LGBTQIA+ Inclusion

Willow Avenue Mennonite Church voted to adopt the following resolution in January 2022: to welcome, accept, and affirm LGBTQIA+ people without reservation to all aspects of the life of the congregation including but not limited to membership, baptism, marriage, volunteer leadership, employment, and pastoral ministry. We hope you will find this welcome and affirmation in all that we do.

Some upcoming things we’re hosting related to fostering LGBTQIA+ inclusion are below.

PRIDE Parade and Festival 2026

Save the date for June 6, 2026 for Fresno’s annual Pride Parade and Festival. As with last year, Willow Avenue Mennonite Church will have a float in the parade and booth presence at the festival to follow. Additional details to come. Pictures below are from our participation in 2025.

Pride 2025

Willow Avenue Mennonite Church hosted various events during pride month of 2025. See below for more information about these special events.

1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture

On June 14th, 2025 from 1-4pm, we hosted a free public screening of the documentary 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture. The documentary explores the first appearance of the word "homosexual" in a biblical translation and chronicles its effect on culture, politics, religion, and the LGBTQIA+ community over the last century. The film screening was followed by a panel discussion.

Queering the Bible: Queer Approaches to biblical interpretation beyond the clobber texts

On June 21, 2025 at 6pm, our associate pastor, Brian DiPalma, who completed doctoral work integrating feminist and queer approaches to exploring constructions of masculinities in biblical literature, discussed the diversity of queer approaches to interpreting biblical texts other than the “clobber texts” (i.e., the small handful of biblical texts often marshaled against LGBTQIA+ people). The flyer from that event is below.