Our History, Our Pride
FROM THE RECTOR
Like clockwork, as soon as June 1 arrived, businesses and other community organizations, including our own, changed their logos to incorporate the rainbow colors of Pride Month. Are they proud to stand with the LGBTQ+ community more than one month out of the year, or is this just a marketing ploy? A healthy debate is taking place across news and social media about which companies are the real allies of the queer community, but I want to write about the reasons Pride is important to St. Paul’s and why St. Paul’s participation in Pride is important to the wider community.
But first I want to talk about Juneteenth and Black history. I am pained and embarrassed to remember how, as a child, I joined with my classmates in asking our teachers why we needed to set aside a whole month of the year to learn about Black history. Contained within that question was the racist belief that the stories of Black people, if they had been as valuable as the stories of White people, would already be integrated into mainstream history lessons. I did not hate other people because of the color of their skin, I convinced myself, but I should not have to spend a whole month studying second-class history.
Of course, Black history is our history. It is my history, though I shudder to recall on what side of that history my ancestors and I are to be found. It is the history of this country. It is the history of our community and of our parish. Later this month, we will close the church office on Monday, June 20, in observance of Juneteenth. On June 19, 1865, General Order No. 3, which brought to the last Confederate state where institutional slavery was still being practiced the news that the Emancipation Proclamation had declared that all enslaved peoples had been set free, was read in Galveston, Texas, effectively ending slavery in the United States.
Last year, Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday for the first time, and our vestry voted to support efforts to make it a holiday for the City of Fayetteville. Although St. Paul’s does not observe every government holiday, we will be closed on June 20 as a sign that our church believes that the end of state-sanctioned human slavery in this country is something we all need to observe and celebrate. It is, quite plainly, the very essence of the gospel, in which Jesus defines his ministry by saying, “[God] has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives” (Luke 4:18). I hope you will take time that day to learn about the ways that slavery has shaped our history—your history—and I trust that, in time, Juneteenth will become as central to our lives as Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Labor Day.
Although there are similarities and overlaps in the movements for racial equality and Pride, assuming too much about their commonality risks denying the uniqueness of each struggle. I do not intend to equate one with the other except to say that, just as Black history is our history, queer Pride is our Pride.
As a church, we do not set aside a month to pretend to welcome all people and include them in the life of our congregation. We join with the wider community each June to celebrate that all people, regardless of their sexuality or gender identity, are free to be themselves and participate fully in our common life. June is Pride Month because it commemorates the Stonewall Riots that were sparked by the arrest of gay, lesbian, and transgender people at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969. We participate in Pride not because a few people in our parish want to celebrate themselves but because we cannot be the Body of Christ until all our siblings, regardless of their identity, are fully integrated into the life we share in Jesus’ name. Given how often other Christians work to undermine that belief, our public and visible participation in Pride matters not only to the people of our parish but to all who recognize the significance of a church taking part.
This year, we will participate in the NWA Pride Festival on June 18, including the Trans March at noon and the Pride Parade at 5:00 p.m.. All afternoon, people are welcome to gather and celebrate in the greenspace at St. Paul’s. Next Wednesday, June 15, at 6:30 p.m., you are invited to help get ready for the festivities by making signs and decorations in the Parish Hall after the Wednesday-night service. However you choose to observe Pride—or not—I hope you will remember that, for us, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church is not a ministry or program for a small group within our parish. This is how all of us become more fully the people of God and the Body of Christ. Because of the cross of Jesus, we are all reconciled to God and to each other, and our place at Pride bears witness to that.
Yours Faithfully,
Evan D. Garner