National Gathering 2010 will touch on a number of major themes. Here’s an update on plenary presentations and breakouts grouped into four topical tracks. Check the main National Gathering page for details on other logistics and activities. You may also want to refer to the Schedule At-A-Glance for timing of the breakouts.

• Any Body, Everybody, Christ’s Body
• Youth & Young Adults
• Advocacy & Empowerment
• The Strategic Plan for Getting To 1200 Churches
• ONA Process & Next Steps

The Youth & Young Adults track will include a plenary preaching spot for a young adult.  Check the website for an update soon on who that will be.  Breakout sessions will include two facilitated discussions, one  on the topic of What Are 20-somethings Looking for in a Church? (How Do I Find A Church) and the second, Which Is Easier: Coming Out as Queer at Church, or Christian in the LGBT Community (open to all)?  Coalition YYA Coordinator Tim Brown will lead a session open to all ages on Mentoring Queer Youth.  Tim and Beau Heyen, Coalition Board Member and Minister for Youth & Spiritual Formation at Cathedral of Hope, will lead a two-part focus on My Faith Journey.

The Advocacy & Empowerment track starts off with the optional pre-Gathering Border Immersion Experience facilitated by Carlos Correa Bernier of the Centro Romero (http://www.ucc.org/justice/centro-romero/).  This intentional border experience will challenge participants to re-examine their own assumptions and beliefs.

A plenary panel of LGBT rights activists will address Where Is the LGBT Rights Movement Today?  We can’t say much more about this session at the moment because things seem to change a bit too fast!

Breakout sessions will start off with Media Relations, presented by HRC Religion and Faith Program Director Harry Knox and UCC News Director and Editor Gregge Brekke.  Harry and Gregge will draw on their wealth of experience in being on both “sides” of the media to help attendees better handle media situations driven by marriage equality and other LGBT rights issues.

Marriage When? will be led by two veterans of the marriage equality struggle:  Miguel Close-Rodriguez, San Diego Co-Chapter Leader, Marriage Equality USA and member of the Justice and Witness Ministries board, and Michael Schuenemeyer, Executive for Health and Wholeness Advocacy and Minister for LGBT Concerns in the UCC national offices.  Michael’s leadership helped to pass the UCC’s General Synod resolution supporting marriage equality and creating the marriage equality DVD, Sacred Covenants, Faithful Conversations. 

Speaking Truth to Power: Equipping and Empowering Ourselves as Advocates will be led by Sandy Sorensen, Director of the Justice and Witness Ministries, Washington, DC office.  Sandy will offer some foundational tools for advocacy work, take a look at the current political landscape as it affects our advocacy and explore some of the specific dimensions of faith-based advocacy – what makes faith advocacy different?  Why does it matter?  And how does advocacy change us?

The Institute for Welcoming Resources is generously underwriting a group of breakouts to address the need to create a strategic plan for getting to the Coalition’s stated goal of 1200 ONA churches in 2012.  These sessions will be led by Institute director Rebecca Voelkel and Vicki Wunsch.  Before coming to the Institute, Rebecca served as Interim National Coordinator for the  Coalition, as pastor of Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ and as Program Staff for the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence.  Vicki has worked in non-profit organizations and churches for the last fifteen years.  In addition to her position as an Institute for Welcoming Resources trainer, she is a trainer with Family and Children's Services in Minneapolis.

Vicki and Rebecca will lead breakouts on Gracefully Engaging in Difficult Conversations, Building the Plan To Grow Our Witness,  MR/MC Cultural Sensitivity in ONA Conversations, and What's In Our Toolkit?  These sessions are particularly targeted to ONA Consultants, Chapter Coordinators, conference staff and others with a keen interest in helping the Coalition reach this important milestone.

The ONA Process track will include a plenary session discussing the importance of Adding the T To Your ONA Statement.  Breakouts will include ONA Storytelling, a session that will combine stories from churches that have recently gone through the ONA process with some training to enable LGBT folk and allies to better tell their stories.  Other sessions will include Living Out the Inclusion of Transgender and Ok, We're ONA, What's Next?

And for those of us who think the ONA process is old news, one registrant for San Diego commented in an email: 

My little congregation of less than 50 members, voted this past year to begin the ONA process.  We have always considered ourselves to be open and accepting of persons regardless of ability, ethnicity, gender, etc.  However, we do not currently have any parishioners from the LBGT community and recognize that we need to reach out rather than just keeping the door open.  I have been asked to "shepherd" the congregation through this process.

I got an email from the UCC about a week ago announcing this National Gathering and I realized that, once again, the Holy Spirit is at work!!

As you can see, this year National Gathering offers something for everyone!  Go to the Gathering page for more information and register today!