Green Gaia
Veteran Member
In Virginia, Vows Made and Renewed
On Sunday, January 22, 2006 the UU Church of Arlington, VA, held a party: the congregation decided to have a Reaffirmation of Vows Ceremony. Sixty couples, gay and straight, publicly renewed their commitment to each other in a ceremony attended by nearly four hundred congregation members and friends. The fact that the ceremony happened immediately after a Maryland judge ruled that it was unconstitutional not to allow same-sex couples to marry, and as an anti-marriage amendment was debated in Virginia, meant that the media was interested in "response" to these activities. The Arlington Church, focused on affirming the values of Unitarian Universalism, was ready to take a public position on marriage equality, and so the ceremony came to fruition. UUCAVA ministerial intern Archene Turner said that members of the congregation wanted to offer an event which would allow the whole church communityeven folks who couldn't take off work to lobby for marriage equality in Virginia to participate.
It was an energetic event, according to Erica Clark, a congregation member who helped plan the ceremony. The Lesbian and Gay Chorus of Washington sang at the Sunday worship service before the ceremony and extended their stay to sing during the Reaffirmation of Vows ceremony. Members and friends of the congregation assembled in the driveway and UUCAVA minister Richard Nugent and intern Archene Turner officiated at the service.
Turner said the reaffirmation of vows in the ceremony " was overwhelming I was just so proud to be a soon-to-be UU minister to come to this congregation and be able to participate in an event that's so crucial to our mission" was wonderful." Turner is a fifth-year seminarian at Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago.
Lobby Day/Prayer Breakfast:
Later that week, (Wednesday, January 25th) members of UUCAVA joined other UUs from Virginia in participating in Equality Virginia's lobby day against Virginia's "marriage amendment" in Richmond. A prayer breakfast sponsored by People of Faith for Equality in Virginia was held followed by lobby training from Equality Virginia. Participants then lobbied their legislators to oppose the discriminatory constitutional amendment banning legal recognition of same-sex relationships.
Erica Clark, who attended the Lobby Day, was surprised to see how ecumenical the involvement was at the prayer breakfast. Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, Minister of Religious Education at UUCAVA, spoke at the breakfast. "We must not believe all stereotypes about other faith positions on this issue," she said. "We find friends in the most surprising places." Peebles said that when she attended the breakfast, she was "very gratified to meet people from many faiths - Jewish and both conservative and liberal Protestant - who are committed to securing the rights for all, based on their faith. Each person who spoke was eloquent and moving," she said.
Marc DeFrancis, who chaired the lobby day activity for UUCAVA and is a member of the Arlington Gay & Lesbian Alliance, said the lobby day "was an invigorating and empowering experience of the twenty-seven members of UUCA who went, only a few had ever lobbied their state legislators like this before. This may not sound like a big deal to some urbanites, but let me assure you that in a state where fundamentalists have such a loud voice, the mere fact that that a hundred clergy and friends including bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender clergy and friends traveled to Richmond to support same-sex couples' rights, is big news."
UUCAVA has also been showing "A Love Story in the Face of Hate," chronicling the story of Barbara Kenney and Tibby Middleton, a couple for more than forty years, who moved from Virginia because of the state's discriminatory stand against bglt couples. Erica Clark said, "it puts a real human face on this legislation: what would Virginia do if every BGLT person packed up their bags and moved out of state? Then you'd see the loss. It's unconscionable to me that we can live in a world where this can happen."
UUs in Virginia are standing on the side of love, not hate. Marc DeFrancis asked, "How many churches in Virginia can boast that they not only support bglt clergy and full marriage equality but have done so for some time?" Archene Turner adds that UU ministers of color have a unique and important role to play in advancing marriage equality: much of the time, the voices for bglt rights have been pretty much white. Turner will lead a short session between worship services in February on what can be learned from the civil rights movement to bring into the movement to support marriage equality. Linda Olson Peebles observed, "I believe that UUs have an important role to play in helping bring together people of many faiths to speak out on the side of love from their faith perspectives Since the opposition to rights for gays is founded on religious positions and cannot be justified otherwise, we need to help people understand that there are different religious beliefs."
Also of interest:
On Sunday, January 22, 2006 the UU Church of Arlington, VA, held a party: the congregation decided to have a Reaffirmation of Vows Ceremony. Sixty couples, gay and straight, publicly renewed their commitment to each other in a ceremony attended by nearly four hundred congregation members and friends. The fact that the ceremony happened immediately after a Maryland judge ruled that it was unconstitutional not to allow same-sex couples to marry, and as an anti-marriage amendment was debated in Virginia, meant that the media was interested in "response" to these activities. The Arlington Church, focused on affirming the values of Unitarian Universalism, was ready to take a public position on marriage equality, and so the ceremony came to fruition. UUCAVA ministerial intern Archene Turner said that members of the congregation wanted to offer an event which would allow the whole church communityeven folks who couldn't take off work to lobby for marriage equality in Virginia to participate.
It was an energetic event, according to Erica Clark, a congregation member who helped plan the ceremony. The Lesbian and Gay Chorus of Washington sang at the Sunday worship service before the ceremony and extended their stay to sing during the Reaffirmation of Vows ceremony. Members and friends of the congregation assembled in the driveway and UUCAVA minister Richard Nugent and intern Archene Turner officiated at the service.
Turner said the reaffirmation of vows in the ceremony " was overwhelming I was just so proud to be a soon-to-be UU minister to come to this congregation and be able to participate in an event that's so crucial to our mission" was wonderful." Turner is a fifth-year seminarian at Meadville/Lombard Theological School in Chicago.
Lobby Day/Prayer Breakfast:
Later that week, (Wednesday, January 25th) members of UUCAVA joined other UUs from Virginia in participating in Equality Virginia's lobby day against Virginia's "marriage amendment" in Richmond. A prayer breakfast sponsored by People of Faith for Equality in Virginia was held followed by lobby training from Equality Virginia. Participants then lobbied their legislators to oppose the discriminatory constitutional amendment banning legal recognition of same-sex relationships.
Erica Clark, who attended the Lobby Day, was surprised to see how ecumenical the involvement was at the prayer breakfast. Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, Minister of Religious Education at UUCAVA, spoke at the breakfast. "We must not believe all stereotypes about other faith positions on this issue," she said. "We find friends in the most surprising places." Peebles said that when she attended the breakfast, she was "very gratified to meet people from many faiths - Jewish and both conservative and liberal Protestant - who are committed to securing the rights for all, based on their faith. Each person who spoke was eloquent and moving," she said.
Marc DeFrancis, who chaired the lobby day activity for UUCAVA and is a member of the Arlington Gay & Lesbian Alliance, said the lobby day "was an invigorating and empowering experience of the twenty-seven members of UUCA who went, only a few had ever lobbied their state legislators like this before. This may not sound like a big deal to some urbanites, but let me assure you that in a state where fundamentalists have such a loud voice, the mere fact that that a hundred clergy and friends including bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender clergy and friends traveled to Richmond to support same-sex couples' rights, is big news."
UUCAVA has also been showing "A Love Story in the Face of Hate," chronicling the story of Barbara Kenney and Tibby Middleton, a couple for more than forty years, who moved from Virginia because of the state's discriminatory stand against bglt couples. Erica Clark said, "it puts a real human face on this legislation: what would Virginia do if every BGLT person packed up their bags and moved out of state? Then you'd see the loss. It's unconscionable to me that we can live in a world where this can happen."
UUs in Virginia are standing on the side of love, not hate. Marc DeFrancis asked, "How many churches in Virginia can boast that they not only support bglt clergy and full marriage equality but have done so for some time?" Archene Turner adds that UU ministers of color have a unique and important role to play in advancing marriage equality: much of the time, the voices for bglt rights have been pretty much white. Turner will lead a short session between worship services in February on what can be learned from the civil rights movement to bring into the movement to support marriage equality. Linda Olson Peebles observed, "I believe that UUs have an important role to play in helping bring together people of many faiths to speak out on the side of love from their faith perspectives Since the opposition to rights for gays is founded on religious positions and cannot be justified otherwise, we need to help people understand that there are different religious beliefs."
Also of interest:
- 12/18/05 - The Washington Post: "Paradise Lost" by Michelle Boorstein