Yvette A. Flunder (born July 29, 1955) is an American womanist, preacher, pastor, activist, and singer from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, CA. She is the senior pastor of the City of Refuge

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximatel ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

and Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries.

Life

Flunder was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

and raised between the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. She grew up in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), graduating from the High School from COGIC's Saints Academy in Lexington, Mississippi before returning to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. In 1984, she began singing and recording with

Walter Hawkins Walter Lee Hawkins (May 18, 1949 – July 11, 2010) was an American gospel singer, songwriter, composer, and pastor. An influential figure in urban contemporary gospel music, his career spanned more than four decades. He was consecrated to the ...

and the Love Center Choir, where she was the lead singer. She was later ordained by Hawkins. Flunder earned an undergraduate degree from College of San Mateo. She then went on to receive a Certificate of Ministry Studies and a Master of Arts in 1997 from the Pacific School of Religion, before earning her Doctor of Ministry degree from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in 2001. In 2000, she founded the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, a trans-denominational coalition of Christian churches who "desire to celebrate and proclaim the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ", and was appointed its Presiding Bishop in 2003. Flunder identifies as a womanist and a reconciling liberation theologian. In 2005, she authored a book, ''Where the Edge Gathers: Building a Community of Radical Inclusion''.

Carlton Pearson Carlton D'metrius Pearson (born March 19, 1953) is an American minister and gospel music artist. At one time, he was the pastor of the Higher Dimensions Evangelistic Center Incorporated, later named the Higher Dimensions Family Church, which was ...

cites her among the first religious leaders to embrace and encourage him after he was declared a heretic due to coming out in support of universal reconciliation. In 2013, she was named as a Distinguished Alumna of the Pacific School of Religion. On December 1, 2014, Flunder was a keynote speaker in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

for

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired imm ...

, where she described the harmful effects of stigma and homophobia on those living with HIV and on AIDS education in general. The following year she was a guest speaker at the American Baptist College's Garnett-Nabrit Lecture Series. Since 2015, Flunder has been a member of the board of trustees of the Starr King School for the Ministry and also served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Flunder's spouse is Shirley Miller, the cousin of Walter Hawkins; they have been committed partners since the mid-1980s.

Ministry

Bishop Flunder was raised in the "womb" of the church coming from church founding families in the Bay Area. From a young age, Flunder's life reflected her beliefs to treat people with value and equality. In 1986, Flunder was moved to minister to people with HIV/AIDS in response to the epidemic of the 1980s. She founded several not-for-profit enterprises in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

, providing services for people affected by HIV: Hazard-Ashley House, Walker House and Restoration House, through the Ark of Refuge, Inc., which later became the Y. A. Flunder Foundation. In 1991, she founded the City of Refuge under the

, "in order to unite a gospel ministry with a social ministry". She describes the City of Refuge UCC as an effort to "create a spiritual community that will embrace our collective cultures, faith paths, gender expressions, and sexual/affectional orientations while simultaneously freeing us from oppressive theologies that subjugate women, denigrate the

LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and so ...

, and disconnect us from justice issues locally and globally". The Transcendence Gospel Choir was a community choir affiliated with the City of Refuge and was the first all-transgender choir in the United States. Flunder's work expands into digital spaces. In 2021 she was a panelist fo
"Fire and Desire"
the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture's Center for the Study of African American Religious Life as they discussed "Black Male Gospel Music Performance."

Film, television and media

Flunder was portrayed by actress

Phylicia Rashad Phylicia Rashad ( ) (née Ayers-Allen; born June 19, 1948) is an American actress, singer and director who is dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom '' The Cosby ...

for the final 3-part episode as part of the Dustin Lance Black mini-series '' When We Rise'' on March 3, 2017, on the major television network ABC. The Bishop's role in the show highlights the compassion of the church, the commitment of its leadership and the loving home the church provides to minister in the tough, primarily African-American community in San Francisco. Flunder was also depicted by Joni Bovill in the Joshua Marston drama film ''

Come Sunday "Come Sunday" is a piece by Duke Ellington, which became a jazz standard. It was written in 1942 as a part of the first movement of a suite entitled '' Black, Brown and Beige''. Ellington was engaged for a performance at Carnegie Hall on January ...

'', which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

in April 2018. Flunder is active on many social media platforms using her platforms to consistently advocate for black lives, queer lives, medical accessibility, and destigmatization of HIV+ lives. In 2021, Flunder was featured in PBS's "The Black Church: This is our story, this is our song."

Published work

* Where the Edge Gathers * Birthing the Sermon: Women Preachers on the Creative Process * Those Preaching Women: A Multicultural Collection * Queer Christianities: Lived Religion in Transgressive Forms

References

External links

City of Refuge UCCYvette Flunder , Starr KingYvette Flunder - Profile - Working Preacher
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flunder, Yvette 1955 births 20th-century Protestant theologians 21st-century Protestant theologians Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area African-American Christian clergy 20th-century African-American women singers African-American feminists African-American women writers African-American writers American bishops American Christian clergy American Christian theologians American Christian writers American feminist writers American health activists American Protestant ministers and clergy Bishops in California Feminist musicians HIV/AIDS activists Lesbian feminists American lesbian musicians American lesbian writers LGBT African Americans LGBT bishops LGBT people from California LGBT Protestant clergy LGBT rights activists from the United States Living people Proponents of Christian feminism Protestant writers Religious leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area Singers from San Francisco United Church of Christ ministers Womanist theologians Womanist writers Women bishops Women Christian theologians Writers from San Francisco American women non-fiction writers 21st-century African-American women 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people