Action Steps to Become a Welcoming Congregation
Education
- Offer religious education that incorporates bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender life issues, including the workshop series from the Welcoming Congregation Program.
- Promote participation by the congregation's minister, religious education minister or director, president, and/or moderator in the Welcoming Congregation Program.
- Offer a congregation-wide workshop program(s), with follow-up opportunities for study and reflection.
- Use the Unitarian Universalist sexuality education program, Our Whole Lives.
Congregational Life
- Form a broad-based Welcoming Congregation committee to offer programs and monitor progress.
- Adjust congregational bylaws and other relevant documents to include an affirmative nondiscrimination clause concerning membership, hiring practices, and the calling of religious professionals.
- Use inclusive language and content as a regular part of worship services, and provide worship coordinators and speakers with guidelines on inclusive language.
- Provide main worship space and ministerial services for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender rites of passage, such as services of union and dedications of children.
- Welcome bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender persons in the congregation's brochure.
- Ensure that publications, public information, and programming reflect the requested status of any individual as s/he sees appropriate; recognize same-gender couples in directories and other publications as they desire.
Community Outreach
- Celebrate and affirm bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender issues and history during the church year (possibly including Gay Pride Week in June or National Coming Out Day in October).
- Participate in and/or support efforts to create justice, freedom, and equality for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender people in the larger society.
- (again) Provide main worship space and ministerial services for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender rites of passage, such as services of union and dedications of children. (This guideline is also listed as number 8 under Congregational Life.)
- Establish and maintain contact with local bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender groups to offer support and promote dialogue and interaction.
- Advertise in the local press and/or other media that reaches the bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender communities.
- Provide use of building space on an equivalent basis with other Unitarian Universalist organizations when requested by members for programs and meetings of an Interweave (Unitarian Universalists for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns) chapter.
An additional note:
Once a congregation feels it has achieved all applicable action steps and has taken a congregational vote in affirmation of being recognized as a Welcoming Congregation, a brief description of how each action step was met should be sent to the OBGLTC along with notification of the congregation's completion of their process. Upon receipt of this information the Office of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Concerns will send the congregation a letter of congratulations, along with a poster that proclaims that they are a Welcoming Congregation.
Please note that the OBGLTC does not ask for a brief description of how each action step was met in order to "rate" a congregation's work, but rather to keep ourselves informed as to the good work being done in our congregations and to provide ideas for other congregations involved in the Welcoming Congregation process.
For more information contact obgltc @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
