Our Welcoming
Congregation Journey
February 17 2013
I. Looking back…
“There is
nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in
being superior to your previous self.” -Hindu proverb
What were we
like, our previous selves, when we began this journey to become a Welcoming
Congregation just one year ago?
I began my
sermon, with the title ‘Standing on the Side of Love,’ last February by saying
that it had been a good week for marriage equality because of judicial rulings
in federal court, and legislation passed in the Washington State legislature. I
can say that this year we have even more to be excited about in terms of
marriage equality and in the number of states that now allow it, in the steps
that have been taken nationally to extend rights of partners in same-sex
marriages, and in the climate shift toward equality from the military to the
Boy Scouts…we hope!
And I
also quoted Linda Stout, Executive Director of a social
advocacy group called Spirit in Action:
Ten workshops
and services later, I can say that as far as this church is concerned, we have
put our best efforts into the Welcoming Congregation program as we try to
create a different world. And not all of the members of the WC committee are
here today – Linda Warren and Julie Evonna are at the Southern UU Leadership
Experience this week – but I’d like to extend to the other members our
gratitude for giving their time and talent to this year’s work: Naomi,
Jennifer, Sandra, Lynne.
During this
service the committee members and Principle Singers are going to remind us of
some of the music we enjoyed in some of the services of this past year, and
first we will have Uncommon Love.
What did we find
to talk about at those 10 workshops and services?
We began by
examining our expectations about this program, and we invited DeLeon Peacock
and Mary Freeman from the UU Fellowship of Coastal Georgia to reassure us about
starting it! Their congregation had just been through it and the week after
Mary and DeLeon were here, it was designated a WC by the UUA, which of course
is our goal as well.
We showed films,
such as the documentaries The Celluloid
Closet and For the Bible Tells Me So.
We had speakers, such as Sandy Hochel, who spoke about the Radical Right, and
Maryka from Interweave.
I myself learned
a lot from the sermons that I preached, and one of them – How Homophobia Hurts
Us All – was the basis for my sermon before the Ministerial Fellowship
Committee in December, when I was granted preliminary fellowship as a UU
minister.
We put a lot of
information in our weekly announcements, resources that everyone could look up
to answer question that perhaps they needed answers for but were unwilling to
ask in public.
We also had –
and continue to have - in this building a great resource for the community
begin to offer monthly support meetings – PFLAG, which stands for Parents and
friends of Lesbians and Gays. The Aiken chapter was begun here and has given
support to families whose children are exploring their sexual identities or
have come out. Thanks to Ann Willibrand, Vera DeVito, and Julie Evonna, we have
successfully branched off from the initial CSRA PFLAG group and have made a difference
already in the short time Aiken PFLAG has been in existence.
And as members
of the Aiken UU Church, we have had conversations between ourselves, trying to
find ways to acknowledge and challenge our biases, our assumptions, and our
ignorance; and we have also had the benefit of tips for people of faith on how to
communicate about homophobia.
And so, we have
a sense of accomplishment and pride as we look over at the rainbow flag, on
which all but today’s final one of our events and activities have been placed.
This rainbow is
NOT an illusion, as the song “The Rainbow Connection” says…it is evidence of
the commitment of this congregation to exploring the way we can be a more
welcoming and diverse presence in the wider Aiken community.
II. and looking
forward…
So, going
forward, we recognize there is no magic wand we can wave over each person here
today to make us all shining examples of complete and total love. However, the
WC program has even for skeptics brought home the importance of standing on the
side of love individually and in the makeup of this church and in UU
congregations across this country. We have seen a lot of progress in the past
twelve months…but we cannot slow down or decide that we have turned a page and
this is not something we need to consider anymore.
Right after this
service, the congregation will meet to vote to support our application to the
UUA to become officially recognized as a WC. Once the WC committee finishes
compiling all the paperwork and evidence of our program, then we will hope that
this designation will come in the next few months.
Yesterday,
members of this congregation marched in solidarity with the African-American
community in the Black History Parade. Out on the bulletin board you can see
the short biographies of two of our Unitarian Universalist civil rights
martyrs, the Rev James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo. We have a history of building the
beloved community together.
The struggle for
equality for our LBGT sisters and brothers is being supported by those who
worked for the civil rights movement in the true spirit of the Rev Dr Martin
Luther King, Jr.
In my sermon
last February I quoted Benjamin Jealous, NAACP President, who said,
“…let us move forward in unity
and with the collective vision and determination to build the America that we
dream for all of her children. An America where everyone can get a
good job,
And where everyone can obtain a quality education.
An America where everyone has access to health care
and communities with clean air and water.
An America in which opportunities are afforded to
all.
And most importantly, an America in which no matter
a person’s race, creed, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity— she or
he can live in a country free of discrimination—where her or his basic human
rights and dignity are respected.
…let us all recall the words of the late great
Harvey Milk-who said “It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It
takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove
repressions.”
So we can speak out individually and collectively
to win the struggle. When we live out our words, including
the words of Unitarian Universalists through the centuries who have been
standing on the side of love, we can build the Beloved Community. We can speak
up with the knowledge that ours is a faith that backs us in our struggle for
justice, equality and freedom.
May we be the
ones that make it so, Blessed Be, Amen.
Gaye Ortiz 2/17/2013
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