By Bob Allen
Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists Executive Director Robin Lunn has resigned her position effective June 30, board chair David Weasley said in an email to members and donors May 5.
Lunn, an ordained Baptist minister who served as an AWAB board member before transitioning to the role of executive director in 2011, is the third employed leader of the organization established by about 10 American Baptist congregations in 1993 during that year’s American Baptist Churches USA biennial in San Jose, Calif.
Today the network of churches and individuals advocating full inclusion of LGBTQ persons into church life includes congregations affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Alliance of Baptists, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the United Church of Christ.
Last October Lunn mingled with Southern Baptists at a conference in Nashville, Tenn., on “The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage” sponsored by the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. In 2011 Lunn and other LGBTQ activists met a half hour with then SBC President Bryant Wright during the SBC annual meeting in Phoenix, Ariz.
Weasley, a pastor in Chicago, said Lunn has done “stellar work with connecting with Baptists across the denominational spectrum” during her four and a half years in the job.
“We will really miss her ministry with us,” he said. “We are grateful for all the years of hard work she has done with us and we are excited about what is next.”
Weasley said he was privileged to accompany Lunn as she mingled with Southern Baptist ministers at the ERLC conference last fall.
“It was just really amazing to be with her as she built really meaningful relationships with people coming from a different place,” Weasley said, “extending that kind of warmth and courage even to people who have been antagonistic toward us.”
Lunn said in a press release the last five years have been momentous for both the welcoming church movement and the gay-rights movement in general. She described her job at AWAB as “hard and often frustrating work,” but “also a calling like no other.”
“I feel honored to have been a part of this work,” she said. “I will now step aside and let others carry the baton for awhile.”
Lunn will remain on the job through the American Baptist Churches USA mission summit June 26-27 in Overland Park, Kan. AWAB events include an exhibit, conversations and workshops and a summit dinner featuring David Gushee, a Mercer University professor and Baptist News Global columnist who recently wrote a book describing how his views evolved to a welcoming and affirming position.
A graduate of Andover Newton Theological School, Lunn served churches in New Hampshire and Vermont and was assistant director of a camp in Connecticut before entering LGBTQ advocacy work.
“Regardless of where I am called next, I remain passionate about this calling and will continue to be a witness for the Beloved Community where all will be one,” she said in a press release.