Mapping the Margins of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries: A Documentarian’s Journey

I am an arts-based researcher who does work at the intersection of documentary film, photography, spirituality and social justice. In this body of work I am mapping the growth and influence of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM) led by Bishop Yvette Flunder. I began this work in 2022 and it is projected to go until 2032. This is a ten year project that maps the history present and future of the growth of African American churches that are open, inclusive and affirming. These churches in connection with TFAM are growing around the world and this work documents them via the documentary series and photography. The first part of this body of work was completed in 2023 and the second part will be complete in 2024. In doing this work it has changed me and this is part of the story.

I have been shaped in making this work. I have been changed. I have sat with, walked with and loved those who are co-creating with work with me. I am a cisgender, heterosexual African American male. The TFAM community has welcomed me, loved me and embraced the work. It is through their love I have found renewed faith in God and hope for God’s church. What I argue in this paper is this is part of the work. We as makers / creators are not just making work but we are made in the making of the work. I didn’t take notice of this until I found myself crying behind the camera. Crying at every interview I did as I sat and experienced the stories of my LGBTQ+ siblings. Stories I thought I knew but had never heard. Sitting in a chapel recording, me my sibling, and my camera. Sitting there eye to eye, reflection. I saw them through the viewfinder of my camera and in their eyes I saw God, the love of God and the move of God. I was reflected, connected and resurrected.

The work continued with portrait sessions, documentary photography at live events and once again something happened. As I was focused on making good art, art that would speak to what I was experiencing I became more aware of what I was experiencing. I was experiencing what it was to be made in the making. To be art in the process to be a moving picture as I was making still pictures. I became aware of what it was to find God in the process of mapping. In mapping the community I was finding myself and my understanding of who God is and how God manifest Godself in art, art making and in communities that value art and artist.

It is was in TFAM that I found an appreciation for art and the art maker. They welcomed me as a film maker, photographer and sibling. I was loved, warmly received and invited in with my cameras. Full access, the door was opened. In opening their doors they opened my door. I began to ask questions? Where is God? What is God doing? Where is God growing God’s church? What am I seeing and how am I seen? What I am to create? How do I frame this story, tell this story, shoot this story, edit this story? Is this the greatest story not yet told? If so, how do we tell it? These questions informed the work I made, the shooting and editing of the documentary, the photos I took, printed framed and shared. The journey of mapping became a reorientation of how I traveled on this earth as a person of faith is called to be an arts-based researcher.

The mapping story I tell is about a spiritual mapping of a creative process that redirected me. It redirected how I see who I am, what I do and who God and what God is doing. In traveling the United States, from my home base in Atlanta, Georgia to San Francisco and Oakland California, Phoenix Arizona, Jackson Mississippi and so many more places.  I mapped I was being rerouted. I was mapping the movement that was taking me somewhere as I was mapping where it was going. In this work I share excerpts from the work as I share my story, my journey, which was our journey. God is moving among our LGBTQ+ siblings so I move this work in the larger public sphere so we can see the mapping manifest in realtime.