full communion, and that for the sake of Christian love and unity, the ELCA has even embraced apostolic succession and has its ministers receive ordination from Episcopal bishops.

It also seems that (American) Lutheranism, being more congregational and governed by synod, is less uniform in liturgical practice than the, well, episcopal TEC, and I would prefer this sort of organization. On the Lutheran side, I will readily profess the Augsburg Confession and the other confessional documents in the Book of Concord. The Thirty-Nine Articles of Anglicanism I'm...far less enthusiastic about, we'll say. But it seems that I don't have to subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles to join the TEC (apparently it was never required, and they're considered historical documents by the TEC), and even the Anglican Church now requires only a general subscription. And I'm very attracted to the High Church trappings.

And of course, I would like to be part of a Church that does not despise me. I've heard that Episcopalian congregations tend to be very progressive, and that TEC has a long history of being at the forefront of social issues in America. It seems the ELCA has been lagging (although many reactionary congregations seem to have left since the churchwide assembly voted to allow the ordination of gay ministers in 2009), and just a few days ago ELCA elected a trans/non-binary bishop.

I'm very far from an expert with the differences among Protestants regarding theological and liturgical and episcopal practices, so this feels a very difficult choice, even aside from considering the bigotry I might come across. And it seems to me, if I could be a Lutheran theologically in an Episcopal congregation, I would leap at the chance. Because I think I want to be a Lutheran, but I would like not to have a worry always in the back of my mind of whether I'd be accepted. And I want to be a member of a Church in good conscience.

Now that I think about it, since ELCA and TEC are in full communion with each other, I can actually do that, can't I—I guess that's, sorta, ya know, the point of full communion, isn't it? And now I feel kinda silly about fretting about all this, since their full communion is supposed to cause me less stress, not more. But I'd still love to hear all y'all's thoughts on these churches as my queer siblings in Christ.