A progressive Lutheran church is facing criticism after a clip of the congregation reciting an LGBTQ+ version of the Apostle's Creed surfaced online.

On Sunday, June 25, Edina Community Lutheran Church (ECLC) in St. Edina, Minnesota, recited the so-called "Sparkle Creed," led by co-pastor Anna Helgen.

"I invite you to rise in body or spirit and let us confess our faith today in the words of the ‘Sparkle Creed,'" Helgen said before the congregation.

The creed includes several controversial claims, including that God is non-binary and Jesus had "two dads." The Holy Spirit is also referred to as "the rainbow Spirit" in the doctrine.

The "Sparkle Creed" reads as follows:



I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural.

I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw everyone as a sibling-child of God.

I believe in the rainbow Spirit, who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity.

I believe in the church of everyday saints as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the AIDS quilt, whose feet are grounded in mud and whose eyes gaze at the stars in wonder.

I believe in the calling to each of us that love is love is love, so beloved, let us love.

I believe, glorious God. Help my unbelief. Amen.



The "Sparkle Creed" was initially written in 2021 by Rev. Rachel Small Stokes, pastor of Immanuel United Church of Christ in Louisville, Kentucky.

Several Christian leaders and conservatives denounced the clip after it was posted to Twitter.

"Remember when everyone was debating whether they'd want someone to go to a church like this or no church at all? This is, without qualification, idolatry," pastor and podcaster Patrick Miller tweeted. "It is liturgical malpractice. It is ‘the sparkle creed.'"

Author Neil Shenvi urged pastors to use the clip as a cautionary tale for other congregations. "Pastors: the best way to love your ‘woke-sympathetic' neighbors/congregants is to speak the truth clearly. Show them where their thinking inevitably leads," he wrote.

Michigan pastor JJ Mannschreck gave two "big reasons" why the "Sparkle Creed" is wrong.

"It's basically just a big trash bag full of favorite buzz words," Mannschreck wrote, "When the goal is just to cram buzz words into familiar sentence structures - it actually becomes about the person talking, and gives us no information about God," he added.

The ECLC is affiliated with Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and has been a part of the denomination's Reconciling in Christ initiative since 1985. The Reconciling in Christ initiative seeks to encourage "the full welcome, inclusion, and equity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual/aromantic (LGBTQIA+) Lutherans."

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