Celebration. Affirmation. Pride.
This month, we are celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Open & Affirming Sunday (6/27). We are a congregation that centers LGBTQ+ individuals and families in the life, leadership, and sacraments of our faith community.
Juniper Formation was co-created as an Open and Affirming ministry, and officially became Open and Affirming (ONA) church number 1690 within the Open & Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ in January 2021.
Below we’ve curated resources for LGBTQ+ advocacy, as well as theological reflection, continued learning, and the cultivation of affirming practices. We’ve emphasized transgender individuals and identities, given our culture’s current struggle with understanding, affirming, celebrating, and protecting the rights and lives of transgender people.
Together, may we continue to work towards full inclusion, affirmation, and celebration of all of God’s people within and well beyond Pride Month in the life and leadership of the Church and society.
Take pride in knowing you were created by God and are God’s beloved.
Take Action: The Equality Act
Contact your Senators, especially if they are Republican, to advocate for the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, adding these to the protected classes of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which currently includes race, color, religion and national origin.
In February, the House passed the legislation, 224 to 206, with all Democrats in support and only three Republicans joining. The Senate companion bill is currently sponsored by 49 Democrats (Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. is holding out) and no Republicans. Senator Susan Collins of Maine is the only Republican who sponsored the previous version of the bill, but she has not yet become a sponsor of the current bill.
“A Little Reflection on Genesis 1”
By Michaela Nicole (she/they), from her blog Words from Michaela. The following post went viral on social media earlier in June via Micaela Nicole’s Twitter channel. We share the original post with you as a way to remember the important both/and, inbetween, and nonbinary spaces of all God’s creation.
i'm nonbinary. how does this reconcile with the verse, "male and female he created them," you may ask?
the variety in God's creation emphasizes God's creativity as an artist. Genesis gives us several examples of this.
God made "day and night." this sounds like a binary, similar to "male and female," right? but that isn't quite all we experience in 24 hours. sunrises and sunsets do not fit into the binary of day or night. yet God paints the skies with these too.
On the second day God separated the sky from water. seems like another binary. yet the clouds hold water for us in the sky, the condensation and rain cycle refreshing our earth constantly. the sky, separate from water, contains and releases water.
God also said "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." that isn't the full story, either. consider marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens. not fully land, not fully waters. there is such glorious variety in God's creation.
We see another binary in the celestial bodies God made: "the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night." and then, almost as a footnote, "and the stars." there is more than just sun and moon in outer space. planets, asteroids, black holes, supernovae.
......
side note: these magnificent stars hundreds of times more massive than our sun, as simple as that to God.
"and the stars." I marvel. Hallelujah.
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"God created the great sea monsters" and "every winged bird of every kind." a split again between water and sky. yet we see creatures like penguins that are definitely a "winged bird," but do not fly and instead walk and swim.
and finally "male and female he created them." first off, intersex people exist.
but, and perhaps more importantly, friends, look around. listen. do you have friends or family that say they don't fall under "male" or "female?" if so, honor that.
does all this variety invalidate God as creator? of course not!
I believe that this instead is an example of how authors weave words to tell a story. we see the author in Genesis give examples of the extremes that God creates. It doesn't exclude the possibility of more.
and so we worship the God of more. The God of the marsh, the penguin, the God of the sunrise, the cloud, the supernovae. The God of the nonbinary.
you are loved. -m.
A They/Them Pronoun Guide
If you are on a Zoom call with Juniper Formation you'll notice that we put our pronouns at the end of our name: (they/them), (she/her), (she/ella), he/him), etc. Here is a helpful guide to understanding the use of they/them pronouns in your ministry and life.
Teach [Ourselves &] Our Children Well
Lindsay Amer (they/them) is the creator of “Queer Kids Stuff,” an educational video series that breaks down complex ideas around gender and sexuality through songs and metaphors. By giving kids and their families a vocabulary to express themselves, Amer is helping to create more empathetic adults — and spreading a message of radical acceptance in a world where it's sometimes dangerous to just be yourself. "I want kids to grow up and into themselves with pride for who they are and who they can be," Amer says. Enjoy Lindsay’s Ted Talk below:
We invite you to make an offering today. An offering is a way we share with one another in support of the whole, and as a loving act of co-creating a new way of being together and with God as we prophetically reimagine the Church.
In addition to online giving, you may write a check out to “Juniper Formation,” and mail it to Juniper Formation, PO Box 19541, Denver, CO 80219.
For all of the ways you give your spirit, heart, gifts, talents, and resources, we thank you.
