Pride, take 2

My apologies for the cryptic, nonsensical post of a couple of days ago. Just as I got started my computor died. And then yesterday I was busy with my second granddaughter being born. Hannah will be discussed in the next post, but she is well and beautiful. At any rate, I wanted to say a word about Pride and our church.

Atlanta has one of the largest gay Pride events in the country. Befoer I came to Saint Mark I knew about Pride activities, but I had never been a part of one. The currrent chapter at Saint MArk was begun at a Pride parade in the early 1990's. The route for the parade goes right in front of Saint Mark. Some laypeople back then had been to a workshop reminding church leaders of the necessity of reaching out to their neighborhood. Many gays and lesbians had moved in to the mid-town area at that time, and so the church made a conscious decision to reach out in an open and affirming way to this community. When the parade came by Saint Mark there were some older ladies passing out cups of water to the marchers - it's hot in Atlanta in late June - and a sign over the doors saying everyone is welcome at saint Mark. The resulting influx of persons and the revitalization of the church was dubbed by one prominent Saint Marker as "the miracle on Peachtree Street".

Saint Mark is about more than its ministry to and with the GLBT community, but that is certainly one central element of our witness as a congrgaton. And the Pride weekend is one of the major times in our common life. We start off our activities with what we call a Diversity Diiner/Worship on the Thursday night. It is often very powerful. This year Beth Stroud spoke. Beth was a United Methodist pastor in Pennsylvania until she went public about her committed relationship with another woman. The resulting church trial ended with her losing her credentials as a pastor in the UMC. She spoke eloquently to us about being called by God and about the risks that come with that call. At this service we also gave out our annual Diversity Award. It goes each year to someone in Saint Mark or in the larger community who has made a substantial contribution to diversity. This year it went to Mike Beechum for his work in supporting Chris Kids and Chris Rainbow House. A very moving moment.

Along with several other churches we always have a booth in Piedmont Park ovr the weekend. And we are a presence in the parade. Some of our folks worked very hard on a great flaot - we won second place - and we had a number of walkers with the float. Saint Mark always gets a good many cheers as the parade unfolds because many people know of our welcoming nature. It is powerful to hear. More churches are involved now - the Episcopal churches in the region were especially well represented - but we were among the first. We had lively worship services that morning as well. One especially moving moment to me was singing the last verse of "In Unity We Lift Our Song." The tune is that of "A Mighty Fortress", powerful in itself, and the organ was on fire, the choir was singing beautifully as only the Saint Mark choir can, the sopranos had this glorious descant, and our people were singing their hearts out. the words?

For God our way, our bread, our rest, of all these gifts the Giver.
Our strength, our guide, our nurturing breast whose hand will yet deliver.
Who keeps us till the day when night shall pass away,
when hate and fear are gone and all our work is done, and we shall live forever.

I wish I could have bottled the moment.

There are elements of Pride that some of us here would like to see changed. But the overall event is critical to our people. We work hard to approach it from a specifically Christian perspective, and this year we had a good weekend.

Jimmy