by Hayley Feland
A Lutheran church in Edina stood for the reading of the “sparkle creed” during a church service, according to a livestream available on its YouTube page.
“I believe in a non-binary god, whose pronouns are plural,” Pastor Anna Helgen said during Sunday’s service. “I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads.”
Edina pastor Anna Helgen reads the "Sparkle Creed," saying she believes in a "non-binary God" and that Jesus had "two dads." She also invokes Taylor Swift's lyrics during a prayer. pic.twitter.com/bE4DPsklqW
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“I believe in the rainbow spirit, who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity,” she added.
The congregation, led by Helgen, proclaimed their belief in “the church of everyday saints, as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the AIDS quilt.”
“I believe love is love is love, so beloved let us love,” the creed concluded.
During the same service, Helgen invoked lyrics from Taylor Swift’s songs while praying over “Swifties” who attended last weekend’s concerts.
The “sparkle creed” was created by a woman named Rachel Small-Stokes, a pastor from Louisville. Small-Stokes explained in a 2021 Facebook post that the idea was born after her phone translated the Apostle’s Creed to the “sparkle creed.” Small-Stokes recently shared a a video of a “drag revival” from a group called Drag Daddy Productions on her Facebook page.
Helgen is one of two pastors at Edina Community Lutheran Church (ECLC), which says it is “currently on a long term journey to become an anti-racist congregation.”
The Lutheran church also endorses “ecofaith” and abortion, and holds monthly “anti-racism vigils.”
According to church documents, the monthly events are a response to the racism of religious institutions. “Vigils regularly remind us that it has often been religious institutions that have been the perpetrators of discrimination and racism and so religious institutions not only need to confess their past, but decide to change,” the document reads.
The church began holding the vigils during the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
ECLC is also connected to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a controversial bail fund group that ECLC describes as a mission partner. According to the church’s website, “The ECLC Cash Bail Team works to reform the cash bail system in Minnesota with the goal of systemic equity.”
The church’s website says its integration of social justice issues goes back as far as the 1980s, when it led classes on protesting. In 1992, the church held a seminar on anti-racist children’s literature.
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Hayley Feland previously worked as a journalist with The Minnesota Sun, The Wisconsin Daily Star, and The College Fix. She is a Minnesota native with a passion for politics and journalism.
Photo “Pastor Anna Helgen” by Alpha News.
