...a welcoming spiritual community

Welcoming Congregation

...the liberal religious tradition is affirmed every time another congregation commits itself to being a human place that affirms, welcomes and celebrates the presence of bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender persons. -- Rev. Keith Kron

What is a Welcoming Congregation?

Welcoming Congregation Resolution

Welcoming Congregation Action Steps

Welcoming Congregation History

Welcoming Congregation Timeline

What is a Welcoming Congregation (WC)?

If you are lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, or if you think you might be, we welcome you to join with us—to participate fully and openly in our congregational life. The term "Welcoming Congregation" has a special meaning in our faith tradition. In 1987, a Unitarian Universalist Association committee found a great deal of unexamined and hurtful homophobia in some UU congregations. In response, delegates to the 1989 General Assembly voted to initiate the Welcoming Congregation (WC) Program, as a step toward making our congregations truly welcoming places for people of all sexual orientations.

Welcoming Congregation Resolution

Following is the text of the resolution approved by the congregation at the 2003 Annual Meeting:

North Parish declares its intent to be a Welcoming Congregation consistent with the guidelines of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

North Parish affirms and declares that it actively welcomes gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people (GLBTI) as full participants in the life of the church.

Recognizing that to be welcoming is not static or a state of being but an ongoing process, we commit to the following goals and charge the Board of Trustees, Parish Council, Minister, and other church personnel to adopt policies and take actions necessary to achieve them:

1. Use of inclusive language and recognition of varied family relationships and structures will be a regular part of the public communications and worship, educational, outreach, and social activities of the church.
2. Publicly acknowledge that our church is a safe and welcoming place for GLBTI people within our community.
3. Include awareness of GLBTI events and civil rights, safety and other issues in the regular work of church committees as appropriate.

At each Annual Meeting of the church, the Parish Council will submit as part of its report to the congregation a summary of actions taken to implement Welcoming Congregation principles, and the report will include an assessment of progress towards the goals of the initiative.

Welcoming Congregation Action Steps

Education

1. Offer religious education that incorporates bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender life issues, including the workshop series from the Welcoming Congregation Program.
2. Promote participation by the congregation’s minister, religious education minister or director, president, and/or moderator in the Welcoming Congregation Program.
3. Offer a congregation-wide workshop program(s), with follow-up opportunities for study and reflection.
4. Use the Unitarian Universalist sexuality education program, Our Whole Lives.

Congregational Life

1. Form a broad-based Welcoming Congregation committee to offer programs and monitor progress.
2. Adjust congregational bylaws and other relevant documents to include an affirmative nondiscrimination clause concerning membership, hiring practices, and the calling of religious professionals.
3. Use inclusive language and content as a regular part of worship services, and provide worship coordinators and speakers with guidelines on inclusive language.
4. Provide main worship space and ministerial services for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender rites of passage, such as services of union and dedications of children.
5. Welcome bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender persons in the congregation’s brochure.
6. Ensure that publications, public information, and programming reflect the requested status of any individual as s/he sees appropriate; recognize same-gender couples in directories and other publications as they desire.

to top

Community Outreach

1. Celebrate and affirm bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender issues and history during the church year (possibly including Gay Pride Week in June or National Coming Out Day in October).
2. Participate in and/or support efforts to create justice, freedom, and equality for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender people in the larger society.
3. (again) Provide main worship space and ministerial services for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender rites of passage, such as services of union and dedications of children. (This guideline is also listed as number 8 under Congregational Life.)
4. Establish and maintain contact with local bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender groups to offer support and promote dialogue and interaction.
5. Advertise in the local press and/or other media that reaches the bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender communities.
6. Provide use of building space on an equivalent basis with other Unitarian Universalist organizations when requested by members for programs and meetings of an Interweave (Unitarian Universalists for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns) chapter.

to top

Welcoming Congregation History

Early initiative

In late 1991, a member from each church committee was asked to join a task force to review the new Welcoming Congregation guidelines established by the UUA. This task force, which included Rev. Blanchard, became very committed to bring the Welcoming Congregation to the North Parish, and in the course of the following two years adopted most of the Guidelines outlined by the UUA. Inclusive language was adopted in the Church by-laws; the North Parish became host for the regional PFLAG chapter (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) for a number of years; Rev. Blanchard officiated at services of Union; the task force led various workshops, services and other events for both the congregation and the greater community.

New Welcoming Congregation Committee formed

As time as progressed, the North Parish has seen a significant increase in population, a change in ministers, change in organizational structure, and rise in many other programs. While we have retained many outward “signs” of the Welcoming Congregation, for instance our general use of inclusive language, these “signs” are in the background; there is less awareness and understanding than in the past of the issues that face bisexual, gay, lesbian, intersexed, and transgender congregants.

to top

Members Attitudes in 2001

In 2001, the newly revived Welcoming Congregation committee issued an Attitude Questionnaire1 to the congregation. We were encouraged by the quantity and quality of results. We received over 70 responses, which is a significant percentage of the congregation.

More education needed

We all want to believe that the North Parish is a unique community, however the survey results show that we’re “predictable”! The trends found in the survey results were forecasted in the preface to the Welcoming Congregation Handbook, Second Edition. Issues around gay and lesbian persons have become more open and visible in society for the last 20 years, and being in a liberal congregation, we in the North Parish have become educated and accepting. Less visible are issues facing bisexual and transgender persons, and the degree of understanding and acceptance of bisexual and transgender persons is considerably less than that of gays and lesbians. Our survey responses very noticeably bear this out. Members of the NP overwhelmingly feel themselves accepting of gay and lesbian persons. They are also noticeably uncomfortable when asked about dealing with bisexual or transgender persons.

to top

Bisexual and Transgender identities and issues

The Welcoming Congregation Handbook, Second Edition was revised from the First Edition specifically to bring focus and educate the community on the issues facing bisexual and transgender persons. Using this book as a guide, the NP Welcoming Congregation Committee will be running workshops and programs to study all issues faced by bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender persons, and our response to them, with the goal of becoming once again a truly Welcoming Congregation.

Goal of the new Welcoming Congregation Committee

The intent in reviving the Welcoming Congregation program is not to be “in your face” about these issues, rather to raise awareness, understanding and education levels, to reduce homophobia and ignorance.

Being UU, we’re not out to change anyone’s mind. We are out to educate, with the hope that through education and awareness, people who are today uncomfortable with bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender people will become comfortable, tolerant, dare I say accepting and welcoming of these neighbors, friends and family members.

“A Unitarian Universalist Community welcomes and celebrates the presence and participation of bisexual, gay, lesbian, intersexed, and transgender persons.”

to top

Timeline of Welcoming Congregation Activities

1991

• Welcoming Congregation Task Force formed.

1991-1993

• North Parish adopted many of the UUA Welcoming Congregation Action Steps.
• North Parish adopted inclusive language in its by-laws.
• North Parish hosted for the regional PFLAG chapter (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) for a number of years.
• Rev. Blanchard began to officiate at services of Union.
• Task Force led various workshops, services and other events for both the congregation and the greater community.

1993-1998

• All religious education forms were changed so as to not automatically assume that a child lives with a male and a female parent.
• The church mailing list was changed so that same-gender couples and their children are listed as a single family unit.
• Children's religious education program was changed to be sure careful attention was paid to featuring a variety of family configurations in worship, classes, and activities. When talking about wedding ceremonies, teachers/leaders present same-gender partnerships and opposite gender partnerships as normal.

to top

1999

• Our Whole Lives, a brand-new comprehensive sexuality education curriculum for eighth graders, replaced About your Sexuality. OWL presents sexual attraction as a continuum, from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual, with much room in between and much variation over time. OWL also presents gender identity as more fluid than the traditional male/female understanding. Youth have the opportunity during OWL to meet with guests from SpeakOut in Boston and ask questions about growing up gay, coming out to family, friends, and colleagues, and about living as a gay person.
• Explanation of Welcoming Congregation intention begins to be included in every New UU class.

Spring 2001

• On January 21, 2001, Rev. Lee Bluemel preached a sermon called "The Time is Always Right,” looking at the history of UUA resolutions on gay rights and challenging the congregation to look at its institutional homophobia as experienced during the search process, leading to the revival of the Welcoming Congregation Committee.
• Welcoming Congregation Committee is revived to re-examine the North Parish’s status as a Welcoming Congregation.
• Committee conducted an Attitude Questionairre to gauge the level of Congregational understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Results were published in Steepletalk.

to top

Fall 2001

• Committee conducted a series of workshops based on the new edition of the UUA Welcoming Congregation Manual.

Spring 2002

• Committee showed the film Before Stonewall, a history of gay life in the United States before the gay and lesbian civil rights movement.
• Committee held series of meetings to establish the direction of the Welcoming Congregation program at North Parish.
• Regular, intentional inclusion of differently shaped families in annual "Love Makes a Family" chocolate communion Sunday, including "Love makes a family" children's reading (2002) and church members' reflections (2003).

Fall 2002

• Committee co-sponsored a discussion on Unitarian Universalism and the Boy Scouts with the Religious Education Committee.
• Committee showed the film You Don’t Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men, which explores the lives of female to male transsexual men.
• In September, the North Parish Board of Trustees signed a Massachusetts "Declaration of Religious Support for the Freedom of Same Gender Couples To Marry." The resolution declared North Parish’s support for an amicus brief being filed by the Religious Coalition for the Freedom To Marry in response to a recent court case.
• Welcoming Congregation information was added to North Parish’s website.
• A Welcoming Congregation statement was added to the Sunday Order of Service.

to top

Spring 2003

• Rev. Lee Bluemel preached a sermon called "Abiding in Love: Marriage Rights for Same Sex Couples,” looking at the practical, religious, theological and spiritual arguments for supporting the legalization of same gender marriages on January 26.
• Gail Forsythe-Vail, The Director of Religious Education, prepared a report to the Board of Trustees outlining the Religious Education Program’s actions to implement the Welcoming Congregation program.
• Committee drafted proposed Welcoming Congregation Resolution after examining resolutions adopted by other UU congregations.
• Committee presented proposed Welcoming Congregation resolution at meetings of the Parish Council and the Board of Trustees to gain their support.
• Committee hosted two transgender speakers from Speak Out. This event was co-sponsored by the Religious Education and Social Action Committees.
• As part of the adult Religious Education series, the Committee invited attorney Jay Libby to speak about legal issues facing non-traditional families.
• Committee showed the film Tongues Untied, which explores the lives and experiences of black gay men.
• Committee hosted a Circle Potluck Dinner.

to top

Welcoming Congregation

North Parish is a Welcoming Congregation, consistent with the guidelines of the Unitarian Universalist Association. We actively welcome lesbian, gay. bisexual, transgender, and intersex people as full participants in the life of the church. For more information, see our Welcoming Congregation page, or contact our Interweave chapter.