Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center presents its 2021 LGBT Spirituality Symposium: Black, Queer, and Spiritual on Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- January 18, 2021. Typically held as an in-person mini-series, the 2021 event will be a virtual event premiered on Bradbury-Sullivan Center's Facebook and YouTube channels.

This year's focus is Black, Queer, and Spiritual featuring:

Pastor Jamie Frazier, lead pastor of Lighthouse Church of Chicago: Reverend Jamie Frazier, affectionately known as Pastor J, loves working at the intersection of race, sexuality, and religion.  He attended Vanderbilt University for his undergraduate studies on a full-tuition scholarship.  A celebrated orator, Jamie addressed the historic March on Springfield for Marriage Equality, as well as helped open the 2014 LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Summit with words of encouragement and hope. He’s appeared on CNN And several local Chicago news affiliates, been featured in Newsy, and his church work was referenced in The Washington Post. Pastor J has keynoted and presented workshops at various academic institutions ranging from The University of Chicago to DePaul to Loyola University.  His passion and hard work was recognized by Chicago Theological Seminary when he received the inaugural 2017 Bayard Rustin Award for Outstanding Service and Commitment to the Work of Social Justice. Lastly, in 2019 Rev. Frazier organized a movement for Black Queer liberation into an organization Lighthouse Foundation, which is a non-sectarian, nonprofit social justice organization that advances justice for Black LGBTQ+ people across Chicagoland through empowerment, education, and entertainment.

Rabbi Sandra Lawson, associate chaplain for Jewish life at Elon University: A rabbi, activist, public speaker, and musician, Rabbi Sandra received ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in June 2018. She was born in St. Louis, Mo. and grew up in a military family. She graduated from Saint Leo University magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in Sociology from Clark Atlanta University. Rabbi Sandra has served in the United States Army, as a Military Police person with a specialty in Military Police Investigations, specializing in cases involving child abuse and domestic violence. Upon leaving the military she started a personal training business and later worked as an Adjunct Instructor of Sociology at local community colleges. She has also served as the Investigative Researcher for the Anti-Defamation League’s Southeast Region, becoming the go-to person when Law Enforcement in the South needed information on hate groups. Rabbi Sandra uses her rabbinic training to bring Judaism to where people already are in their lives. As a rabbinical student Rabbi Sandra received a prestigious grant to lead Shabbat services for unaffiliated Jews in a vegan cafe, she also received a grant to launch her podcast Minutes of Torah. Rabbi Sandra’s vision as a Rabbi is to help build a more inclusive Jewish community where all who want to come are welcomed, diversity is embraced and we can come together to learn and to pray.

The conversation will be moderated by Rabbi Steven Nathan, Associate Chaplain at Lehigh University.

This program is presented by Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center thanks to a grant from E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and from St. John's UCC Allentown.

Closed captioning will be available when viewed on YouTube.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: an event graphic features headshots of Pastor Jamie Frazier, a black man with short black hair and facial hair. He is wearing a button down shirt and tie, and Rabbi Sandra Lawson, a black woman wearing sunglasses and playing a guitar. Their photos are in front of a pride flag.]