Annual Conference
July 26-29, 2007

ConnECtion was a four-day retreat experience with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians. The conference began with dinner on Thursday, July 26, and ended after lunch on Sunday, July 29. Women gathered early by attending the 24-hour Women's Retreat July 25-26.

At the ConnECtion conference, you had the opportunity to hear powerful keynote addresses, participate in song and worship, sit in on a variety of workshops, and have fun and fellowship. Family groups (made up of a small number of people) were held to reflect on conference experiences.

This was a rich and rewarding weekend for attendees - whether a Christian for years or new in Christ - and regardless of where you might be in the journey of bringing faith and orientation together.

Chapman University

Orange, CA Campus

This year's conference and women's retreat will be held on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California.

Dr. Ralph Blair is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City.  He is founder and president of Evangelicals Concerned, Inc.

Since 1980, Dr. Blair has organized and sponsored ConnECtion conferences which have been life changing experiences for hundreds of gay men, lesbians, and friends who are responding with trust to God's love and who seek to live thankfully and faithfully under God's grace and peace. A fellow of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, he studied at Bob Jones University, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. Dr. Blair speaks throughout the U.S. and is the editor of a quarterly literature review on religion and homosexuality. 

Dr. Jack Rogers is Professor of Theology Emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary and moderator of the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He also served as vice-president of San Francisco Theological Seminary and founded their Southern California campus. Earlier, he was Professor of Philosophical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary for 17 years.

Dr. Rogers states, "I can see that prohibitions against ordaining people who are gay and lesbian are an anachronism - much like our church's previous policies against ordaining people of African descent, women, or people who are divorced or remarried." Dr. Rogers lives in Pasadena, CA, and is currently doing a national tour with his book, Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church.

Dr. Reta Halteman Finger has been teaching New Testament at Messiah College, in Grantham, Pennsylvania, for the past eight years. She received her doctorate in the Joint Program of Garrett-Evangelical Seminary and Northwestern University in 1997. She edited the Christian feminist magazine, Daughters of Sarah, from 1979-1994. Reta lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia and attends Community Mennonite Church.

At ConnECtion 2007 Reta will be leading a Bible study on Romans 14 with everyone taking roles of Jewish and Gentile believers wrestling with the integration of the Gentile Christians into the Jewish Church of the day without demanding that they become Jews (an analogy to gay Christians not having to become heterosexual in order to be accepted as fellow Christians).

Boogie with a select, local DJ one evening during the conference. An excellent opportunity to dance (or not!) , fellowship, meet new people and celebrate 28 years of ECWR annual conferences.