Remaining Faithful Message from Reverend Mary White
Good Evening and Blessings
Today is International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. We continue to celebrate the 2SLGBTQI+ community & to raise awareness that we still have work to do to become a truly safe & inclusive society. I wonder, how much longer it will take for all of society to be accepting of diversities and treat others in a non-judgemental manner?
A few days ago, Royal Bay Secondary School in Colwood, BC, students painted a crosswalk with the rainbow colors to demonstrate acceptance for all students. That evening, two adults vandalized the crosswalk by painting obscenities over the rainbow colors.
Keep safe, Keep connected.
Blessings and the strength of Love be with you.
Rev. Mary,
Reading Excerpt from Urs Mattmann “Coming In”
(Urs Mattmann was raised in the 1960s-1970s)
I became aware of my first homosexual feelings at the age of about 12, and a year or so later I saw the word ‘homosexual’ for the first time, in a TV magazine. As I didn’t know what it meant, I checked in a dictionary and realised that I had the feelings described – but they were explained in pathological terms. I got the impression that the way I felt wasn’t welcomed in this world and that there was something wrong with me. In my later teenage years and early twenties I became aware that in fundamentalist circles love between people of the same sex was condemned as sick, sinful, perverse, or even demonic. I had two major experiences as a result of this attitude. At 23 I had to leave a theological seminary because it was discovered that I was gay. A year later I lost my job at an evangelical youth hostel for the same reason. As a consequence, I took my leave of this conservative environment and continued my life journey with expanded theological horizons. But I soon realised that I could not just put those years of homophobic oppression away like an old book. A change on a mental level is not everything. Painful emotions, feeling and memories don’t just disappear.
Prayer
Compassionate Spirit
As you draw me ever deeper into your heart, I discover that my companions on the journey are women and men loved by you as intimately as I am.
In your compassionate heart, there is a place for us all. No one is excluded.
Give me a share in your compassion, dear One, so that your unlimited love may become visible in the way I love my brothers and sisters.
Amen