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 | | The Rev. Juan Reed | | | Inducted 2005 | | | Photo: Israel Wright | | Social worker and Episcopal priest, for leading
a parish (St. Martin's) that openly welcomes GLBT persons, for providing
pastoral support to men living with HIV and AIDS, and for his example as
an openly gay African American clergyman.
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| From 1991 to the present, Father Juan Reed has
been vicar of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, at 5710 West Midway Park on Chicago’s West
Side. When he arrived, St. Martin’s was coping with
shifting demographics because of white flight, with
threats of urban blight, with a neglected physical
plant, with a liturgy that had not been revised, and
with dissension when changes were proposed. | |
| According to its current mission statement, St.
Martin’s is committed to dismantling racism and
working for social justice; welcomes those who are
unchurched or whose needs and aspirations are unfulfilled by traditional churches;
welcomes and affirms African American LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender)
people and the unique contributions they bring to the church; and welcomes and affirms
multiple types of families. | |
| In the words of his nominator, “It seems as if Rev. Reed has always been here. He is a man
who has taken the meaning of the Scriptures’ call to ‘love thy neighbor’ and made it
whole and real for everyday life.” In contrast to members of the clergy who cite religious
books as the basis for antigay teachings, Reed has been a visible, openly gay, and
committed Christian minister within the West Side’s African American population. Reed
has said, “At St. Martin’s we break the tradition open, not destroy it. To be Anglican does
not mean to be Anglo. Our Anglicanism does not have to be expressed in a Eurocentric
way. At St. Martin’s it’s done in a very black way. . . . What we decided and discerned was
that God is calling us to do what those other black churches are not doing, like teaching
ministries to address ex-offenders and persons with HIV and AIDS, tackling African
American lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, linking issues of social justice to
spiritual transformation.” St. Martin’s has been called the last survivor of what were once
10 Episcopal churches serving the West Side. | |
| Reed received a master’s degree in social work from Loyola University Chicago’s
School of Social Work in 1981, later a master’s degree in divinity from Seabury-Western
Theological Seminary, and in 2004 a doctor’s degree in ministry from the Catholic
Theological Union. From 1978 to 1980 he was a psychiatric technician at Illinois
Masonic Medical Center in Chicago. He was a clinical social worker from 1981 to 1984
for the Chicago Child Care Society and from 1984 to 1989 for Lawrence Hall Youth
Services. In 1989 and 1990 he served as diagnostic treatment program director for
Episcopal Charities and Community Services. He also conducted a private clinical social
work practice from 1983 to 1990. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1991. | |
| Since arriving at St. Martin’s, he has made the church into a place where progressive
GLBT persons can share worship with their heterosexual fellow Christians. He invites
the congregation through his sermons and teaching to participate in a theology of
liberation. | |
| Reed’s stance as an out and affirming African American Episcopal priest is a brave act in
a community where the church has been viewed by many as an “open closet.” He has
been in the forefront of pastoral AIDS care, helping African American gay and bisexual
men with HIV and AIDS to make a link between themselves and the God in which they
believe—a link that often goes unfostered for same-gender-loving persons. | |
| This biography is as of the induction date. It has not been updated. |
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