What Is An Official Welcoming Congregation?
The Welcoming Congregation Program is a completely volunteer program for congregations that see a need to become more inclusive towards bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender people. It consists of a series of workshops developed by the UUA. The goal of the workshops is to reduce prejudice by increasing understanding and acceptance among people of different sexual orientations. Some of the workshop titles include:
- How Homophobia Hurts Heterosexuals;
- Connections to Other Forms of Oppression;
- Gender Socialization and Homophobia; and
- Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality.
Many congregations offer the workshop series several consecutive times as an adult religious education curriculum open to all members and friends. In some congregations the workshop series (and later the entire program) is sponsored by a Welcoming Congregation Task Force/Committee created for just this purpose, while other congregations sponsor the workshop series through their Interweave chapters. In either case, the workshops are best facilitated by those that have experienced the curriculum." This is the official UUA description of an OFFICIAL Welcoming Congregation.
It may interest you to know that 523 UU congregations in the U.S. are Official Welcoming Congregations (OWCs). That's over fifty-percent. In the Pacific Southwest District (ours) 29 of the 50 are already OWCs for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) persons. And UUs are not the only denomination to have taken the steps to become OWCs. The United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and other denominations have embraced similar programs.
To obtain our status as an Official Welcoming Congregation from the UUA, Tapestry must complete sixteen Welcoming Congregation Action Steps set forth by the UUA. At that time, if we vote as a congregation to become an OWC, we'll notify the UUA and receive a letter of congratulations and a poster proclaiming "WE ARE AN OFFICIAL WELCOMING CONGREGATION".
With an official go-ahead from Rev. John and our Board, Tapestry has already begun taking the necessary steps to achieve this status, and by early 2007 the workshops will be made available to all who are interested. On Sunday Dec. 17, I'll present an Adult Forum titled On Becoming An Official Welcoming Congregation. Lauren Lowe will be co-chairing this program and the task force/committee with me. We welcome your attendance at the AF and look forward to providing you with more information and answers to your questions.
Sheila Raymond
August 2008 Update
Welcoming Projects
The Projects Meeting on August 10th allowed us to identify a number of individuals who wish to participate in various projects to continue our welcoming work on behalf of Tapestry. Going forward, these projects will be conducted under the auspices of Tapestry's Social Action Committee, with Jocelyn Cooper acting as liaison. If you did not have an opportunity to attend the projects meeting, but would like to participate in one or more welcoming projects, please contact Jocelyn Cooper at for more information.
OWC Application
Our OWC Application (a lengthy document) is almost complete, and will soon be in the hands of the UUA for evaluation. The OWC Task Force anticipates an affirmative response to the Application, and expects to officially celebrate Tapestry's official Welcoming Congregation status on National Coming Out Day in October 2008.
Task Force No More
Once the OWC Application has been submitted, the Task Force will have completed its work, and will therefore cease to exist! The former members will, of course, continue to be involved in welcoming projects and hope that lots of you will choose to be involved as well!
Thank you all for your participation in workshops and your support of Tapestry's application for official Welcoming Congregation status, as well as Tapestry's ongoing outreach to the GLBTQ communities.
Tapestry's OWC Task Force:
Eric Daniel Nichols
Matt Brideson
Rosy Pacilli
Terry Parker
Sheila Raymond
Lauren Schmid
May 2008 Update
On Sunday, May 18th, seven of us from Tapestry marched with the South OC PFLAG Chapter in the Long Beach Gay Pride Parade. This event and Festival have been going on for twenty-five years. There were two hundred entrants and about seventy-five thousand spectators lining Ocean Ave., starting at Redondo Ave., and ending on Los Alamitos Ave.
Yes, it was HOT, HOT, HOT! But we'd do it all over again in an OC minute. Here are some comments from those who participated: Jan Meslin: “I've never had thousands of people clap for me before.” Gary Livesey: “It was a memorable Sunday and I look forward to future involvement with people such as yourselves.” When asked to give a “sound bite,” Cameron Lowe, 13, shrugged and was at a loss for words, while Miranda Lowe, 9, smiled primly and said, “Hot!” Vicki Schmid, 16, was our heroine, pulling a big ice chest on wheels for the entire length of the 1.25 mile parade route, and far beyond (we had to walk quite a ways from our van to and from the parade route). Lauren Schmid said, “It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. They are already asking when they can walk in another parade!”
Sheila and Lauren tended to agree with Jan - it was pretty heady stuff, having people along the sidewalk, and from balconies several stories high, applauding enthusiastically and shouting “We love you!” It was a very colorful and exciting day, to say the least.
So what does the future hold for Tapestry as a Welcoming Congregation? Well, the Task Force will make a short presentation at the June congregational meeting and then you, the voting members, will be invited to approve a motion to apply to the UUA in Boston for our status as an official “Welcoming Congregation.” We've completed nearly all the action steps required, and hope to have acceptance shortly before National Coming Out Day in October, at which time we can have a huge celebration.
December 2007 Update
OWC Attitude Questionnaire Workshop
Thank you to the sixty-five Tapestry congregants who took the time to complete the OWC Attitude Questionnaire! The results of this survey have provided a fascinating snapshot of our congregation’s attitudes and feelings toward the GLBT community. We hope each and every participant also found personal value in exploring these issues.
In tabulating the survey responses, some interesting inconsistencies came to light. It is impossible to accurately summarize the range of responses to the entire survey here, but generally speaking …
More than 50% of respondents said that in a social situation they would not be nervous in a group of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, or heterosexuals. However, less than 50% said they would be comfortable in a GLBT-owned bar, restaurant, or business.
Tapestry congregants largely responded that they would be comfortable if a friend, family member, coworker, neighbor, or other person with whom they share a relationship, identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Fewer people were comfortable with the idea of a loved one or acquaintance identifying as transgendered. For this reason, we believe it is important to provide more information on transgender issues as part of a future workshop.
It is our goal to continue providing Tapestry congregants with the opportunity to examine their own attitudes about the GLBT community, and we believe that offering a discussion workshop on the survey results will provide that opportunity. Therefore, on January 20 we will host a discussion workshop at which we will provide the complete tabulated survey results and discuss how the collective response to the OWC Attitude Questionnaire will shape our path to becoming an Official Welcoming Congregation. Please join us after the second service at 12:30 p.m. to take part in what promises to be an insightful workshop.~
Tapestry's OWC Task Force ~ Eric Daniel Nichols * Erika Allen * Lauren Lowe * Matt Brideson * Rosy Pacilli * Sheila Raymond * Stephaney Cox * Terry Parker
August 2007 Update
Here it is August, and we've been on the road to becoming an Official Welcoming Congregation (OWC) since late 2006. First, we formed a task force. Then we held our first meeting on Dec. 17. Since then, we've met five more times, and presented five of the nine workshops we planned for this year. Our workshops have averaged an astonishing 14 people per session!
Tapestry uses The Welcoming Congregation Handbook, originally published in 1990 and revised in 1999 as a second edition, as a guide to help us to become "Official" according to UUA guidelines. This handbook asks the question: "Why are we singling out homosexual people to welcome to our congregations? Isn't it the job of our membership committee to welcome everyone?" The answer given is this: "Churches are the most anti-homosexual institution in America, and much of the justification used to promote anti-homosexual feelings, legislation, and violence is couched in "religious" language. One researcher discovered, for instance, that 95 percent of convicted gay-bashers interviewed in prison cited "religious" motivations for their crimes. So, it is particularly hard for bisexual, gay, lesbian and /or transgender people to feel safe bringing their whole selves into churches. Even in Unitarian Universalist congregations, many BGL T people are afraid that revealing the gender of their partner means being asked, directly or indirectly, to leave. When the congregation indicates a commitment to the hard work necessary to welcome BGLT people, it heightens their sense of safety to be open and involved in congregational life."
In May, we welcomed Stephaney Cox to the task force, AKA the Committee. Stephaney, a wildlife biologist, will be distributing an Attitude Questionnaire to the congregation in early September. It's designed to measure the way you feel about bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender people. It's ANONYMOUS, is not a test, and there are no right or wrong answers. This questionnaire is an educational tool for the OWC task force to gauge how we're progressing. Erika Allen also came on board recently from UUFLB (Laguna Beach), and will be helping Stephaney with this task. She and her husband, Eric Allen are the parents of Mathias, 8 and Colin, 6, and are expecting a baby girl, named Salem, in September. Erika headed up the task force at UUFLB, and brings much wisdom and experience to Tapestry.
August 19 we'll host a special worship service, featuring a panel from the PFLAG Speakers Bureau, South Orange County Chapter. PFLAG is an acronym for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and its mission statement reads as follows: "PFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through:
- Support to cope with an adverse society;
- Education to enlighten an ill-informed public; and
- Advocacy to end discrimination and secure equal civil rights".
Following the worship service, the Workshop titled Religion and Homosexuality will be led by Matt Brideson and Eric Nichols.
After the August program, the workshop schedule for the remainder of 2007 is as follows:
- Sunday, September 16 - Experiences of BGL and/or Transgender People
- Sunday, October 21 - History
- Sunday, Nov. 18 - Bisexuality and Biphobia
DECEMBER - No workshop due to holidays
*There will be no Monday evening workshops until further notice.
Your OWC Task Force: Stephaney, Eric, Terry, Rosy, Matt, Lauren, Erika and Sheila
July 2007 Update
The subject of July's Official Welcoming Congregation workshop #5 will be Racism and Homophobia/ Heterosexism. Possibly the most thought-provoking of all the workshops so far in the series, the purposes of this workshop are to reinforce the fact that there are bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender people of color; and to understand the connections between racism and homophobia/heterosexism.
This workshop will be facilitated by Terry Parker and Rosy Pacilli, and will be offered only once in July, on Sunday afternoon July 15 following the 10:00 service.Light refreshments will be served. Please note that August's workshop, #8 - Religion and Homosexuality - will also be offered on only one Sunday, August 19. There will be no more Monday evening workshops until further notice.
The workshops are held upstairs in the Teen Room, and are informal, informative and even fun. If you have not attended the previous four workshops, this might be the one you'd like to try. We have a faithful group of regulars, and since summer attendance tends to taper off a bit, we'd welcome some new faces.
Sincerely, Your OWC Task Force: Stephaney, Eric, Terry, Rosy, Matt, Lauren and Sheila
June 2007 Update
What is it? What are we doing? There are still some confusing elements of the need for a "welcoming committee" as it is sometimes referred to. Some years back, the Unitarian Universalist Association, of which Tapestry is a member, identified a need for congregations and fellowships to be more specifically welcoming to certain groups of people. Specifically, members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgendered community. The process is now called becoming an "Official Welcoming Congregation", and more than half of the UU congregations in the Pacific Southwest District (ours) and in the U.S. are now OWCs.
We began at the end of 2006 with getting the Board of Directors' approval to form a task force and begin the process of becoming an OWC. That process involves some 15 action steps, to be done at our own pace and over a comfortable period of time, and then taking the news that we've finished the steps to the congregation for a vote as to whether we wish to apply for official OWC status with the UUA. Once this has been accomplished, we let the Office of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Concerns (OBGLTC) in Boston know just how each action step was met; and voila! they will send the congregation a letter of congratulations, along with a poster that proclaims "We Are an Official Welcoming Congregation".
When you see reminders in the newsletter, order of service and online of the various workshops, this is what we are working on. In March, the first workshop, Introductions and Expectations, was held. Thirty-five people participated in two workshops. In April, What We Know and How We Learned It was presented, with 30 people attending. This past month, on May 20th and 21st The Common Elements of Oppression was presented. It showed us how homophobia or heterosexism works in much the same manner as racism, ethno-centrism, ableism, anti-semitism, classism, and ageism.
In June, we will offer Gender Socialization and Homophobia on June 17 and 18. It is not necessary to have attended previous workshops in order to sign up for this one. We've scheduled the same workshop on both Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, for the convenience of families and working people. In the words of Lauren Lowe, "We're opening doors, and people are willing to look through them." This program "gives us permission to talk about the subject." said Ed Burditt, friend and facilitator from San Dieguito Fellowship in Solana Beach. We hope more and more of you will eventually want come down this road we're on, and see what the excitement is all about.
May 2007 Update
OWC Workshop #2, What We Know and How We Learned It, was held twice in April, on the 22nd and 23rd. Matt Brideson, Eric Nichols and Sheila Raymond facilitated.
The Task Force is offering each of the workshops two times each month for the rest of the year. This is so those who cannot attend on Sunday afternoons will have another opportunity on Monday evenings.
The schedule for the rest of 2007 is as follows, so please mark your calendars:
| Workshop # | Title | Dates |
| 3 | The Common Elements of Oppression | May 20 & 21 |
| 4 | Gender Socialization and Homophobia | June 17 & 18 |
| 5 | Racism and Homophobia - July 15 & 16 | July 15 & 16 |
| 8 | Religion and Homosexuality | Aug. 19 & 20 |
| 9 | Experiences of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, and/or Transgender People | Sept. 16 & 17 |
| 10 | History | Oct. 21 & 22 |
| 11 | Bisexuality and Biphobia | Nov. 18 & 19 |
| (Holiday Season: no workshops) | (December) |
Sheila and the Task Force……Lauren, Rosy, Terry, Melanie, Matt and Eric.
