Prepare for Pride

We’re preparing for pride. The Vancouver parade is Sunday August 5th.

UCV is showing our colours. We’ll hang a rainbow flag outside and paint rocks in rainbow colours.

Perhaps we’ll decide to re-certify as a “Welcoming Congregation” or offer the “Living the Welcoming Congregation” program.

Contact sharingucv@gmail.com if you’d like to join the email list of the ad hoc team working on this.

More about the Welcoming Congregation program here.

Did you know that

  • UCV officially certified as a Welcoming Congregation in 1995
  • there’s a program called “Living the Welcoming Congregation”
  • the Canadian Unitarian Council was an influential and strong voice in the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada
  • there’s a “transgender” flag
  • the communications committee is working with Buildings and Grounds to proudly display a rainbow flag during Pride week
  • 99% of Canadian Unitarian congregations are certified as Welcoming Congregations
  • At the 2006 Annual Meeting, a Gender and Sexual Diversity resolution was passed, updating an earlier resolution on “gay and lesbian rights”. http://cuc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Gender-and-Sexual-Diversity-Resolution-2006.pdf
  • At the Hamilton national Unitarian conference in 2005, five youth from Calgary unfurled a 500’ rainbow banner. A spontaneous offering raised funds to send them to Ottawa to show their colours. Parts of the banner have been left with various individuals, the CUC and the Calgary congregation.
  • Martha Saunders has donated a flag and we’re looking for a great spot for it
  • There’s a growing collection of rainbow-coloured rocks on the inner courtyard? (rocks welcome—we’ll paint them for you!)
  • The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has a list of ten things we can do for Pride https://www.uua.org/lgbtq/witness/pride
  • The UUA recommends renewing the Welcoming Congregation every five years
  • The original “gay flag” design had eight colours including pink and turquoise and blue and indigo were combined to be “royal blue”, so they usually have six rainbow colours not seven.
  • Each colour had a meaning attached to it:
    • life (red)
    • healing (orange)
    • sunlight (yellow)
    • nature (green)
    • harmony/peace (blue, and
    • spirit (purple/violet).
    • The removed colors stood for sexuality (pink) and art/magic (turquoise).[wikipedia link]

 


Categories:

Arts and Creativity • Social Justice