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Congregational Support & Development |
| Open & Affirming Ministry "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What do we mean by Open & Affirming or ONA?At its inception 6 years ago, Spirit of Peace Church adopted an open and affirming stance and was thereafter admitted to full-member standing as an Open & Affirming (ONA) congregation in the South Texas Association. Please, check out the UCC Coalition for GLBTQ Concerns to learn more about ONA: http://www.ucccoalition.org. A Special Report: PrideFest, 2008 could be described by any number of adjectives, but the main one that comes to mind is HOT.
Those who helped with the booth were Richard, Rich, Rita, Sam, Dianne, Angie, Adriana, Liz, Sarah, Glenda and myself. We talked to a lot of people, gave out many gallons of cold water, lots of rainbow ribbons, literature about our church, etc., etc. A lot of people got information about our services. Whether they show up or not, we helped keep our name before the public and did a lot of good PR. We were open and talking to people even before noon, and did not close down until 8:00 PM. We all had a hot time! "For the Bible Tells Me So” | Friday, February 1 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM | Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), 611 E. Myrtle | The film was presented by Equality Texas and MCC. A panel discussion followed the film with our own Rev. Rita Wilbur along with other area ministers comprising the panel.
Special Report from the National Training On Sept 14-16, I gathered with 22 other people to be trained as an ONA (Open and Affirming) consultant. We met at the UCC headquarters in Cleveland, Oh, with folks coming from as far away as Maine and Washington State. Some were new to the UCC and others were UCC born and raised. There were PFLAG moms and recently-out gays, from ONA churches and not. We came together to learn more about the ONA program so we can help churches as they consider whether or not to declare themselves ONA. The information was helpful, but what I enjoyed most was just meeting the other folks and hearing their stories. I came away from the weekend renewed and invigorated by their witness. We all know of churches and denominations struggling with the role of GLBT Christians, and even for those of us who are ONA, the answers are not easy. The meeting acknowledged the pain and challenge of these struggles while lifting up the good news of God's love and hospitality. We ended the weekend with a service from the UCC Book of Worship, in which each of us was commissioned as ministers in this work. I was there representing South Central Conference, along with the Rev. Dawson Taylor, Minister of Parish Life at Cathedral of Hope UCC in Dallas. The two of us developed a plan for our work over the next year. First, we want to identify a contact person from every ONA church in our conference, as well as a person to work within each association. At our next ONA workshop in January, we want to offer a version of the training we received in Cleveland. Secondly, we want to offer a workshop on the ONA process to the next conference annual meeting in June 2008. As well, Dawson said that the Cathedral of Hope wants to host a special meal at the annual meeting for the ONA churches. Spirit of Peace has been the leader for the ONA mission in this conference for the past seven years, but I will be glad to share some of that responsibility with others. I'm excited about the future of the ONA witness in our conference. (By the way, one of the most interesting resources I learned about at the training was a 20/20 episode that aired this past April about transgender children. Here is a link to the first part on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Utpam0IGYac. There are five parts in all. It is definitely worth watching!)
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7th Annual Open and Affirming Workshop for ONA & Inquiring Churches in the South Central Conference (SCC) of the UCC: ONA Consultant Training | Saturday, January 12 | 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM | Slumber Falls Camp | Registration fee including lunch is $25 before December 15, $35 after. For an additional fee, participants may choose to stay at the camp Friday night. | This past fall, on behalf of the SCC, our own Rev. Rita and Rev. Dawson Taylor of Cathedral of Hope in Dallas attended the national UCC training session for ONA Consultants. One of the goals that emerged from that meeting was to identify a contact person from every ONA church in our conference. At the January workshop, Rita and Dawson will offer a shorter version of the national training, including a history of the ONA program, a review of resources, exploring why churches should become ONA and what it means to be ONA once the resolution is passed. This workshop is open to everyone. | For more details, please check out the following link, 
PrideFest 2007:
It gets bigger & better every year!