Pride 2003, Words of Love

250 Waring Road - Syracuse, NY 13224 - (315) 446-5940

Pride 2003
"Words of Love"
by Kim Reed, Member, the Welcoming Congration Commitee, and the Religious Services Committee
June 22, 2003
First Unitarian Universalist Society of Syracuse

“The moon is female. The sun is male.
Ah, darlings, we must be the “stars”!
Emily Lloyd

PRELUDE I Get a Kick Out of You Cole Porter Larry Hahn, piano

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

OPENING WORDS Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself: 5 Walt Whitman Kim Reed

CHALICE AND UNISON AFFIRMATION
Chalice Lighter:
Life is a gift for which we are grateful.
We gather in community to celebrate the
The glories and the mysteries of this great gift.

SOLSTICE CELEBRATION
Beverly Burlett, Peggy Flanders, Radell Roberts, Keith Bertrand & Jerry Clausen

CHANTING We All Come From The Goddess

We All Come From the Goddess
And To Her We Should Return
Like A Drop of Rain
Flowing to the Ocean
(Chant Twice as a Round)

MEDITATION 564 Love Is Not Concerned Alice Walker

JOYS AND SORROWS
(Response: Amen, Shalom, May It Be So)

Reading “Origin of Love” from Hedwig and The Angry Inch
Keith Bertrand and Ed Whitmore

POETRY “Language” by Keith Bertrand

words matter,

they create,
    I am...

    I will...

they sting,
    I love you, but...

they kill,
    good-bye ...
    I hate you!

careless usage,
    you can’t ...!
    you’re not ...!

they are left unsaid.

READING Coming Up Karen Godson, www.inspiredwoman.com
Valerie McNickol

REFLECTION Pride 2003 Kim Reed

It has been a year of historical milestones for this community. On December 17, 2002,
the New York State Legislature passed the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act.
It was first introduced in 1971, when I was 9 years old. In the aftermath of 31 years of
struggle, we finally added the words sexual orientation to the state civil rights laws. On
January 30, 2003, Belgium became the second country, joining the Netherlands, to give
marriage rights to same-sex couples. This month, on June 17, the Canadian Cabinet
decided not to contest a lower court ruling in Ontario, overturning laws that limited
marriage to heterosexual couples. The judge ordered the issuance of marriage licenses to
same sex couples. Two men who had loved one another for 22 years legally married.
They tenderly kissed in the first moments of their marriage. The first gay male couple to
legally marry in North America love one another, just the way we in this church today
have dared to love outside the legal protections heterosexuals take for granted. Following
Vermont's legalization of civil unions, California and Montana have bills pending before
their state legislatures to give same sex couples rights equal to marriage. Lawrence and
Garner v. The State of Texas is before the Supreme Court of the United States now. It is
time to overturn Bowers and all the misguided, hateful laws that attempt to limit our love,
our relationships, and our private lives. God, if God exists, would not deny our love.

We might have all been damaged by anger at some time, our own, other people's directed
toward ourselves or others. A woman in the congregation who has struggled to come out,
wrote to me, "I think FUUSS, at its best, shows what we can do when we stop hiding and
put our energies into being fully human. The more I share myself, as myself, the more
convinced I am, and less worried that others will reject me. When we're not worried
about rejection, we all accomplish so much. All these twisted people and their violence -
they seem to be angrily fighting rejection - of themselves by themselves and of
themselves by others." Such anger is exhausting and limits everyone. Being sorry for
moments of anger, working through by working with, is on everyone's eternal Christmas
List. Compassion is the only way to love, yet such understanding takes courage to risk
being vulnerable and to accept our need for one another.

If hell exists, it exists in broken, abusive or bad relationships. As gay, lesbian, bisexual
and trans-gendered people, the desire to protect the magical, beautiful, life affirming
wonder of our sexual and sacred feelings can sometimes lead us away from other people
in an attempt to avoid conflict, judgment, the semantic violence of hearing dyke or fag or
queer denigrated by people we cannot control. Overcoming self-hatred in the face of
vulnerability is overcoming a real source of evil. As Unitarian Universalists we
convenant to affirm the dignity and worth of every person. Together, we affirm our need
for one another, our need for community, and our obligation to service. Some people
want a better relationship, and this brings us together in a spirit of acceptance and
forgiveness that can sustain spiritual understanding. That delicate web of
interdependency is in all of us.

An honors student at Oswego named Angel, a young lesbian who is planning to wed her
partner, tried to articulate the common desire for all people, across generations, to
understand, to participate, to love without fear of being rejected or misunderstood. As I
read her thesis report, I felt myself aging. On a trip down memory lane, I miscast and
harshly criticized myself. But I thought about our common ground across generations,
class situations, and levels of education. I wished that we could all let go of the pain of
our differences and know that no one is lost, and that we can all minister to one another
by simply listening. Don't turn away. What would it be like if we all turned away and
were turned away and had nothing to share?

I am grateful to those who did not turn away. In the Welcoming Congregation over the
last year, we have shared ideas, laughter and sadness, sang songs, and created a service.
We are proud of our own individual selves as well as working in community to achieve
larger goals. Pride festivals and marches are an important tradition in the face of our
continued struggle for equality and freedom.

I want to give thanks to all for their courage, commitment and creativity, and the promise
of the future. Thanks to Jerry Clausen for being an active ally in helping with this service
and thanks to all our allies. Thanks to Radell Roberts, Grant Thatcher and Steven Wright
for their strength and leadership. Thanks to Beverly Burlett for knowing how to cast a
spell. Thanks to Chris Secor for his support and friendship. Thanks to Mike for ideas
and interest. Thanks to Valerie McNickol for her powerful songs and honesty. Thanks to
Jan Pope for being at the Pride table for the community, allowing us the freedom to
march. Thanks to Peggy Flanders for blue-purple flowers in bloom in a garden so real
arranged in greens and silver and purple. Thanks to Keith Bertrand's artistic designs,
tenderness, endless help, hugs; that's a man. Thanks to David Blanchard for his
outstanding ministry to us all. The simple pleasure of belonging in your company is
worth the struggle.

OFFERTORY Easy to Love Cole Porter

BENEDICTION

HYM #208: Every Time I Feel Spirit

EXTINGUISHING THE CHALICE:
We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth,
The warmth of community, or the fire of commitment.
These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.

POSTLUDE Our Love Is Here to Stay George Gershwin

THE PRIDE SERVICE 2003 IS A PRESENTATION OF THE WELCOMING CONGREGATION COMMITTEE IN UNISON WITH THE RELIGIOUS SERVICES COMMITTEE 2002-2003.

KAREN GODSON, A WOMAN WHO LOVES OTHER WOMEN, HAS SURVIVED CANCER AND CAN BE REACHED AT
WWW.INSPIREDWOMAN.COM