New Ways Ministry

A gay-positive ministry
of advocacy and justice
for lesbian and gay Catholics
and reconciliation within the larger
Christian and civil communities.

Bridge Building Awards

Celebrating 30 Years of Service to the LGBT Catholic Community!

THE BOARD OF NEW WAYS MINISTRY instituted the Bridge Building Award to acknowledge those individuals who by their scholarship, leadership or witness have promoted discussion, understanding, and reconciliation between the lesbian/gay community and the Catholic Church. The first recipient was Rev. Charles Curran in 1992.

The Bridge Building Award contains an icon, "Christ the Bridegroom," designed by Robert Lentz. He describes the icon thus:

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS and mystics ever since, have searched for ways to describe God's love for humankind. They have compared God to father, mother, bridegroom, lover. Bridegroom was how many mystics thought of Christ in the high Middle Ages. This icon depicts Christ as the royal bridegroom, together with St. John the Evangelist, an intimate friend. In the Christian scheme of things, love is the only path to God, and God is called Love. William of St. Thierry, a 12th century monk, summed up the spiritual life in this way: "You first loved us so that we might love you. And that was not because you needed to be loved by us, but because we could not be what you created us to be except by loving you." The award plaque was produced by a company in Burlington, Vermont, named appropriately: Bridge Building Images.

Past Recipients: