What would it mean for quc to become affirming?
Do you wonder how QUC might look different as an affirming church? Congregations and churches that support an affirming journey will often find that doors open to new opportunities for ministry, mission and church growth. How we react to this journey can make a huge difference in the lives of those who are marginalized and looking for affirmation and deeper understanding but for us as a congregation, the differences may be subtle. Click the button below to learn more!
What Is Pie Day?
Every year around March 14th, we celebrate something called PIE day. Yes it refers to the pies that everyone knows and loves, and the mathematical constant Pi (3.14…), but PIE also stands for Public, Intentional, Explicit. All of these words relate to how we affirm and celebrate the people in our community, and the diversity of the children of creation! For more information on what PIE day is and where it comes from, click here.
Mental Health Session Monday, February 21st
On Monday, February 21st, QUC hosted a mental health session with guest speakers Alex Norton & Shera Lee Symborski from Laura Gatien & Associates Counselling Services.
For reasons of confidentiality of those who shared, we did not record this session, however, the slides for the presentation were sent to us and we are making them available to you!
Scoll through the images provided. You can also download a PDF version of this presentation by clicking here.
What it Means to be affirming…
Being an Affirming Church is more than just having a rainbow sticker on the door. It is also about being more than welcoming. It is about being inviting, engaging, supportive, and caring. Many of us will think that church is already that way, but not everyone sees a church and thinks “safe space”. Being affiliated with Affirm United helps to show the community who we are as followers of Christ: more than words, we are people who strive to share God’s love with all!
Being affirming helps to take the loving community that many of us know to be on the inside, and puts that love out there for the world to see. In this way, when someone is looking for a place to feel safe and explore their faith, they can look at a place like Quispamsis United Church and know they can have both.
We are not affirming, but we are exploring what that could mean for us, to see what - if anything - would change about how we explore our faith together as we share the good news. If you are wondering what becoming an affirming church means, below are some helpful documents. Have a read and see the ways that we might already be walking that road of radical hospitality in this region.
Affirming Committee Action Plan
As part of being an Affirming Church, we will strive to provide opportunities for learning and for broadening our understandings. If you click the button below, you can see what this committee has in mind for some of that work. This is a living document and will change depending on what we are able to accomplish and new goals we set out in the future. This document was last edited in October 2021.
It all started when…
The QUC Affirming Committee was formed in Feb 2018 with the goal of investigating the possibility of becoming an Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Canada. (https://www.affirmunited.ause.ca/)
As a Christian Church, we believe that all humans are a reflection of God, who is love. For this reason, we value a welcoming, inclusive, nurturing church community where all people can be included and celebrated for who they are.
Since forming, we have met regularly to explore ways that QUC can improve its commitment to inclusion and justice for all people. This has included talking to and surveying members of the congregation to determine our shortcomings, providing opportunities inside and outside of worship for education about excluded groups, and looking at all aspects of church life to increase inclusion-- from policies to signage to the building itself. We continue to make inclusion a priority in our church, and continue to look for ways that we can grow as a committee and as a congregation.
