“All are welcome” means all.
In the United Church of Christ, Open and Affirming churches make a public commitment to welcoming, supporting, and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community by adopting an ONA covenant.
Open and Affirming Covenant
We, the members of Plantsville Congregational United Church of Christ are an Open and Affirming Congregation. In keeping with the life and teaching of Christ Jesus, we joyfully and unconditionally welcome people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. We invite the members of the LGBTQ+ community into the full life and ministry of the church.
“Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” (Romans 15:7)
Hospitality – Justice – Genuine Love
Adopted June 13, 2021
Resources
Organizations
Articles:
LGBTQ+ Theology 101, Q Christian Fellowship
What LGBTQ People Need To Hear From Christian Leaders, Believe Out Loud
Most LGBTQ Adults are Religious, Poll Finds; Members of the Community Say They're Surprised, Newsweek, June 17, 2018
Frequently Asked Questions
Why would a church feel the need to become “Open and Affirming”? Aren’t churches already welcoming?
Simply put: “All are welcome” usually doesn’t mean “all.” Many LGBTQ+ people have experienced emotional and spiritual suffering at the hands of their faith communities, and most expect to be hurt by a faith community.
According to a Pew Research survey, 48% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people identify as Christian. At the same time, a majority of LGBT people believe religious institutions are “generally unfriendly” towards their community.
While Catholic and Evangelical churches are seen as unfriendly by a wide majority (79% and 73% of respondents, respectively), mainline Protestant churches are still seen as unsafe. Of the survey respondents, 44% assumed that churches like ours are unfriendly towards LGBT people, and 43% assume we’re neutral towards them.
A public statement saying that we welcome LGBTQ+ people into the full life of our church makes it clear that we see everyone is a beloved child of God.
There are a lot of marginalized communities. Why does this only focus on the LGBTQ+ community?
We agree that other groups of marginalized people are worthy of intentional, focused, in-depth discussions about how the church can open wide its loving arms to them. Each marginalized identity requires a different conversation.
For example: Someone can be unemployed based on discrimination, but being fired because you're gay, not getting an interview because your name is Jamal instead of John, and not being hired because you’re blind are very different expressions of discrimination. We can’t lump those conversations together without missing the specific challenges each community faces.
The covenant we are putting forward now is just the starting point. As we move forward, we will either edit the ONA covenant to become a broader covenant of welcome, naming other marginalized communities, or develop separate covenants with each conversation.
Why aren’t straight and/or cisgender people explicitly included in the ONA covenant?
The first part of the covenant makes it clear that we welcome people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions—including straight people and cisgender people. So why aren’t we explicitly naming those two communities? Straight people and cisgender people already know they’re welcome.
Imagine you’re going to a restaurant you’ve never been to before. If you don’t have any food allergies or dietary restrictions, you know you can eat anything on the menu. But if you’re allergic to gluten or a vegan, you can’t walk in there knowing there’s something you can eat. You just have to hope that something on the menu will be safe for you to eat—and it’s a bonus if it’s more than a salad!
An Open and Affirming covenant is like a dedicated gluten-free or vegan section on the menu. It says, “We want you here so much that we’ve taken the time to learn about your needs and want to meet them.”
