Happy Pride!
June is Pride Month, a time where people around the world affirm and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and two-spirit (LGBTQIA2S+) people. (We add a + knowing there are more ways than these that folks express their gender identity).
Since January of 2019, the United Church of Underhill has been an Open and Affirming and Reconciling Congregation. This means that we went through a formal process of education and discernment—culminating in a congregational vote—where we committed to welcome and affirm people of all gender identities and expressions and sexual orientations into the life of the church. This commitment is shared each week in our bulletin, appears on our website, and is signaled by the rainbow flag that hangs outside our door. We’re also included in the national listings of both UCC and UMC congregations that have gone through this process, in hopes that those who are looking for such a church home may find us.
And…we know there’s more to be done when it comes to extending our welcome, both beyond and within our doors.
In addition to Pride Month, our siblings in the United Church of Canada celebrate PIE Day each year on March 14. March 14, as the math enthusiasts among us know, is hailed as “Pi Day,” because the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is 3.14 (π = pi), which seems as good an excuse as any to eat pie.
But in the United Church of Canada, PIE stands for Public, Intentional, and Explicit. PIE Day is an ongoing call to Affirming congregations to keep up their welcoming efforts beyond the congregational vote, and to do so in ways that are obvious, deeply rooted, and specific.
If you have a minute (or 15) this week, I encourage you to take a look at this video, which talks more about the importance of PIE ministry, and includes several examples from congregations in the United Church of Canada. It may get the juices flowing about next steps we’d want to take as a church.
And as we learn, we celebrate! For God has made us in God’s image - unique and wonderful, loved just as we are and with whom we love. And that is something to be publicly, intentionally, and explicitly proud of.
Pastor Jen
