I'm very excited to announce that we are restarting the Open and Affirming process for ECC. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, an Open and Affirming church is a church that has a covenant explicitly welcoming the LGBTQ community and all persons into their congregation. LGBTQ people have been historically excluded or marginalized by many churches, leading many to not have a faith community, The Open and Affirming process itself is a timeline where we will listen to the congregation, answer questions, provide educational materials and ultimately decide, as a congregation, whether we wish to accept this covenant. This process was one of 6 themes prioritized by the congregation during our church’s Visioning process, pre-pandemic.
One of the OnA Committee’s primary goal is to hear from every congregation member, so you can look forward to us reaching out to speak to all active members. We will offer many education opportunities, small group discussions, sermons, and materials in the church and online that you can use to further educate yourself. We need to hear your questions, hopes and concerns for the process, as well as hear what an Open and Affirming ECC will look like if we vote to proceed. We just held our first meeting, so you’ll hear more about the details, timeline, and opportunities for discussions in the next month.
If you are interested in joining the committee or supporting us in any way, please see me or contact the church office and they’ll let me know. At future church services, we will make sure that OnA committee members are easily identifiable. Please feel free to talk with any of us.
Brian Cocuzzo
Committee Chair