God's Extravagant Welcome

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• Message from Your Interim Executive Director
• Early-Bird Registration for National Gathering Ends March 31st!
• Financial Aid Now Available for National Gathering
• Help Promote National Gathering
• "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Investigation of UCC Pastor, Rev. Aris Fokas
• 'Call Me Malcolm' Now Available on NetFlix
• New Video from the UCC's Health and Wholeness Office
• It's Time for ENDA
• News, Events and Job Announcements

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National Gathering early-bird registration is available until midnight, March 31, 2010, for just $99 per person.  After March 31, 2010, the cost goes to $119.  Early-bird registrants will also receive a complimentary one-day pass for the San Diego Trolley which has a stop across the street from the hotel!

Register now at https://www.regonline.com/national_gathering_2010. 

Gathering takes place in San Diego, July 14–17, 2010.  Program information can be found at http://www.ucccoalition.org/programs/gathering/.

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Thanks to the generosity of the UCC Office for Health and Wholeness Advocacy (HWA) and the HRC Foundation’s Religion & Faith Program, aid is now available to assist those with financial need to attend Gathering in San Diego. 

HWA is providing a substantial grant to enable people with financial need to attend National Gathering.  The National Gathering Planning Committee is using this grant to partially cover attendance costs in order to maximize the effectiveness and reach of the grant.  Assistance that covers the cost of registration and three nights in a shared room at the conference hotel is available upon request.  The Office for Health and Wholeness Advocacy (HWA) works to further extravagant welcome and radical inclusion offered with evangelical courage.  The two primary areas of ministry focus are places where much struggle and pain, as well as hope and joy, have been experienced.  They are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ministries and HIV and AIDS ministries.   

Mike Schuenemeyer, Executive for HWA, noted, “The UCC national offices and Health and Wholeness Advocacy Office, in particular, deeply value our partnership with the Coalition and the vital leadership the Coalition provides to the United Church of Christ and the world.”

In addition, a grant has been received from the Religion and Faith Program of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation to enable five young adults (between 18 to 30 year olds) to attend the pre-Gathering Border Immersion Experience.   The  Religion and Faith Program’s mission is to change the conversation about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and faith.

Harry Knox, Director of the HRC Religion and Faith program, commented, "We’re pleased to be able to support scholarships for some young people participating in the border immersion experience. It is vital that we LGBT and allied folk stand with our immigrant sisters and brothers as we work together for a just world for all." 

To request assistance from either grant, please contact Michelle Sims in the Coalition office, projects (at) ucccoalition (dot) org, or 800-653-0799.  When making your request, please indicate that you have a financial need, identify which assistance program you are requesting, and address why it is important to you to attend.

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We’re aggressively promoting National Gathering 2010, and we could use your help. We’ve emailed and snail-mailed the Coalition, Ripples, and Called Out lists as well as ONA churches encouraging registration and particularly asking churches and other settings to include brief articles in their newsletters about National Gathering.

If you see such an article in your church newsletter, please email a copy of it to Planning Committee chairperson, Byron Adams, at byronadams@verizon.net. This will help us to plan our promotional efforts in future years.

Our email list of church pastors and secretaries is not exhaustive. Several articles of varying length and focus are available. If you’d like to be sure that one gets in your local newsletter, send Byron an email either asking him to forward them to an appropriate  email address--or to forward them to you so that you can forward them to your local newsletter editor.

Thanks for your help. Response to early-bird registration has been very strong and we’re looking forward to a great National Gathering 2010!

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Aris Fokas, a U.C.C. chaplain in the Army National Guard, is under investigation for allegedly telling a superior that he was gay in June, 2009. That supervisor brought charges against him in December, 2009. After graduation from Lancaster Theological Seminary and ordination in the Philadelphia Association in 1996 (at Tabernacle United Church, one of the earliest ONA and More Light congregations), Aris worked in campus ministry at Franklin and Marshall College, then served interim pastorates in Pennsylvania Southeast and Penn Central conferences. In 2003, he signed up with the Army National Guard for an eight-year tour, which included service in Iraq as a chaplain. Now pursuing a D.Min. back at Lancaster Theological Seminary, he calls the charges “trumped up and abusive . . . a waste of administrative time.” He is fighting the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in order to “make life easier for those who don’t have the luxury of speaking their conscience,” with the support of his local church, First Reformed U.C.C. in Lancaster, PA.

While many conservative denominations applaud the DADT policy, the Rev. John Gundlach, who oversees U.C.C. government chaplains, has joined two other retired military chaplains to rebut “false conflicts and innuendos” in a letter to the President and Defense Secretary. They also wrote an eight-page document, “What the Military Would Look Like without ‘Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell,’” which notes that chaplains are “duty bound” to offer referrals to those in the military for requested services. However, Gundlach notes that even U.C.C. chaplains are not of one mind regarding DADT.

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Call Me Malcolm is a feature-length documentary about Malcolm Himschoot, a transgender man and his journey with faith, love, and gender identity. Study materials and ordering and other information are available on the web at http://www.CallMeMalcolm.com or through the Health and Wholeness Advocacy Office (http://www.ucc.org/lgbt/callmemalcolm.html).

Even if you've already seen it or own it on DVD, you can encourage people to see the film by giving it a positive rating on NetFlix (http://www.netflix.com). Armchair activism at its best!

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A Position of Faith and Bi-sex’u-al, two videos about sexual orientation, have been combined onto one DVD! Get it for $9.95 from United Church Resources at https://secure3.convio.net/ucc/site/Ecommerce/1018647181?VIEW_PRODUCT=true&product_id=36641&store_id=1401

bi-sex’ u-al
This video was created to encourage dialogue about bisexual orientation and identification. This video will not answer all questions about bisexuality. It is an introduction to three individuals through their own stories of faith and sexuality.  We hope it will inspire you to think deeply about these stories, and your own story, in the light of faith.

A Position of Faith
On June 25, 1972, William (Bill) R. Johnson became the first openly gay person to be ordained to the Christian ministry. This video tells the story of this landmark event and the process that made it possible. The story is poignant and inspirational, and includes a letter from Bill Johnson’s mother, interviews with Bill, and interviews with young people and church leaders (clergy and lay) who either supported or opposed Bill’s candidacy.

A PDF discussion guide is also available online at www.ucc.org/lgbt/pdfs/A-Position-of-Faith-Bisexual-study-guide-COLOR.pdf.

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The transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination bill (ENDA) has been a work in progress at the federal level for years, but congressional leaders are beginning to move the bill, and LGBT activists say that the time is now to push legislators to make it happen. This is one of the most important pieces of legislation that needs to be passed, especially for the transgender community. In brief, this bill stops companies from firing or refusing to hire workers simply on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

• Encourage your contacts to call their Congresspersons.
• Learn more at www.unitedenda.org
• Check out suggested strategies at www.unitedenda.org/take_action and www.transequality.org/ENDA.html.

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Please refer to our website for current listings of Newsbits, events and job announcements.