Living Apology outreach to diverse communities- please help!

The Iridesce: Living Apology Project needs your help!

Iridesce coordinator Aaron Miechkota at a Living Apology conversation and workshop.

During this last year, efforts of national and regional facilitators have been on reaching out and building intentional relationships with individuals, small groups, or communities of faith, who the project has not yet connected with during the previous two years.

Specifically, they are focusing on reaching people who:

— are LGBTQIA+ people who are racialized, Indigenous, Two-Spirt, and/or disabled—often marginalized within the LGBTQIA+ community in the United Church and wider society;

— and, who want to engage on the issue but have not yet done so. We are looking for people willing to share their stories about conflict, growth, learning, and transformation. We’re looking for people who may have been on ‘the other side’ of the issue, have never talked about what happened in 1988, but during the last 30+ years have shifted into a place of openness and willingness to start talking about their experience, learnings and growth, and what it means to be affirming of LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit people.

I am writing to ask you to share with me the names and email addresses of individuals, small groups, or communities of faith who may fit into one of the above focus groups.

You can send their names and contact information to me, and I will in turn share this information with the appropriate Iridesce facilitator – OR – You can forward this email on to individuals you think might be interested in participating so they can reach out to facilitators if interested in participating.

We recognize that the work of relationship building takes time and long-term commitment, and is something that we need to continue to address and live into, as we move into the future. We are, in many ways, just beginning.

Thank you for taking a few moments to consider who you might refer to the Iridesce project to help inform its final report and recommendations to the church. The learnings from the project will help the church to discern how it might continue to resource the LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit community in the church, and if, and how, the church might live into a possible apology to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and Two-Spirit people.

–Jordan Sullivan, Ministry Partnership Animator/Agent de Liaison et Animateur, Partenariats Ministériels [Includes: Outdoor Ministries (camps)-Campus Ministries-Community Ministries; LGBTQIA+ and Two Spirit Justice (Canada); Poverty in Canada; Program Assistant for Gender Justice]Church in Mission/L’Église en Mission, The United Church of Canada/L’Église Unie du Canada. Email:  jsullivan(at)united(hyphen)church(dot)ca
416-231-5931 x 4151; 1-800-268-3781 x 4151