“Sincere congratulations on First Unitarian’s on-going commitment to LGBTQ+ welcome and inclusion.”
We received the UUA’s letter earlier this week, recognizing First Unitarian’s successful completion of the Five Practices of Welcome Renewal for 2020. This new version of the original Welcoming Congregation Program focuses attention and asks for commitment to deepening the welcome our congregation offers to individuals with the variety of gender identities/expressions and sexual orientations present within the broad LGBTQ+/TGQNB (Transgender/Queer/Non-Binary) community.
The Unitarian Universalist Association early in its life (1970), made our affirmation of gay, lesbian and bi-sexual persons public. That General Assembly Resolution was an important step. But many UUs realized that the experience of welcome in too many congregations was far from complete.
In 1990, the first version of the Welcoming Congregation Program was introduced, calling for congregational commitment to welcome for GLB persons and programming to support it.
The Welcoming Congregation became one of the most widely adopted programs in UUA history. First Unitarian became a Welcoming Congregation in 1998. You can see the plaque recognizing that commitment in our Narthex…when we are back in person.
Attention to bisexuality remained slight, however. A modest recognition of transgender persons was added to the program, for the first time, in 1999, the year after First Unitarian became a Welcoming Congregation.
First Unitarian is proud of our history in support of the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. It was the public opposition to a hateful anti-gay ballot initiative that led to the rapid growth of the congregation in the 1990’s. The named plaintiffs in the legal action that finally brought Marriage Equality to Oregon are members of our community.
The UUA is justly proud as well. Those of you who had the opportunity to hear Rev. Meg Riley at Seminary for a Day in January know how important our faith’s advocacy has been in the larger religious and national movement toward affirmation for the queer community.
Knowing that history, you might conclude that First Unitarian has little more to do, that this is one area where our claims of leadership have real substance. But our church has long been in need of a renewal and an expansion of our commitment. And a deeper welcome of transgender and non-binary persons.
Receiving this recognition from the UUA is a major milestone, but it is by no means an ending place. For one thing, this is an annual certification. More importantly, this recognition requires a commitment that our congregation will need to take seriously. The quality of our welcome is measured not by the number of plaques on our walls, but by the experience of those who make the decision to visit…either on-line or in person.
It was our privilege to host the virtual Trans Day of Remembrance service again this year. That service memorialized the lives of Trans individuals who were killed during the year. Black Trans Women are the persons most likely to suffer hate crimes and violent death. The culture we are trying to shift, out in the world and in ourselves, presses down differently depending on who we are. Intersectionality is where much of our attention is needed.
We have more work to do. The Beloved Community is not a destination, but rather a way of living in the world, a welcoming of real lived experience and a willingness to inspect assumptions and make changes to bring our practices closer in line with our values.
When we return to our buildings, you can look for a new plague in the Narthex, but ask yourself what we need to pay attention to for this new recognition to be a living part of our life together. That is the question that I will be asking, and that is the question that we need to answer together.
Blessings,
Bill
PS Last month, all of our music in worship (both the Family and the 10:15 Services) was composed or arranged by black artists in recognition of Black History Month. What was your experience of that practice? March is Women’s History Month and, for this month, only music composed or arranged by women will be used in our services.