Outdoor Service, Blessing of the Backpacks and BBQ

A prayer posted on the United Church of Canada website by Jordan Sullivan, a trans man and a survivor of conversion practices and change efforts (SOGIECE). He is currently the SOCIECE/CP Prevention and Survivor Support Coordinator at the Community-Based Research Centre(opens in a new tab). He is particularly aware of the need to address the intersections of religion, mental health, and 2S/LGBTQIA+ people. 

Oh, Love that will not let us go...

Our hearts are filled and overflowing with joy, deep love, and gratitude.

We are thankful, for the gifts of all Affirming Ministries and communities of faith who open their churches, their homes and their hearts to Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ people and all their intersecting identities. for music, friendship, and for family.

We are thankful for the Love that will not let us go.

We are thankful, for Pride Marches and Pride Month, for all those who publicly, intentionally, and explicitly affirm that 2S-LGBTQ+ people are children of God.

We are thankful most of all, for the blessing of a Love that is and always has been there for us.

The truth at the heart of our faith – that you are Love - echoes today in words and in music, in friendships and family, in our hearts and minds, and continues to challenge us to Love.

We pray for our hearts and minds to be open to our own homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia, to be open to our own racism, sexism, ableism, sizeism, and all the ways we fear those who are different from us.

We pray to learn how to recognize the kinship between our souls and the souls of those who, to us, are strangers.

We pray that we will never cease in our journey to learn how to Love more radically.

We pray in the name of the Love that flips tables and cracks whips, the Love that heals those judged by religious leaders and powers, the Love who lives and loves among the marginalized and outcast.

In Jesus name.

Amen.