National Gathering Celebrates 40 Years Of LGBT Advocacy In The UCC

The UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns celebrated the 40th anniversary of LGBT ministry and advocacy in the United Church of Christ and welcomed Open and Affirming (ONA) congregation #1,000–Pillar of Love Fellowship in Chicago. Administered by the Coalition, ONA is the largest and fastest-growing LGBT-welcoming-church movement in the world.  

“We’ve renewed the Coalition’s commitment to grow the Open and Affirming movement until there is no UCC congregation that does not offer a genuine and confident welcome to their LGBT neighbors,” said Andy Lang, the Coalition’s executive director.

The Coalition’s annual National Gathering drew 220 LGBT activists and supporters from 27 states and the District of Columbia.

Pillar of Love Fellowship was honored Wednesday night at the Coalition’s annual ONA banquet–along with ONA congregation #1, Riverside Church in New York City. The banquet also honored four UCC leaders with “Courage” awards: the Rev. William R. Johnson, the Rev. Anne Holmes, the Rev. Loey Powell and Bishop Yvette Flunder. Johnson’s ordination in 1972 as the first openly gay man called to ministry in a mainline Christian church and the first organizing meeting of the UCC Gay Caucus later that year marked the birth of the UCC’s LGBT movement. Holmes was the first openly lesbian woman ordained to UCC ministry in 1982. Powell is a former Colition national coordinator and serves as Executive for Administration and Women’s Justice in the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries. Bishop Flunder leads the Fellowship of Affirming ministries–a community of African American churches with close ties to the UCC.

In contrast to National Gathering last year, when the Coalition was struggling with declining finances and a loss of direction, this year’s event revealed a movement with a renewed sense of confidence and purpose. It was the largest and most diverse Gathering in the Coalition’s history, and the stories told by the Coalition’s founders inspired participants to build on a legacy of courage in the movement’s early years.

‘Strangers pulling together as friends’

In his keynote address Wednesday night, the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, executive minister of Local Church Ministries and a member of the church’s Collegium of officers, summed up what many felt at this historic National Gathering: “Maybe it’s stubbornness or a calling on my part but, as a gay person, I refuse to let religion lay claim to naming what’s holy and what’s not, without insisting that I–and those of my kind–have some say in writing the definitions. And when I witness you fierce, loving LGBT, same-gender-loving people in the United Church of Christ, and those who stand with us, and those with whom we stand, I count it my life’s greatest privilege to be alongside such creative and resilient

“Because when we gather at play and in worship, in advocacy and service, in litany, song and prayer, I sense a shared recognition in the room–that seeks to overcome all sadness, loneliness, isolation and injustice. I feel would-be strangers pulling for one another as friends, a common will to make things right no matter how complex or impossible or difficult they might be. To redefine ‘church’ that it might be set free from its lifeless, limiting definitions and given new life in love.

“For me, that practice of staying awake makes God real. Some don’t need religion to do that. But, in my case, it is the language of common wonder–across cultures and the ages–that connects my eagerness to pay attention with others attempting to do the same.”

First planned in partnership with The Fellowship

For the first time, a National Gathering was planned in partnership with the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries–with one panel devoted to the experience of the African American same-gender-loving communities and the Fellowship’s relationship with the UCC. Preaching at the Gathering’s closing service, the Fellowship’s Bishop Flunder charged the Coalition to create “circles of healing.”

“If we stay in the circle with each other long enough, what pours out of me will pour into you, and what pours out of you will become part of my life. Your sorrows will be my sorrows, and my joys will be your joys. May we be looked upon as a people who stand together even if it means we die together, because we know and believe the power of Resurrection.”

The Coalition seemed close to death, Flunder said, but now it is alive. “God and resurrection power can speak into death and make life happen. Look at what God has done in the midst of us!”

During an expanded leadership meeting following the Gathering, participants affirmed the new spirit revealed by the Gathering but also asked critical questions about the movement’s future. “It’s important to ask what is the unique purpose of the Coalition among all of the other settings and movements in the UCC so can contribute to the whole,” said Loey Powell. “ONA is one path towards the goal, but not the goal itself.”

The Gathering also launched the first stage of a year-long consultation on the future of LGBT ministry and advocacy in the UCC. Through focus groups, online surveys and webinars, the Coalition plans to reach a broad diversity of UCC members to inform decisions on the structures needed to support a more diverse and responsive LGBT movement in the future.

“The LGBTQ movement is exploding around the world,” said the Rev. Mike Schuenemeyer. “There are new opportunities, and this acceleration of movement will continue for the foreseeable future. How can we structure ourselves so we can recognize where capacity for change already exists, and respond quickly to it?”

Learn more about UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns
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