About ten years ago my church voted to be "ONA", or "Open and Affirming" to queer and trans* folks. We have 2 lesbian pastors, the music director is gender/queer, queer families and me (I'm currently the only trans* person affiliated with this church).
There are folks, like me, who want to make our church a queer focal point for the community because there isn't realy all that much in San Mateo County. The problem is that two of the folks who are most interested in spearheading this with me don't really like each other.
Simply voting to be ONA is only part of the process. Calling openly gay ministers and hiring openly queer staff are also both steps in the right direction. But, there seems to be something missing.
For those UCC folks here on Susan's, and those in other denominations who might have gone through similar things, how do you keep the process moving? I know that there is a desire to make our church queer-family friendly. To that end, would it be worthwhile to pursue this with the Christian Education folks, or the Children Youth and Families ministry? It seems that CE and CYF could be places to start.
I also don't want to step on anyone's toes. But one of those two I mentioned is not only a bit of an abrupt person, she's also really busy and isn't always present.
I'm thinking that I could be nominated to take this whole thing over if I start poking around, and I'm not adverse to that. But at the same time, I could get caught in the middle of the Two.
Any suggestions?
My church does an LGBT Bible study once a week. Plus, they have PFLAG once a month which meetings are advertised on the internet. Maybe you could have publicly advertised meetings like this.
Cool. Thanks Brooke.