Notes from the Pastor – June 2022

Happy Pridetide!

Wait, what is “Pridetide”? Well, this year the season of Pentecost begins with four Sundays in the month of June, which is commonly celebrated as LGBTQ+ Pride Month, so we might as well celebrate them together!

Pentecost and Pride have a lot in common when you think about it. Pentecost is a celebration of the Holy Spirit descending on the disciples, granting them unique gifts, allowing them to speak to people in their own languages. It’s a celebration that the Spirit has been bestowed on “all flesh,” regardless of human structures and divisions.

Pride Month is also a celebration, a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots that kickstarted the LGBTQ+ movement. As an Open and Affirming congregation, we testify that just as the Spirit crossed boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, sex, and social class in the Early Church, She continues to do so in boundaries of gender and sexuality today. Particularly as the anti-gay and anti-trans movement seems to be consolidating political power in this country, the Church is called to be the mouthpiece of the Spirit, calling from the wilderness and beckoning us to true freedom and justice.

Sundays in June we’ll be celebrating the Prismatic Grace of the Spirit, by looking at concepts from the LGBTQ community and how they align with the gifts of the Holy Spirit: vocation, communion, repentance, and proclamation.

We’ve also got a couple of events planned for the season of Pridetide, and both are great opportunities to invite a friend who might be looking for a community like ours.

First, on June 12th, we will be participating in an ecumenical Pride Worship with Bethel Lutheran and First Congregational UCC. Join us at 7pm at the Gibson Park Bandshell and be sure to bring a blanket or lawn chair.

On June 26th, we are having a Pride Picnic to celebrate our third anniversary of being an Open and Affirming church. Watch the fellowship hall for a sign-up sheet in the next week or so.

Let’s celebrate the Spirit this month in all Her prismatic grace, heeding her call for justice, mercy, and a life lived in full color.

Pastor Stephen
pastor@gfccc.net