The letter below was recently submitted to my hometown newspaper.
Dear Editor:
After I nailed a rainbow flag to the little column on our
building’s front entrance, a friend in town asked me, “Aren’t you afraid that
people will think that your congregation is a GAY church?” My response was, “No, I want them to KNOW we
are a gay church – and a church for lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, and
questioning people – as well as a church for lots of great straight folks who
are advocates and allies!” Indeed, the rainbow
flag is a symbol of our new “Welcoming Congregation” status. Our denomination encourages congregations to
go through a long series of workshops and demonstrate competencies in welcoming
and affirming lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) people
before providing the congregation with this status. Although we feel that we’ve been welcoming
from the beginning of our existence in the mid-80’s, we are now proud to have
this official designation.
Our Unitarian Universalist denomination has been on record
since 1970 in its support of rights of LGBTQ individuals, and voted to support
full marriage equality in 1996. However,
many congregations realized the need to prepare themselves further in their
efforts to be welcoming and to serve as advocates for the rights of all people,
regardless of sexual or affectional orientation. I am proud that our congregation has now
taken those steps. We will be
celebrating our new Welcoming Congregation status in our service at 10:30 on
Sunday, February 19 at our building at 609 East Grady Street.
I invite your readers who may identify as LGBTQ or as allies
to visit us. Yes, there is a fully
welcoming church community here in Statesboro!
And as a Statesboro native, I am very proud to call this community my
home. Thanks for helping us to spread
this good news!
Standing on the Side of Love!
Rev. Jane Altman Page
Minister
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Statesboro
Congratulations! Yes, you should be proud.
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