Our Roots
Spirit of the Lakes was welcomed into the United Church of Christ in 1992 and is the first congregation of a mainline denomination serving gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allied people (GLBTA).
In 1988 dozens crammed into the "Upper Room" at the Aliveness Project on East 38th Street as a community church without denominational affiliation. We gathered to be with each other as queer people, hear The Word read and preached, to break the Bread and share the Cup, and to have social time afterward.
All these years later we are much changed. We are not who we were then, either individually or collectively; people have come and gone. Through times of fantastic growth and sudden loss, through celebration and mourning, through challenges and successes we are still here, welcoming God's people. We are building and growing on a firm foundation!
SOTL is a community of faith; a community of love and support; a community where all people are affirmed for who they are; a community of fun and work, of laughter and tears, of comfort and challenge. We are an Open and Affirming and Just Peace Congregation.