A Message From Your Minister
August 26, 2016
I met my first openly gay friend when I was in Unitarian Universalist high school youth group. She was a butch lesbian, a few years older than I was, intent on joining the armed forces when she graduated. Her hair was already cut in a high-and-tight, and if her uniform of baggy jeans and a flannel shirt was not that different from my own, she wore them with a certain swagger that I had never even tried to pull off. I don't even remember being surprised; if anything, there was simply a feeling that my community lived out the values we proclaimed. My church said it was open to all people. The youth community in my denomination was simply living out our deepest values.
 
What I reflected on later, when I had gone to college and met many more people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, was that I did not know any openly queer people in my high school. That is not to say that I did not know any LGBT people in my high school, because in a school of 1,200 students there were certainly those who knew they identified that way. It is to say that all of them-except perhaps within close circles of friends of which I was not a part-were closeted. They did not feel that high school was a safe place to be out about who they were. I don't know how "out" my UU friend was in her high school. I only knew that our youth group was a place where she could be honest with her community about who she was.
 
I was so proud of that, and I continue to be proud of Unitarian Universalism's welcome of LGBT people and families. At First Unitarian Church, sexual and gender identity are no barrier to involvement or leadership. As a Welcoming Congregation, we hang our rainbow sign proudly. We celebrate weddings, baptisms and child dedications for couples and families of all identities. Our Wiogora summer program is especially welcoming and sensitive to LGBT young people as they explore their identity and what it means to have a community where they can be out.
 
One way all of us, straight and LGBT together, can show our welcome and support of the LGBT community is by participating in Worcester Pride on Saturday September 10. There are so many ways to be involved.
 
  • *    March with me and other members of our church and our fellow UU churches in the Pride Parade. Meet on Humboldt Street along Institute Park starting at 9 a.m. before the parade at 11. We will hold our banner high!
  • *    Stand on the steps to cheer the parade (or join in!) as it marches right past our church on upper Main Street. We will ring our bells and provide bottled water to marchers. You can cheer there and then march the rest of the route with our banner!
  • *    Help staff our booth in the City Common during the festival following the parade. We will provide information about First Unitarian Church to all who are curious about our faith community. Take a one- or two-hour shift between 12 and 4. You could also sign up to help break down our booth at 4 p.m. E-mail Jeanine Beratta at [email protected] to sign up for a shift.
 
Worcester Pride is a joyful celebration of the warm welcome in our community to the LGBT community. I'm proud First Unitarian Church is part of that welcome. I'm proud of you for doing the work to become an intentionally Welcoming Congregation a few years ago. I like to think that a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender teenager today would find that our church is one of the places they could be fully open about who they were, and fully accepted and loved in that openness.
 
In faith,
 
Rev. Sarah Stewart


                                                         


First Unitarian Church | 508.757.2708 | 508.753.9332
[email protected]  |  www.firstunitarian.com

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