Annual Lecture
Dr. William Stell Named as 2026 Annual Lecturer
Dr. William Stell is a historian of religion and sexuality in the United States and currently serves as an affiliate fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Culture, Society, and Religion. He previously taught at New York University. Before earning his Ph.D. from Princeton University, he served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bordentown, New Jersey. He is ordained in the United Church of Christ.
His acclaimed first book, Born Again Queer: A History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity, examines the often overlooked history of LGBTQ+ activism within evangelical Christianity and challenges long-held assumptions about the development of antigay Christianity in the United States.
Dr. Stell is currently writing The Moses of the Gay Liberation Movement, the first scholarly biography of the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of Metropolitan Community Churches and one of the most influential LGBTQ+ Christian leaders of the twentieth century.
Lecturing “The Power of Queer Religious History”
Queer people have long been part of the Christian story, even when their lives and contributions have been overlooked or intentionally erased.
In this year’s Annual Lecture, Dr. Stell will invite us to consider why recovering queer religious history matters. Drawing from his work as a historian of religion and sexuality, he will explore how LGBTQ+ people have shaped Christian communities and movements while challenging some of the stories that have traditionally been told about sexuality and American Christianity.
“The Power of Queer Religious History” offers an opportunity to look more carefully at the past and consider what these histories can teach the church today.
A Celebration Following the Lecture
Following the lecture, AWAB will host a special celebratory reception marking the successful completion of our $1 million Here We Grow Campaign.
After two years of extraordinary support from across the AWAB community, this gathering will give us an opportunity to celebrate what we have accomplished together and give thanks for the generosity that has positioned AWAB for a strong and faithful future.
During the reception, we will also dedicate a newly commissioned AWAB stole, created as a symbol of our shared ministry. The evening will include the introduction of a new hymn written especially for AWAB’s work and witness, which we will sing together for the first time.
We invite you to join us in St. Paul for an evening that reflects on where we have been while celebrating the future we are building together.
Friday, September 18, 2026
United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities
St. Paul, Minnesota
6:30 pm
At AWAB, we don’t want cost to stand in the way of participation. That’s why free registration is available to anyone who needs it. Simply choose “Free Registration” above and select “I am BOD or other designation” as your reason.
As always, Rainbow Circle members and sponsors receive complimentary registration as a thank-you for your ongoing support, and seminary students are free as we cheer you on in your educational journey.
Your presence is what matters most!
Previous Lectures:
2025 Lecture: Dr. Sabia-Tanis
Reveal, Resist, and Revel: Queer and Trans Artists’ Visions of Spirituality
Friday, September 19, 2025, 6:30 PM PDT
Seattle First Baptist Church
Seattle, WA
Lecturer: Dr. Sabia-Tanis, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Social Transformation and Director of the Social Transformation Program at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities
In AWAB’s 2025 Annual Lecture, Dr. Sabia-Tanis explored the ways queer and trans artists have helped shape powerful understandings of spirituality both within and beyond traditional religious institutions.
Through visual art and theological reflection, the lecture considered how LGBTQIA+ communities have imagined the sacred in ways that affirm queer and trans lives as blessed and holy. At a time when LGBTQ+ people continue to face efforts to dehumanize and exclude them, Dr. Sabia-Tanis showed how art can offer healing while helping communities resist harmful narratives.
Drawing from his extensive work in LGBTQ+ religious advocacy and education, Dr. Sabia-Tanis invited attendees to encounter queer and trans spiritual art as a source of strength and a reminder of the sacredness found within LGBTQ+ lives.
The lecture offered a compelling look at how artistic expression can help people reclaim faith and imagine spiritual communities where queer and trans people are able to see themselves fully reflected in the divine.
2024 Lecture: Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley
Voices in the Wilderness: An Introduction to Black Queer Hermeneutics and Homiletics
Monday, September 16th, 2024, 6:30 PM
at Memorial Church-Harvard
Lecturer: Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley, Senior Pastor, Myrtle Baptist Church, Newton, MA
The emerging field of Black queer theology calls for a shift beyond mere inclusion in traditional church spaces toward celebrating the divine within Black queer communities themselves. In this lecture, Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley introduced the concepts of Black Queer Hermeneutics and Black Queer Homiletics, interpretive and preaching methods that center the lived experiences, spiritual imagination, and liberation of Black LGBTQ+ Christians.
Drawing from his work Queering Black Churches and his upcoming book, Rev. Dr. Crowley examined the history and influence of Black queer religious spaces, tracing the legacy of figures like Rev. Elder Darling Garner, Rev. Dolores Berry, Rev. Dr. Renee McCoy, Marsha P. Johnson, and James Baldwin. He explored the ways Black queer preachers challenge oppressive theological traditions, create affirming worship spaces, and reclaim the sacredness of the erotic, the body, and self-acceptance in faith communities.
With a compelling blend of scholarship, storytelling, and cultural critique, this lecture provided a powerful vision for how Black queer theology continues to shape the broader religious landscape—creating spaces of radical welcome, truth-telling, and transformation.
2023 Lecture: Rev. Dr. Susan Shaw
“Truth and Lies at the Foot of the Cross: The Church and God’s LGBTQ+ Children”
Monday, September 11, 2023, 6:30PM CT
A 50th Anniversary Reception, featuring cake, will follow the lecture.
at Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, TX
Lecturer: Rev. Dr. Susan Shaw, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University
We’ve all heard how everyone’s equal at the foot of the cross. That doesn’t seem to apply to LGBTQ+ people, however, according to many Christians. In fact, the disgust and hatred of LGBTQ+ people among many Christians is so great that they eagerly accept, tell, create, and repeat lies and falsehoods about the queer community and work actively to limit, roll back, and deny civil and human rights to LGBTQ+ people. Surely, however, of all places, the foot of the cross is a place for truths. On the cross, Jesus sided with the marginalized, oppressed, and despised. The resurrection was God’s affirmation of that choice, and, in his “coming out” of the tomb, Jesus offered hope, possibility, love, and welcome. We’ll explore truths and lies at the foot of the cross, drawing from the latest headlines, biological, medical, and social sciences, gender studies, and theological and biblical studies and make a specific case for Baptist welcome of God’s LGBTQ+ children.
Click here for the lecture recording
2022 Lecture: Rev. Dr. Cody Sanders
STRENGTHEN WHAT REMAINS: QUEER APOCALYPTIC HOPE
Monday, September 26th, 2022 6:30 PM
at St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church
1600 Norris Ave., Charlotte, North Carolina
Lecturer: Rev. Dr. Cody Sanders
The age in which we are living and dying is one of myriad endings and edges. The planetary climate, the political climate, the composition of our everyday lives and communities are all filled with possibility and peril. Christian faith traditions hold a resource of visionary potential for living at the edges of life and the endings of the world as we know it: apocalyptic imagination. This lecture will explore the potential of holding together three concepts – queer, apocalyptic, hope – known to cause trouble and provoke revolutionary imagination, asking: What potential does queer apocalyptic hope offer to faith communities to awaken us from our captivity to the status quo, sustain us in cultivating communities of compassion and justice, and nurture our capacity to “strengthen what remains and is on the point of death” (Rev. 3:2).