Category Archives: Pride Parade

Primate Linda Nicholls’ statement for Pride Month

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You can read it all here:

In the hymn “All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen, we hear the poignant longing for a church where the gospel promises will be lived so that all God’s children will be loved and safe and free. This has been the cry of the LGBTQ2S+ community in society and in the church for decades. Although there have been affirmations of LGBTQ2S+ people in our church through General Synod and its resolutions (for example, General Synod 1995, Act 57; General Synod 2004, Act 37), we have work to do in their realization in the hearts and minds of parishioners in every place.

She goes on to say:

Pride month is an opportunity to lift up recognition of that work—to affirm the God-given dignity of every human being—and to value the contributions and gifts that LGBTQ2S+ communities bring to our church and our world. Our life as a church is enriched by the diversity of God’s people!

And, of course, there is no time like Pride Month for illustrating the dignity of every human being. Here are some not untypical Pride Month examples of people exhibiting their God-given dignity. It doesn’t get any more dignified than this:

I suppose it could get more dignified: the gentleman in the cap could be wearing a bishop’s mitre. Maybe next year.

How proud was my valley

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I last visited Wales in 1996. While there I drove to Llantwit Major (if you want to pronounce that, you have to be able to spit from both sides of your mouth simultaneously), not far from where I used to live. It was a pretty, sleepy little village on the coast of the Bristol Channel.

Here are a few photos I took in 1995:

Here is St. Illtud’s Church, one of the oldest churches in Wales, built in the 11th Century. Parts were rebuilt in the 13th and 15th centuries. If you climb up the bell tower, you can see the steps were replaced by headstones from the graveyard.

Time marches on, I fear. My grandchildren tell me, with a slight hint of condescension, that we are making progress; nothing will convince them otherwise.

Here we have, from the BBC, the latest manifestations of progress to be found in Llantwit Major:

The people of the Vale of Glamorgan gathered in Llantwit Major for the town’s inaugural Pride event on Saturday.

The rural town of about 9,500 people saw the streets adorned with rainbow flags as a parade marched through the streets.

St. Illtud’s Church did not escape the ravages of progress: it flew a rainbow flag:

Life is full of little ironies. Here is another photo of mine from 1995 of the church sign. Note the name of the rector (not me, I should add):

The Christian bus driver and the Pride bus

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From here:

A Calgary man says he will quit his job if he’s assigned to drive a bus wrapped in a rainbow flag.

The annual Calgary Pride Festival kicks off Friday and, as a show of support, a Calgary Transit bus has been wrapped in the symbol of inclusiveness.

The rainbow flag bus will operate through Sept. 7, the day of the parade.

Jesse Rau, who has worked for Calgary Transit as a driver for about a year, says he’s a Christian and can’t support homosexuality.

Rau hopes Calgary Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Union will support drivers who don’t want to drive the rainbow bus.

Doug Morgan, director of Calgary Transit, says drivers can only refuse to work based on safety issues.

Here is the bus:

bus1

Although I sympathise with the bus driver’s disinclination to drive the bus, I have an uneasy feeling that he has picked the wrong battle. As Christians in the world, we are constantly surrounded with ideas that are out of step with our beliefs and sometimes they are plastered on the side of a bus. The driver has not been asked to drive a bus in the Pride Parade.

Would Jesse Rau also refuse to drive a bus with these ads?

 

I wonder what would happen to a Muslim bus driver who refused to drive a bus with this on it: