Keep the Faith: Widening the welcome — a constant state of becoming
Pronoun pins, gender-affirming clothing, unicorn decorations and an array of pride flags were just the beginning of the sights witnessed at Camp Pride this summer. As an intentionally interfaith and fully affirming camp week for LGBTQ+ high schoolers and allies, an experience of inclusive spirituality was shared.
At Pilgrim Lodge in West Gardiner, Maine, campers and counselors of various identities, expressions, and faith traditions found a welcome which, in my own understanding of the Divine, was a reflection of God’s expansive, uncontainable love.
Welcome is core to the identity of many faith traditions. As our wider community celebrates Pride Worcester this week, people of faith who seek to affirm the blessed identity of LGBTQ+ people may be pondering how to widen their welcome to these and others who have been marginalized by church.
In this effort, one of the most important aspects to realize is that welcome is not a stagnant state of being. It is not simply a word spoken or a rainbow flag flying. Rather, welcome is a constant state of becoming.
Nurturing welcome is a commitment to respond to the needs of those around us as we find ways to embrace and affirm the blessedness of one another. When we reflect on the ministry of Jesus, the lens through which I personally strive to see the world, we bear witness to such a becoming.
Those who were excluded by society of the time were included at Jesus’ table. The hope and light of Christ was not confined to a particular community but was open to all.
At Camp Pride, our campers found such a welcome. This means they found a place where we were constantly seeking how to support, love, and care for one another. We openly acknowledged that we would not always do it perfectly, but we would never stop striving. We honored pronouns and names and gave grace when a mistake was made. We welcomed and affirmed diversity as beauty.
For our neurodivergent campers, we provided fidgets and earplugs so they could engage with the wider experience in a comfortable way. For those holding the effects of past traumas, we made safe space for them to step away when a moment was challenging.
Listening to the needs of our campers reinforced and expanded my understanding of what it means to welcome. Embracing welcome as a faithful state of becoming means we never stop seeking to make the space we inhabit more accessible to those who wish to enter it.
How do we live into such a welcome? We ask questions to better understand and not to judge. We seek to create a culture where people can express their needs and know that they will be met with compassion rather than criticism. We long to find ways of making the message of love and hope accessible to all who seek, and we acknowledge that we always have room to grow.
As faith communities, we can strive to be prepared to welcome all who enter our sacred spaces. We can display rainbows to show our commitment to providing safe space for LGBTQ+ people. We can have fidgets available for those who need them. We can prepare large print bulletins, seek brail hymnals, have hearing aid devices for those who need a boost in sound, and have noise-reducing implements for those who need it muted.
We can create space for children and let the wiggles and giggles enrich our worship. Any of these options and more can show a commitment to welcoming as I believe Christ would want us to welcome. They can tune our hearts to be more aware of the needs of others so that when a new need arises for someone to fell embraced in our space, we are ready to seek ways of making it so.
We need not arrive at the perfect state of welcome. We need not have all the answers already in place. What we need is a commitment to becoming. We need open hearts to listen and willing spirits to do what we can to make our communities and our messages of hope open and accessible to all.
Rev. Josh Fitterling is the Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Worcester, a member congregation of the United Church of Christ, a denomination of extravagant welcome.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Widening the welcome for LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups
