"Solidarity: Standing on the Side of Love" is the theme of various Pride activities of the Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches ( CCWC ) this year. The calendar includes a suburban ecumenical service, a weekend forum on solidarity with the international LGBTI community, an Ecumenical Pride Worship Service on June 22, a panel on progress since Stonewall and a prominent entry in the Pride Parade.
The faith communities' witness in the suburbs continues to grow, with ongoing collaboration for an interfaith Pride service in the northwest suburbs. Three member churches and three others are collaborating for "Share the Pride" at Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist, 1025 N. Smith Street in Palatine on June 12 at 7pm.
"We chose an emphasis on solidarity because we're one of the co-sponsors of the historic forum with LGBTI siblings in Africa on June 13-15," says Mr. Brent Holman-Gomez, of the CCWC PLaning Team. "Chicago has a rare opportunity to make the struggles of LGBTIs in Africa our own by working side-by-side with folks from the continent who are spreading the LGBTI-welcoming church movement." Forum programs include a theological symposium, a fundraiser/film screening of Call Me Kuchu ( which tells the story of David Kato, Uganda's first openly gay man and activist who was murdered in 2011 ), a worship service and an introduction of the new Global Interfaith Network on Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression. For a complete schedule and sponsor list, visit lgbtiafricachicago.blogspot.com .
CCWC will host a region-wide ecumenical Pride worship service on June 22 at 6pm at University Church, 5655 S. University Avenue in Chicago. Featured speakers will include Rev. Jamie Frazier, founding pastor of The Lighthouse Church of Chicago, and Mr. John Adewoye, a Nigerian/American who is a former priest and the co-founder of Chicago LGBT Asylum Support Program ( CLASP ), as well as the founder of Courage Nigeria and The Center for Integration and Courageous Living. Offerings will be collected for CLASP, which was recently featured on CBS news. A reception will begin at 5pm at the church.
Along with Third Coast Society's Public Sphere program, CCWC will co-sponsor the 3rd Annual Stonewall Riot Panel, where LGBTIQ activists will talk about the progress and the challenges since the Stone Wall Riot in 1969. This event will be held on Saturday, June 28 at 7pm at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, 1130 Ridge Avenue in Evanston.
CCWC will once again march in the Annual Pride Parade as it has for almost fifteen years, with the prominent role near the beginning of the Parade that it has held since 2012. A brief service of dedication and communion will be held at the parade route at approximately 11:30am on Parade Day. A commemorative coin ( "doubloon" ) has been commissioned to celebrate the passage of marriage equality in Illinois in 2014, and will be distributed on the parade route.
Rev. Jacki Belile says of CCWC's Pride theme: "We are inspired by our Unitarian Universalist colleagues who launched a campaign in 2009 called Standing on the Side of Love. Their campaign — and our work this summer — simultaneously lift up justice gains like marriage equality along with the recognition that so much work is yet undone. That work requires us to engage in the ongoing process of transformation through community-building and true solidarity."
The Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches has more than sixty member churches and affiliates in Chicago and fifteen suburbs. For more information, visit www.chicagowelcomingchurches.org or contact info@chicagowelcomingchurches.org .