Affirming Anniversary

West Hill’s 15th Affirming Anniversary

On Sunday, December 6, 2009 we celebrated becoming an Affirming Ministry within the United Church of Canada. One of over 50 ministries that have joined Affirm United in support and in celebration of the LGBTQ+, West Hill took this step after a year of exploration and following a unanimous vote supporting the motion at our June 2009 Annual Congregational meeting.

As a progressive congregation, West Hill has been a place of non-exclusivity and welcoming of diversity for many many years. But declaring that we are an Affirming ministry is much more than receiving recognition for the openness that currently exists. In making a public, intentional and explicit (PIE) declaration, West Hill joined Affirm to stand alongside and in solidarity with those who have been marginalized due to their sexual orientation and gender identity or those who advocate for them.

STAY FOR LUNCH!

Please join us on Sunday, December 1st for this meaningful celebration, and stay for lunch after the gathering. If you are joining us in the hall, we'll have soup on, and if you're online, grab a bite and stay with us for rich, warm conversation... together at West Hill.

Click here to watch the gathering

First Reading - Tattoos on the Heart by Greg Boyle

No daylight to separate us. Only kinship. Inching ourselves closer to creating a community of kinship that we might recognize as Sacred. Soon we imagine, as Sacred people, this circle of compassion. Then we imagine no one standing outside of that circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will be erased. We stand there with those whose dignity has been denied. We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless. At the edges, we join the easily despised and readily left out. We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop. We situate ourselves with the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away. 

Second Reading - Vulnerable Communion by Tom Reynolds

The other must be “let be,” recognized for their own unique difference. The opposite of exploitation, availability shows respect, outlining a concern that the other person grow and unfold at their own pace and on their own terms, not for serving me or some systemic end. This means granting another person a certain freedom to be who they are. Of course, this also means that I am a free agent capable of recognizing my own vulnerability and letting go of my own projections and need for control.