One of my close friends has been very ill recently. We served as District Co-ordinators and Elders together. She is older than me and very experienced. She has coached and mentored me over many years. She officiated at our MCC wedding, her partner was one of our witnesses, and her daughter sang for us. Whenever I go to the USA, I spend time with her and her family. I told her once that I had described her as ‘my MCC mom’. She was quite pleased about that. She is the only person outside my actual family who gets to call me by my family name, without being given a death stare. I am glad to say that she is home and recovering, but it has been a difficult week. I think of my friend and her family as my ‘MCC family’. I am home in their house. I know where stuff goes in the kitchen cupboards. I walk the dog and do chores around the place when I go to stay. I can wear my pyjamas in the daytime and raid the fridge whenever I want. It is a good and safe place for me to be.
The word ‘family’ can be a difficult word for some folk. It may not be a safe or welcoming place. We may have been hurt or rejected by people in our family. We may simply just not like them or have much in common. LGBTQ people have always been very good at creating ‘framilies’ – friends who take the place of our families because we are not accepted or can’t be ourselves with them. People who come from different cultural backgrounds from the place that they live in often do this too. Sometimes, we may feel closer to these ‘framilies’, than to the people we grew up with. Many people describe Northern Lights MCC as their church family. It is a place where people feel loved, accepted and at home.
One of the wonderful things that has happened for LGBTQ people is that we can more easily become parents and make our own families. It is a great delight to welcome all our rainbow families to our monthly Family Service. This service is open to our whole church faith family. It is really good when people from the Sunday evening service worship at the Family Service too. It means that the children recognise and know faces when they worship with us at one of our All Age church services (the next All Age Service will be Easter Sunday). There are adopted children within my own family and it is wonderful to see how LGBTQ couples are blessing and being blessed by children who need to find their ‘forever family’. These children are loved and cherished, and flourish in the love of their parents and extended family. This week I invite you to think about who you think of as ‘family’ and thank God for them.
God bless
Cecilia
The word ‘family’ can be a difficult word for some folk. It may not be a safe or welcoming place. We may have been hurt or rejected by people in our family. We may simply just not like them or have much in common. LGBTQ people have always been very good at creating ‘framilies’ – friends who take the place of our families because we are not accepted or can’t be ourselves with them. People who come from different cultural backgrounds from the place that they live in often do this too. Sometimes, we may feel closer to these ‘framilies’, than to the people we grew up with. Many people describe Northern Lights MCC as their church family. It is a place where people feel loved, accepted and at home.
One of the wonderful things that has happened for LGBTQ people is that we can more easily become parents and make our own families. It is a great delight to welcome all our rainbow families to our monthly Family Service. This service is open to our whole church faith family. It is really good when people from the Sunday evening service worship at the Family Service too. It means that the children recognise and know faces when they worship with us at one of our All Age church services (the next All Age Service will be Easter Sunday). There are adopted children within my own family and it is wonderful to see how LGBTQ couples are blessing and being blessed by children who need to find their ‘forever family’. These children are loved and cherished, and flourish in the love of their parents and extended family. This week I invite you to think about who you think of as ‘family’ and thank God for them.
God bless
Cecilia
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