Tea, Shade, and Pink Lemonade: Tibbetts Church is Hosting Drag Tea

At Tibbetts United Methodist Church, “the table” is usually a quiet and contemplative place, serving a modest meal of communion bread and juice. But on April 25, 2026, that will all change, as dozens of volunteers join forces to hang decorations, bake hundreds of treats, and meticulously place pieces of fine china.

Because on that day, Tibbetts is hosting its second Drag Tea.

According to Betsy Wharton, the church’s volunteer coordinator and a lifelong member, Tibbetts hosted a tea from 2015 to 2019 before halting operations during the COVID-19 lockdowns. As restrictions lifted, the church was looking for a way to reach beyond the regular attendees, and to host an event that would support and center the local queer community.

“We wanted to do a drag event,” Wharton said, “and we said ‘well, we know how to do a tea, so let’s do that!’”

The first Drag Tea took place in April 2023, and Wharton detailed the many logistics that went into the event, from working with a local drag queen to calculating bites-per-person to coordinating bakers and servers. To Wharton’s surprise, the event sold out quickly, with the majority of tickets going to the larger community, not just church members. After six weeks of tireless work, it all came together.

“The day itself was just magical!” Wharton said.

A church might seem like an unexpected place to host a drag event. According to Reverend Sarah Casey, the church’s pastor, Tibbetts joined the Reconciling Ministries Network in 2006, which made full queer inclusion part of the church’s official policy. However, queer inclusion did not become the larger Methodist denomination’s position until 2024. To Casey, this only makes it more important to use the church to uplift and celebrate queer people.

“We do this not because we have it all figured out … ” she said. “It is a way of making space where voices that have been silenced and pushed aside by the institutional church are centered, celebrated, and received as the gifts that they are.”

This is especially important to members like Lindsey Johnson, who wants to raise her two young children with values of “inclusivity, love, [and] connection.” The first Drag Tea carries special significance for Johnson.

“The initial phases of motherhood were very isolating,” Johnson said, whose daughter, Cecily, was born during the COVID-19 lockdown. “[Drag Tea] was the first time that Cecily ever went to church… this [was] me showing [her] what’s actually out there, not just isolation. There’s community, there’s joy, there’s laughter, there’s fun, there’s performance, there’s diversity.”

Tibbetts hopes to make Drag Tea an annual event. In the face of an epidemic of loneliness and increasing anti-queer and anti-trans legislation, Johnson, Casey, and Wharton all expressed a desire for the church building to become a more widely used community gathering space, beyond religious events.

“This space is for you,” Johnson said. “This building … regardless of where you come from or where you live or anything to do with identity or status, this is your space.”

Drag Tea will take place on Saturday, April 25th from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. This event is family-friendly and features Jezebel Johnson. Tickets are pay-what-you-can and available at this link.