Dear friends,
Twenty-five years ago, in 2000, our church made a decision that has shaped who we are today.
After a year of study and reflection, we voted unanimously to be Open and Affirming. We developed a statement (found in our bulletin every Sunday) to proclaim that we seek to welcome and affirm people from all walks of life — people of every age, economic background, physical and intellectual ability, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. A few years later, we revised our statement to include gender identity and gender expression.
At the time, many folks asked why we needed to make a statement. Wasn’t it more important to live out an extravagant welcome than to write a bunch of words about it?
It was a good question to ask. Churches have a long, unfortunate history of not practicing what they preach. And this church had already taken bold action to live out the principles of Open and Affirming, calling a lesbian pastor in 1996, when most churches would not take a risk to do so.
As we listened to stories from other churches and from within our own congregation, it became clear why our actions needed to be accompanied by a statement. So many LGBTQ folks have been hurt by churches that told us we are sinful. Unless a church makes a public statement of welcome and affirmation, many folks assume that we would not be welcome. An ONA statement lets people know this is safe place; it opens the door for healing. Once we understood this, we crafted our statement and voted unanimously to adopt it.
In the last 25 years, our statement (as revised) has inspired us to keep asking what it truly means to welcome and affirm one another. It has prompted us to reach out beyond ourselves to form partnerships with other communities. When new folks visit us, they almost always say that our commitment to Open and Affirming is one reason they walked in our doors.
Wow! That’s a lot to celebrate! We will spend the whole month of September celebrating! We’ll have an outreach component — a meal we will prepare and share with the LGBT Asylum Task Force community and a special offering for Southborough Safe Spaces. We’ll have a fun community event — a dinner with dancing! We’ll celebrate in worship — with a new hymn, video testimony, greetings, lots of music, and words of inspiration. And we’ll have t-shirts too! See the articles below for details of our celebration!
Congratulations, Edwards Church! Thanks be to God!
Peace, Debbie