What has your congregation done to recognize in worship services the lives lost especially last month to suicide following on bullying/ harassment for perceived sexual orientation? What has your congregation done to recognize in your worship services the seriousness of the social problems of bullying/ harassment and homophobia in the context of the recent suicides?
I've seen a lot of UU, UCC, MCC, TEC, UMC, Baptist, Reform Jewish, liberal Muslim and other religious bloggers tackling the problems entailed in this situation. On the Web, there are multiple sites where religious people are coming together to sign petitions and make pledges to provide safe spaces to youth and work to overcome a culture of bullying. On YouTube and elsewhere, the "It Gets Better" videos are proliferating, some of them extremely movingly. A few UU videos have been produced in response. On FaceBook, many friends have linked to articles, pledges, petitions, and videos related to this issue. People I encounter in cyberspace are in pain and very concerned about this.
What I haven't seen yet is how religious people are treating these issues and commitments in worship.
Have the victims been named in a special time of remembrance, prayer, expression of Joys and Sorrows? Has there been from the pulpit a sermon preached or a call to social justice work made that presented ways people of faith can work together on this problem? Has regular programming been suspended to deal with this issue that is quite emotional, quite painful for many of our people and is, I hope, at least a concern for all? Have our congregations done special programming or held vigils at alternate times instead of at the main worship time?
In short, what would a nation in pain in the ongoing aftermath of these tragedies get if they happened in to your congregation's worship?
Consider, yes, but also please respond.
1 hour ago
2 responses:
This morning at Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship my teaching congregation during the sharing of Joys and Sorrows, one member raised the issue of persecution of LGBT persons in Uganda at this time, one raised the issue of bullying and gay suicides, and I read the names of the recent gay and/or gay-perceived bullying suicide victims in the US and followed that with a slight adaptation of the "Communal Prayer of Remembrance" from Siddur Sha'ar Zahav, the 2009 prayerbook of Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, an LGBT synagogue in San Francisco:
"We remember today those members of this great human family who were martyred in years past because of their sexual or gender identity: those murdered by fanatics in the Middle Ages, those who perished in the Holocaust, and those struck down in our own cities, in our own time. We also remember those who took their own lives, driven to despair by a world that hated them. And in sorrow we remember those who lived lives of loneliness, repressing their true nature and refraining from sharing their love with one another. May we hold in our hearts the souls of these beloved ones: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and strive to bring an end to hate and oppression of every kind."
Last Sunday the list of names and the above adaptation of Congregation Sha'ar Zahav's "Communal Prayer of Remembrance" were read in Joys and Sorrows at Mt. Vernon (IL) UU Fellowship.
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