2020 OSV Challenge Winner Eden Invitation Launches Porch Series

Posted: 10/11/2021 | Impact

In 2020, Eden Invitation was one of the three winners of $100,000 in the OSV Challenge. As a ministry that provides community and witness to LGBTQ disciples to increase belonging and whole-person flourishing in the Catholic Church, winning the challenge meant a huge opportunity to increase marketing efforts to invite more persons into the mission.

So, when the challenge ended, the team at Eden Invitation got to work using those funds and one of the results is the launch of “Porch Series,” a story-telling initiative that debuted three brand new videos at the premiere event on October 11th.

“We’re blessed to gather a people, fellow disciples seeking to reconcile faith and sexuality in their own unique, unrepeatable selves,” CEO & Co-founder Anna Carter said.

This first installment of the Porch series offers a series of vignettes—windows into the lives of three Eden Invitation community members. There’s no big dramatic narrative arc. The video shorts share people being people, offering a little window into their “yes” to Jesus Christ and God’s plan for their sexuality.

Why October 11th?

It’s “National Coming Out Day” in the secular world. Most social newsfeeds will be flooded with stories of friends, family members and remote acquaintances publicizing their experiences of sexuality and – all too often – their new decisions to pursue same sex relationships or identify as the opposite sex. Eden Invitation’s hope is to offer a few alternate narratives.

Additionally, October 11th is also the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and the feast of St. John XXIII. In his speech opening the council, the great saint reminds us that, “The great problem confronting the world after almost two thousand years remains unchanged. Christ is ever resplendent as the center of history and of life. Men are either with Him and His Church, and then they enjoy light, goodness, order, and peace. Or else they are without Him, or against Him, and deliberately opposed to His Church, and then they give rise to confusion, to bitterness in human relations…We feel we must disagree with prophets of gloom… and trust [the Church] will become greater in spiritual riches and gaining the strength of new energies therefrom, she will look to the future without fear.”

Anna Carter was grateful for the OSV Challenge and the opportunity to build Eden Initiative as a place for belonging. “We believe disciples experiencing same sex desires and gender discordance are one of the spiritual riches of the Church,” she said. “We hope that, in telling their stories of discipleship in the language of the culture, we can reach a new generation of young people searching for truth about themselves, God’s love, and the meaning of their lives.”

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