Authentic You

Dear CCU Family and Friends,

Can you believe we are already halfway through 2021?  June ushers in warmer temperatures and comments about sticky Florida weather—and it also host National Pride month!

This month we honor expressions of the Divine in the wide variety of ways that show up inside the LGBTQ+ family and beyond.  I remember hearing of the first declared Pride month in 1999 and thinking to myself, “Is it really safe for my family to…well, be my family?  Can we safely celebrate the authentic nature of who and what we are?”

The answer – YES, finally, fully and freely, YES!

Today, I have come to look forward to June more, and trust that no one will take away our right to express authentically and out loud!  Each year more family and allies find the courage to express their authentic selves and demonstrate acceptance so others may develop the courage to be their authentic selves.

While my heart hurts for the brutal mistreatment of the LGBTQ+ community, I am grateful beyond measure for those souls who walked ahead, lived the tragedy, lived the discrimination and isolation, so that one day we would have the opportunity to come out of the shadows and be fully accepted in society.

Is there work to be done?  You bet.  But today, I invite you to take a breath and reflect on just how far we, as a collective, have come.  Breathe into gratitude for those who have paved the way and helped create a time and space where the Authentic You is accepted, wanted, and needed for the benefit of the whole.

This Sunday is Pride Sunday!  We are celebrating and raising the roof as we demonstrate our joy and support for one another in “Living Out Loud.”  Feel free to bring the rainbow, dress in your best rainbow attire, bring a friend, and join us as we celebrate the unique, divine, wonderful, colorful, and AMAZING expressions of The Christ that we are!  I’m so excited!

One In Spirit,

Rev. Maggie
Sr. Minister, CCU Orlando