Welcome Reception: 6-7PM
Interfaith Service: 7PM
Come together with Brooklyn Pride, Inc. and local religious organizations in an evening of fellowship and music as we celebrate Pride: All Day, Everyday.
The service will take place at First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, located at 124 Henry Street [near the intersection of Clark and Henry Streets]. There will be a welcoming reception from 6-7PM, with the service beginning at 7PM.
Let us know that you’re coming by getting a free ticket on Eventbrite. Childcare will be provided by First Church’s nursery staff.
We will also be livestreaming the event in the event that you are unable to attend in person. Visit the First Church’s website to join the service virtually.
Brooklyn Pride Interfaith Service
Messengers
Lavender Light
Founded in 1985, Lavender Light is a mixed-gender chorus. Although the group encompasses many ethnic and spiritual backgrounds, the choir provides a special ministry to members of the black LGBTQI community, who have historically been pressured to choose between their blackness and their gayness. Their repertoire includes gospel (old and new), spirituals, and anthems. The choir produces two full concerts a year and frequently appears as guests at community functions from church services to LGBTQI+ rallies.
First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn Choir
This ensemble is composed of diverse ages, ethnicities, sexualities, and identities who come together around their love of Jesus and their love of singing. Come join us!! All are always welcome!!
First Unitarian Brooklyn Choir
The First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn is a joyful, caring, religious community that inspires and empowers people to Grow spiritually, Care for one another, and Work for justice and stewardship of the earth.
Reverend Danila Noble (she / her)
Danila is a lifelong Presbyterian who grew up in Butler, Pennsylvania. She attended the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and after teaching music at Wasatch Academy (PCUSA) in Mt. Pleasant, Utah, she attended Princeton Theological Seminary, Westminster Choir College (lessons and continuing ed classes), Columbia Theological Seminary, and Drew Theological School. She served as music director at several churches for 25 years and served 7 congregations over 33 years as installed associate pastor, interim associate pastor, installed pastor and head of staff, and interim pastor and head of staff.
Making music with others is one of her passions, and she am currently a member of the Queer Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band and the Queer Big Apple Corps Marching Band. She is married to Karen Noble who is a Presbyterian deacon and elder, who recently moderated the presbytery council for the Newark Presbytery and was trained in Conflict Transformation by the Synod of the Northeast. Karen is currently an executive coach and a veteran triathlete.
They live in Brooklyn, love to cook and bake, read novels and newspapers, explore and study positive psychology, enjoy travel, and entertain family and friends. They have 4 adult children and 6 grandchildren living in Chicago, Tucson, Brooklyn, and Bonnut, France.
Rabbi Valerie Lieber (she / her)
Since 2008 Rabbi Valerie Lieber has led the Hebrew School, Shabbat and Holiday children’s services, teen programming and family education programs at Kane Street.
Rabbi Val graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College and received ordination at Hebrew Union College in New York in 1995.
Though she was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, she has lived with her partner, Leah Kopperman, in Park Slope since 1993. She considers Brooklyn one of the great Jewish holy lands. You can sometimes see her riding around Brooklyn on her bicycle.. She’d love you to wave and shout hello.
Sarah Dojin Emerson (she / her)
Sarah Dōjin Emerson’s formal practice in Soto Zen began in 1996. She lived and trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain center and other sites of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1997-2007. She received Dharma Transmission from Abbott Konjin Gaelyn Godwin of the Houston Zen Center in 2015. She has a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, and has worked in the fields of mental health and pastoral care with children and adults. She experiences Bodhisattva Zen practice as deeply supportive to inquiring into, challenging and transforming systems of oppression, particularly racial inequities and the harm they cause within convert Buddhist sanghas, and in U.S. society generally. Sarah has also worked for many years in grief support- clinically, ritually and in community- specializing in child loss. She lives with her partner, Charlie Pokorny (who is also a Soto Zen Buddhist priest), their children (who are her most profound and constant teachers) and numerous pets in Brooklyn, NY.
Emmeline Blong (she/her)
Emmeline has practiced at Brooklyn Zen Center since 2016 and lived monastically at Ancestral Heart Zen Temple for a year and a half. She and Jocelyn joyfully co-facilitate a twice monthly Queer Dharma Share.
Jocelyn Lindenger (she/they)
Jocelyn is a nonbinary, transfeminine, polyamorous bundle of color and flowers who lives in family and community in Brooklyn. She has been practicing letting her heart break with the Brooklyn Zen Center for five years.
Parrish Turner (he / him)
Parrish Turner is a queer essayist and editor who hails from Georgia. His writing focuses on gender, sexuality, spirituality, regionality and more. Turner’s work has been featured on Buzzfeed, Slate, Culture Trip, Gertrude Press, and The Rumpus. With his fellow playwrights, he was honored with the Metro Atlanta Theater award for his work on the musical By Wheel and By Wing. Turner was a 2014 Lambda Literary Fellow and received his MFA from The New School in 2017. He freelances out of Brooklyn. He is always on the lookout for a great cup of tea.
Sarina Elenbogen-Siegel (she / her)
Sarina Elenbogen-Siegel is a rising fourth-year cantorial student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion from Evanston Illinois and currently serves as the student cantor at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue.
Nathalie E. Amazan (she / her)
Nathalie E. Amazan is a Haitian American poet and law student from New York. Nathalie’s poetry strives to move people to recognize the power within our souls to create more unifying and loving ways of being. When Nathalie was 17, she was a Grand Champion of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Poetry Contest. Since then, she has performed in several venues such as the Nuyorican Poets Café where she was a Wednesday Night Slam winner. Her first poetry collection was published by Finishing Line Press in 2023. She also helps to organize Al-Wāsi' collective, an inclusive Muslim community in NYC. You can connect with her @natamazan on all online platforms.
Reverend Deacon Brendan Nee (they / them or he / him)
The Rev. Deacon Brendan F. Nee joined St. Ann & the Holy Trinity as Associate Rector in February 2024. Deacon Brendan was ordained to the transitional diaconate on December 8, 2023 at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, in the Diocese of California. God willing and the people consenting, they will be ordained to the priesthood in June 2024.
Deacon Brendan is completing a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Anglican Studies at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan and will graduate in May 2024. Before being called to St. Ann & the Holy Trinity, they served as a seminarian at St. James Episcopal Church, Fordham, in the Bronx, where they discerned a call to parish ministry.
Prior to seminary, Deacon Brendan lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their sponsoring congregation is Grace Cathedral, where they were a member of the Social Justice Working Group and served as Lay Pastoral Associate for The Vine—a fresh expression service for urbanites and spiritual seekers with an emphasis on LGBTQ+ ministry. Outside of ministry, their professional background is in marketing communications and non-profit program management.
Deacon Brendan was born in Manhattan and grew up in San Diego. They hold a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. They now live in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
Hosts
In the spirit of Stonewall, Brooklyn Pride welcomes the participation of all the residents of Brooklyn and the outer boroughs, regardless of age, creed, gender, gender identification, HIV status, national origin, physical, mental or development disability, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Queerly Beloved of First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn
We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive church that welcomes all people. That’s right – we welcome people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, races, ethnicities and classes – not in spite of the gospel but because of the gospel.
Faith Organizations
St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church
Kane Street Synagogue
Brooklyn Zen Center
Congregation Beth Elohim
Muslims for Progressive Values
Al-Wāsi' Collective
Jewish Community Relations Council
Planning Committee
Kyle Naff
Patrick Tirino
Danila Noble
Conor Foley
Sean Sellers
Leslie Goldberg
Brendan Nee
Special Thanks
First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn Staff
Anne Solanges
Victor Forde
Amy Neuner
Matt Podd
Danila Noble
Conor Foley
Brooklyn Pride
Mickey Heller
Cam Moore
Ariel Sanders
Coca-Cola