A young woman rushed up to me in the Health Zone at Pride and said “It is so good that you are here.” She started to talk about the Church’s attitude to LGBT folk and then began to cry. I had an email from Jim, from Liberty Church Blackpool, who brought their 10 foot high Big Jesus to walk in the parade. He wrote: “We lost count of how many times people said ‘Thank you’. Big Jesus speaks to people, affirming, healing, restoring etc.” Charlotte N wrote on Twitter “Yesterday at the Pride Vigil a man told me calmly 'I know I'm going to hell because I'm gay'.” At the same vigil, another man said to me “It was so great to see the gay Jesus at Pride”.
Hope and Light, Light and Hope. This Pride we really made a difference. We didn’t do it by preaching or lecturing, by asking people to change who they were. We did it by being fully ourselves. We offered people a different image of who God is, who Jesus is. The Messy Church crew worked with 35 different families in the Family Zone, creating a rainbow collage with them that says “God loves all families”. We created a space at the candle lit vigil for people to be moved and touched by the stories of our LGBT asylum seeker friends in Rainbow Home. The Holy Spirit was able to weave through the crowd, offering healing and peace. We were able to do all these things because we were prepared to really get out in the world and meet people where they were. We didn’t wait for them to find us. We did what Jesus did, we walked along the streets, we went to where the people gathered and we told them the good news that they needed and wanted to hear. “God made you. God loves you.”
It has been a long process to gain the trust of our community. It has been done by working on personal relationships, by actually showing up and being willing to work at shared aims, by being authentic and generous in our interactions. For a while, I was the person who was “the face” of Northern Lights MCC. This Pride, there were so many of us engaged and involved in the different Pride activities. Christianity is a “team sport”. We are so much better when we are all using our different gifts together. This is what it means to be “the church for our community”. It isn’t just one of us, it is all of us. Some of us feel comfortable being out and about in the community, some of us serve better within the church walls, once people have chosen us to be their faith community. Each of us has our part to play in building a bit of heaven on earth. This year at Pride, there was a bit of heaven on the parade, at the stall, on the main stage in the Family zone and at the vigil. Happy Pride everyone!
God bless
Cecilia
Hope and Light, Light and Hope. This Pride we really made a difference. We didn’t do it by preaching or lecturing, by asking people to change who they were. We did it by being fully ourselves. We offered people a different image of who God is, who Jesus is. The Messy Church crew worked with 35 different families in the Family Zone, creating a rainbow collage with them that says “God loves all families”. We created a space at the candle lit vigil for people to be moved and touched by the stories of our LGBT asylum seeker friends in Rainbow Home. The Holy Spirit was able to weave through the crowd, offering healing and peace. We were able to do all these things because we were prepared to really get out in the world and meet people where they were. We didn’t wait for them to find us. We did what Jesus did, we walked along the streets, we went to where the people gathered and we told them the good news that they needed and wanted to hear. “God made you. God loves you.”
It has been a long process to gain the trust of our community. It has been done by working on personal relationships, by actually showing up and being willing to work at shared aims, by being authentic and generous in our interactions. For a while, I was the person who was “the face” of Northern Lights MCC. This Pride, there were so many of us engaged and involved in the different Pride activities. Christianity is a “team sport”. We are so much better when we are all using our different gifts together. This is what it means to be “the church for our community”. It isn’t just one of us, it is all of us. Some of us feel comfortable being out and about in the community, some of us serve better within the church walls, once people have chosen us to be their faith community. Each of us has our part to play in building a bit of heaven on earth. This year at Pride, there was a bit of heaven on the parade, at the stall, on the main stage in the Family zone and at the vigil. Happy Pride everyone!
God bless
Cecilia
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