The Butler LGBTQ Interfaith Network will mark its fifth anniversary this month with an open house and nondenominational worship service Sunday.

The network is a collaboration of area religious leaders, lay leaders, and community organizers working to affirm the spirituality of all persons of faith.

It meets monthly at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 230 E. Jefferson St.

The Rev. Verna Call, the retired pastor of United Church of Christ in Evans City, one of the founders of the network with Pastor Jim Swanson of Covenant and Cantor Michal Gray-Schaffer of B'nai Abraham Synagogue, 519 N. Main St., said, “We have all been part of it since it began, and we are all going to be speaking on the 20th.”

Swanson said the Butler network was founded when Ted Hoover of Pittsburgh's Persad Center came to Butler five years ago. The Persad Center's mission is to improve the well-being of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning) communities, and the HIV/AIDS communities.

Swanson said, “We started it initially to provide education and support for the allies of the gay community and particularly for those disenfranchised or rejected by their own communities.”

Call said, “I think it was because we wanted to care for the needs of those spiritually struggling within the LGBT community, and this would include the families.”

“The organization helps with those issues with the LGBT community and to show them God's love and reach out to them,” Call said.

Gray-Schaffer said, “When I was first here, this was the first speaking engagement I had outside of the synagogue.”

“We exist to let the LGBTQ community know that there are people of faith that support them. A lot of them have been hurt by their home congregations when they came out as gay or wherever on the spectrum they were,” said Gray Schaffer.

Swanson said the monthly network meetings at Covenant “are attended by half clergy wanting to learn to more effectively reach out to their gay congregants and half lay people with gay relatives.”

He added to mark the network's fifth anniversary the group will have a Social Justice Open House at Covenant Presbyterian from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Call said the church will host the “Shower of Stoles,” 100 out of a collection of 1,000 liturgical stoles representing the lives of LGBT people of faith. The display encompasses more than 20 faiths, six countries and three continents.

Call said, “There are thousands out there. A group has collected stoles over the years. They are colorful, beautiful and very expressive.

“People struggled to keep faith in God and wanted to serve the Lord and their churches,” Call said. “God calls people from many different lifestyles. This exhibit gives support to those trying to serve.”

Swanson said there will also be a presentation and sale of Third World handmade crafts and fair-trade initiative products.

And, Swanson said, weather permitting, visitors will be able to explore Covenant Presbyterian's stop on the national Underground Railroad of the 1800s.

Gray-Schaffer said there will be a 7 p.m. worship service at Covenant.

She said, “All three of us are going to speak. We are splitting up the sermon time.

“I do know I am taking something from the Old Testament, and Jim and Verna are taking something from the New Testament,” she said.

Gray-Schaffer said, “I am taking a passage from Deuteronomy. Moses is addressing all of the Hebrews, and it is a very inclusionary speech.”

There will be refreshments and fellowship after the service, Swanson said. “It's open to everybody and anybody,” said Call of the service. “It's nondenominational and interfaith.”

Swanson said anyone who wants more information about the interfaith network should visit the church website: covenantbutler.org.

WHAT: Butler Interfaith Network’s fifth anniversaryWHEN: 4:30 to 7 p.m. SundayWHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Church, 230 E. Jefferson St. Open house featuring Shower of the Stoles Exhibit & SERRV program; 7 p.m. worship service for LGBTQ, families, friends and allies with messages of love, inclusion and hope. Food fellowship to follow.