Call to Change to Prairie to Pine Regional Council (Origin: Indigenous/Intercultural Conversation on April 30th, 2019)

Call to Change to Prairie to Pine Region
(Origin: Indigenous/Intercultural Conversation on April 30th, 2019)

Know that an intercultural church is the vision for the whole church, regardless of the creation of an indigenous/intercultural gathering as the body for connection, support, and leadership.

We call upon the Regional Council, Executive, committees and leaders to decolonize the governance and leadership as a way to become an intercultural church.

Strategies for implementing change:

1. Make the Vision of an Intercultural Church a priority in all Regional gatherings, meetings, and in worship, as much as possible.
   
   1. Be open to different ways of worship (i.e. indigenous ways of worship), not just the Western way
   2. Seek to celebrate, encourage, accommodate and engage cultures other than White Culture
   3. Develop and engage a more intentional consultation process in order to have
      conversations.
   4. Encourage regional leaders to connect and consult with the indigenous/intercultural members who are represented in this gathering body to bring the voices to the issues that affect us and to provide the leadership with reference, consultation, and recommendations.
   5. Centre UNDRIP (The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and Calls to the Church (United Church of Canada) as the framework.
   6. Seek opportunities to decolonize ourselves (including people of colour and the indigenous members).
   7. See the value of interculturalism, and understand that intercultural education and ministry is beneficial to everyone (not just the indigenous/intercultural members.)
      
      
2. Prayer, song, worship and leadership should reflect the different people groups we already have in our region. Increase the visibility of non-dominant (i.e. immigrant and indigenous) members, their culture and experience in order to establish more of an intercultural presence.
   
   
3. In planning of annual regional gatherings, worship services, and events, consult broadly with the indigenous and intercultural members in our region, before decisions are already made.
   
   
4. Avoid tokenism by building relationships and involving indigenous/intercultural members in decision-making. 
   
   
   Be mindful that:
   • - Calling for indigenous/intercultural involvement at the last minute, after decisions are made, is tokenism
   • - Calling for indigenous/intercultural members to be involved in rituals, without the intention or the previous work to build ongoing true relationship and friendship, is tokenism.
     
     
5. Support the creation of an annual gathering of indigenous/intercultural members in this region.

6. Seek ways to decolonize the governance of the Region by:
   
   1. Learning what self-determination truly means for the indigenous members and
      communities.
   2. Identifying the lack of decolonized leadership in decision-making which disconnects and also furthers colonizing.
   3. Being more intentional at nominating committee to have diverse voices.
   4. Constructing leadership to be more balanced between White/Western and racialized people.
   5. Building inclusiveness in the structure as opposed to a hierarchical structure.
   6. Working to form initiatives and relationships at the ground level, for example,
      between churches in the region, and at local and personal levels.
   7. Issuing invitations as a decolonizing act, instead of assuming the same people will give leadership.
   8. Challenging assumptions.
   9. Always asking who is missing.
   10. Setting the agenda together.
       
       
7. Invest in education to develop decolonized thinkers and leaders in the church, e.g. encourage leaders in the Region to participate in initiatives like DUIM (Deepening Understanding of Intercultural Ministry) as places where dominant culture folks and racialized people can do some deep learning together with a view to decolonizing our thinking.
   
   1. Understand the living reality of indigenous community and people.
   2. Be more attentive to the obvious demographic changes in the country as whole (i.e. the growth of the Winnipeg Filipino and Chinese communities.)
      
      
8. Ask members of an intercultural group to consult one another when questions are asked of us so we speak with a breadth of worldview.
   
   
9. Listen and learn from indigenous/intercultural members about how the structure unconsciously or consciously disconnects and marginalizes racialized and indigenous groups from the church.
   
   
   1. Recognize more community ministries in intercultural and indigenous ways, and
      understand the challenges these leaders experience of having these ministries
      officially recognized by the church.
   2. Review and replace boundaries and rules (which have become an obstruction to
      church seeking leaders and communities i.e. educational accreditation) with inclusiveness.

10.Build relationships as a framework for everything we do, especially in relationship to indigenous siblings.

1. Build collaborations between the Western church and indigenous church.
2. Build connection between racialized groups and the church.
3. Include ethnic ministries in further conversations about intercultural ministry.
4. Connect to second and third generation Canadians who experience their
   interculturalness and Canadianness in a very particular way. 

At the banquet, June 15th, 2019, Keystone Centre, Brandon 

On the Saturday night of Prairie to Pine Regional Council Gathering 

GC Report for P2P, Ha Na Park = "UNITED Gull", June 14, 2019

General Council Report for Prairie to Pine Regional Council, 

Ha Na Park, "UNITED Gull" 

Good morning. 안녕하세요, 제 이름은 박하나입니다. 반갑습니다. 

I just said, Hello, my name is Ha Na Park. It’s good to see you. 

It is good to see you. I am here to stand and SAY the words of my GC Report as a member of General Council Executive, yet also with the hope that I should, firstly, be a listener, the HEARER of your words, and God’s. 

I am one of the 15 members on the Executive of General Council, working with the moderator, the past moderator and the general secretary. What’s new in this construction is that we are not on the Executive as representatives of the region where each one of us resides. I bring my whole self and experience to the table, something that is asked of each one of us when we meet. And, I must share with you that who I am and what I bring to the table comes from the rich experience of living and working in this region, especially from the relationships I was able to nurture with indigenous Elders and siblings, the teachings and events at Sandy Saulteaux Spiritual Centre, and a good number of decolonized thinkers and leaders in this region whom I was able to meet through the Centre for Christian Studies and many ministry centres in our region. We, the Executive, are comprised of indigenous and racialized members making half of the total number, 15, to more intentionally give context and a new spirit to the NEW work that should exist if we really intend restructuring a revolutionary step. I know the reality can be far from our hopes and dreams. From time to time, our work staggers; we have to learn over and over about how our work and thinking are still colonizing. Yet I am happy to report that each member in the Executive helps one another to learn and unlearn things. Decolonizing our meetings and ourselves was the first task we tackled in the first few meetings in person. We, the Executive, practice functional interculturality, a model for the United Church to experiment on how we might be able to work together towards becoming a decolonizing church, embracing interculturalism, risking faith and daring hope. 

In the future, we hope to establish strategies to bring more innovative ministries into our midst, and for this, I encourage everyone to ask along with the Executive, now that the restructuring is happening, how is this allowing and how is it freeing us to engage mission and ministry? This would be the core work of the Executive in the next triennium, as we would strive to create an environment where we can ask all questions needed to facilitate true change. 

Adding one more word to the end, we could also ask, “Now that the restructuring is happening, how is this allowing and how is it freeing us to engage mission and ministry differently?”, embracing interculturalism, decolonizing our mind, work and leadership.

At the April 2019 meeting of the Executive with the General Council and Regional Council senior managers/executive ministers, the Executive felt that the words in the New Creed,” We are called to be the Church”, would be the guiding theological principles for their work.  We will be encouraging communities of faith across the church to see the five points in the Creed as the basis of their mission and ministry, and look for new ways to express them as their ministries evolve. 

We are called to be the Church:
    to celebrate God’s presence,
    to live with respect in Creation,
    to love and serve others,
    to seek justice and resist evil,
    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
       our judge and our hope.

As you see, there’s no eye-catching, buzz-words in these expressions, but as you all know well, the power of new hope is not in the letters, but in the spiritual experience of Pentecost. Let me tell you one story that happened at the Executive’s planning retreat this past April. In our agenda, we knew that we really should pursue the Vision that would ground us, the church, to be one, travelling on the road towards the future, together. In the morning, we were in worship, and in the order of the informal, beautiful service, we were invited to say A New Creed together. I couldn’t see the words for A New Creed on the screen - or anywhere. But, just as I was thinking to myself, “How can we say A New Creed when there’s no…” all the people in the room, the Executive, Regional Council ministers, GC staff, everyone who was in the room, began to say A New Creed together, filling the room, without hesitation, reciting it by heart, in one voice. It was a very powerful moment. Of course, I could only listen to those who were speaking, like the ones in the Pentecost story who came to investigate the sounds of their native tongues coming from inside a room - the powerful auditory sign and representation of the Spirit. Then, I could believe that A New Creed can be the basis for the future work on grounding us on the vision. It is beautiful, well-known, impactful. 

We have just passed Pentecost Sunday, and the lectionary reading begins with, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.” Now, WE are all together in one place. There’s the power that is given to those who gather together, all in one place. The gift of Spiritual Pentecost should enable us to “Say, and UNDERSTAND” words that were previously left unheard or were not given full attention and care, in our work and worship. Just one more verse from the scripture on the Pentecost: “So these representatives of the “farthest corners of the earth” began to hear the message in their native tongues.” That means, they COULD UNDERSTAND what they were hearing; the fall of Babel in reverse. WE COULD UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. As the Executive, I hope to carry the Spiritual Pentecost as an empowering story, as the unsettling spirit that enables us to ask everything to change. 

Since we, the Executive, became one elected body, we’ve been listening. 

We’ve heard concerns:

Your concerns about ‘connection’ in the life of the church after restructuring: 3 Councils. No presbytery. How can we be connected? How would we be able to be ‘all in this together,’ bound by the connexional spirit as we work together? Could encouraging clusters and networks be the solution to isolation? We share huge thanks to all the staff and every member for the work that is being done to transition the church into living the new structure. Of course, we celebrate each milestone and honour the gifts of each one, but we cannot congratulate ourselves yet. We have more work to do. We identify the gaps. To name just a few: youth losing a place to connect. Rural ministry and communities without presbyteries have the potential to be further marginalized. Indigenous communities and members lose regional bodies such as ANCC (All Native Circle Conference) that functioned like family, bodies that had been suitable, supportive and appropriate to the culture of First Peoples in the United Church. There was such a spirit deep inside the past structure. Many Elders and others identified one gap of restructuring to be “no indigenous region”, which could result in the familiar assimilation process tantamount to recolonizing. These are real concerns the Executive listened to, received through the letters from and conversations with indigenous Elders and members and the education and ministry centres. In May, the moderator responded to this call to the church, in a letter; reading it could be useful if you would like to learn more about how General Council and the Executive approach this concern.  

Another concern we definitely hear is around financial aspects of the church. Assessment. M & S. Two things briefly: First, General Council has been working hard and has given significant amounts of work and effort to make plans for strategic management of our financial resources. Second, please continue contributing to Mission and Service, and encourage the church to give. Continued contributions to M&S make an impact and a difference, even more so in our time after restructuring. You can find a more detailed explanation in my report in the package. Just two highlights: A total of $4.9 million in Mission & Service giving helps to support Healing Fund and Justice and Reconciliation projects across Canada, as well as 51 Indigenous local congregations and the work of the Indigenous Ministries Council. Embracing the Spirit is a new learning network and innovation fund entirely supported by Mission & Service. Through Embracing the Spirit, both new and renewing faith communities can experiment with new initiatives and connect with other innovative faith communities in ways that help insure that they can continue to thrive and gain momentum. Let’s turn the recent decline in giving to M&S around, in order to support these innovative, necessary ministries.

To sum up, in this post-restructuring future, the interesting reality is that excitement and concern are the same thing: There are definitely compelling energies at work by those who dream and implement new ways of connecting, new ways for ministry. People are inspired by the change, taking initiatives to form clusters and networks, not waiting to be asked. I hope that restructuring could truly mean to us both structuring and un/de- structuring - keeping what has been positive, while un- or de-structuring what have been barriers, in order to give more permission, fewer boundaries, to allow the Spirit to work. 

In this time of transition to the fully stretched reality of restructuring, I have faith as I embrace my role: Like we all should do, I hope to use TWO wings for balance to fly high and safe. We need to open our arms outwards in two ways, right arm, left arm: holding institutional vision, direction, agenda and hope for the church, and at the same time honouring and listening to people’s de-institutionalizing cry. Ask everything to change. WE CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. With these two things in my heart - the national church and the grassroot communities - I stand before you. For my indigenous siblings, I say, I hope to bring voices to the table, in the spirit of humility and self-examination. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, IN THE CONNEXIONAL SPIRIT.

Finally, I must emphasize communication. Although the new structures do not have representatives to the GCE it does not mean that regional councils, communities of faith and members cannot or should not communicate with the GCE.  A commitment undertaken by the GCE is that we will respond to all the questions, concerns and queries that come to us.  But we can only do so if we are made aware of them. Let us travel on this road together, in a SPIRITUAL PENTECOST OF BOTH SAYING WORDS AND UNDERSTANDING THEM. Amen. 

Sermon: The Gift of Pentecost - Say and UNDERSTAND, June 9, 2019

Message: The Gift of Pentecost - Speak and Understand 

Text: Luke 2:1-21

Today’s story begins by telling us the potential power and the significance of a group of people gathering in one place. Indeed, being ‘all together in one place’: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.” 

Today’s story is about the day of Pentecost, which, for the Christian Church, means the birthday of the Church. Pentecost’s origins lie in a Jewish harvest festival called Shavuot, which is also associated with the giving of the Torah at Sinai. The harvest festival origins explain why there could have been a large crowd of devout residents and tourists in Jerusalem, in the outdoors, as our Bible states, “Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem”, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya, and visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs. This description also shows the diversity among the Jews. What is noted here is that these people were outdoors, on the streets, busy with their own concerns on the day of Shavuot. There was also a small group of people who were indoors, gathered in a certain place. It couldn’t be a home; the context gives us the information that there were about three hundred people - three hundred disciples, men and women, young and old. These three hundred people were all together in one place. I believe, ‘being in one place,’ ‘being all together in one place’ paves the beginning of what would unfold soon on this day of the birth of the church. 

Verse 2: “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” That doesn’t mean that they were swept by an actual powerful storm from the real, physical world, but there came a sound which was like it, so everyone heard it and felt it, as if it were the signal to blow away their past, bringing an entirely new reality. All together in one place, the wind blew them away from the past of that small community where the peace, oneness, the spirit of being all together had been disrupted and had yet to be formed anew. Now, the power of being all together in one place for these three hundred men and women was manifested in the form of forked tongues of fire, above each one’s head and shoulders and in between them and resting on each of them. These are images that seize our imagination and attention right away - - yet, the visual representation of the Spirit as fire may not be the focus of this reading. This story that tells us how the church was born, is born and will be born every day at every changing point of history and at all levels of society, climaxes in ‘auditory’ signs and representations. That means Speech. The Spirit speaks. As the Spirit gives us ability, the disciples become a body of renewed hope and faith and, all of them being filled with the Holy Spirit, begin to speak in other languages. What might “other languages” mean? They could be languages that they have not spoken yet… 

The auditory representation, the auditory signs of the change, transformation, birth of the church are enormous in our Bible story today. They are sound, wind, thunder. The sound that the cloud makes on the mountaintop and the earthquake makes under the world. More importantly, the enormous roar of speech the people in the gathering, the disciples, the three hundred make by speaking in tongues, speaking in other languages, speaking in the language of the Holy Spirit, speaking in the language of the future of their being all together in one place. It is a speech event - overwhelming, uproaring and explosive.

The next scene of this story is also filled with auditory signals of the call to change. Were this a film, the scene would dissolve to be replaced by another; the focus is now outdoors, where a large crowd of devout residents and tourists gather to investigate the sound, the ‘voice’ from the inside, the voice from the 300 who were all together in one place. So these representatives of the “farthest corners of the earth” began to hear the message in their native tongues. That means, they COULD UNDERSTAND what they were hearing; the fall of Babel in reverse. It is a story of the original unity we must restore among all people under heaven. How can that original unity be restored in the human race across brokenness and division? By the tongues and by the ability to hear. This speaking event, breaking the silence, is like a massive truth-telling that leaves nobody feeling shamed. The birthday of the church was the day of a harvest of WORDS with the necessary presence of both sides: the speakers and the hearers. The Holy Spirit, the Mighty Spirit, encompasses both the speakers and the hearers with the birth of an entirely new reality - that’s the church. The church is born when all of us - as much of ‘all’ as possible - are united and are able to restore the original unity of the human race. That unity is not uniformity; on the day the church is born, the Spirit-driven event started with the three hundred men and women, young and old “in one place”, resulting in the multiplication by ten of those who received the Holy Spirit. The result is, the Bible says, three thousand new members. 

I am not focusing on the growing of the numbers, though. I wanted to make the point about numbers because I believe in emphasizing the result - the multiplication of the number of those who are led and changed by the Spirit on this day of Pentecost could give us great hope. We sometimes say to each other, “Hey, I’m worried that we are just preaching to the choir.” What happened on the day of Pentecost (and that’s where the power of this day lies) - was the exact opposite. The choir preached to those who never would have come to that place if they didn’t hear that great sound, those who never would have stayed if they couldn’t understand it. We are divided by our different languages. I am not talking about you speaking in English and me speaking in Korean. The languages the story of the Pentecost talks about are an entire new reality after the fall of Babel. We CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER after the Spirit’s change. Because the Spirit gives us abilities to do so - both speaking, truth-telling and hearing, truth-reckoning. 

Our Bible stories were written not just to be archived as stories of the past, as the records of our history. Our stories are written to explain the present in the light of the past. The context I would like to present for us today is The National Inquiry’s Final Report of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirited People. The official webpage shows us fast facts. The total number of participants in the truth gathering process is 1286; 1484 family members and survivors provided testimony. 819 individuals shared through artistic expressions. 83 experts, knowledge-keepers and officials provided testimony through 15 community hearings. Indeed, the final report communicates to us as “Reclaiming Power and Place”. To be honest, I have not had a chance to read it, but I will do so, very soon, and I hope all of us can. I hope that adding each of us in this place, in this “one” place, to the crowd who would be the “truth-hearers” and “truth-reckoners” (asking, “What does this mean? (Verse 12) would result in all Canadians and those who are resident in this land, (so much more than the three thousand reached by the three hundred), to experience the SPIRITUAL PENTECOST, TO HEAR AND UNDERSTAND the languages of the First Peoples, the National Inquiry’s Final Report of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit without inserting doubting voices and opinions, “They are filled with new wine (Verse 13)” but receiving the overwhelming, uproaring, grieving and explosive voices of First Peoples and the report. Let’s listen to their voices, as they spill out onto the street. For example, engage in discussions and learning about genocide. Find out why colonization is tantamount to genocide against the First People, so slow and systemic that we settlers can ignore it, have ignored for centuries this huge crime against the dignity and rights of First Peoples in Canada. Hear the words in the report: Commissioner Qajaq Robinson was equally direct: “As a non-Indigenous person I’ve struggled to come to terms with my role in Canada’s genocide.... it’s my truth, it’s your truth... I see it, I own it. Who we will be and who we are will ultimately be defined by how we respond, now that we know.” We have so many enormous factors to reform which are involved in Indigenous women’s vulnerability to violence. To name just a few, transportation, housing, harm reduction focused wet shelter, etc.

To study the Final Report, please click here.

To read "A Letter to the Church on the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls", click United Church's Response. 

The day of Pentecost is truly the birthday of the church, and the church is really a body of people, bound by God’s inclusive and affirming Spirit, a body of people multiplying in transformed and transforming places, ready to die again and again, willing to be born again and again, trusting in the Spirit’s ability to renew us and our hope. In this light, I invite us to think about Pentecost as the gift that enables us to “Speak and UNDERSTAND” words that were previously left unheard. So, our identity as disciples bound by the spirit of Pentecost is characterized by being both the speakers and hearers, and we know that the first call is to be the hearers of the Word. For now, let us have a quiet moment to ponder the first verse again, which prompted this reflection, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.” Indeed, we are all together in one place, today, and we are (the number). Now, let us go and preach to the world, the new vision of the Spirit, the entire new reality of how we restore unity! 

Queer and Faithful 2019: Evaluations, Q & A questions and Bike Rack ideas

Queer and Faithful, May 25-26, Winnipeg. 

We are happy to share the evaluations, Q & A questions and bike rack ideas from Queer and Faithful conference, 2019. 

1. Evaluations

Q1. What was your favourite part of the weekend?

Q2. Could you share with us something you learned this weekend or one way you were impacted by the event?

Q3. Any advice or suggestions? What should we do differently if we do this again?

Q1. What was your favourite part of the weekend?

Panels were named or referenced on (25) feedback forms:
Speakers' bios are available, here. Click: QueerBios 

• Hearing diverse stories/experiences/histories (8) shared with humility, courage, and compassion – truth telling.
• The sacred way we held people’s stories
• Diversity of speakers
• Loved the panel format and people’s courageousness to share from their hearts
• Exceptional panels on both days; their courage, reflections, and determinations
• Listening to people’s experiences and expanding my own experience of what it means to be in someone’s shoes
• Personal sharing of those who talked about how religion did or did not accept them and how that made them feel
• The determination, lessons, informations, and shared experiences from both days
• Many people shared their experience – I learned a lot from them and those make me think of my own life
• In addition, (2) people emphasized Saturday’s panel, (1) person emphasized both, and (1) person emphasized the presence of non-Christian voices. (5) people just stated, “the panels” as their favourite part
• (2) people named the Q&A sessions as their favourite part

Keynote Speech and Workshop – Jenna Tenn-Yuk

• Keynote speaker, and workshop led by Jenna
• Keynote address
• Jenna’s contribution
• Jenna’s talk on Saturday
• Hearing the main speaker
• Poetry
• Self-reflection through workshop on identity mapping
• Identity maps (2)
• Workshop (3)
• The workshop was healing

Community

• The way we created sacred safe spaces (smudge, silent prayer)
• Talking around the table
• Talking to community
• Meeting people
• Embracing space
• Having a room full of people of different faiths come together
• Interactions
• Final exercises that encouraged all of us
• Having everyone share what they were proud of – humanized and connected everyone in the room 

General comments:

• Everything! (5)
• I learned so much
• Good food! (4)
• A rich event 

Q2. Could you share with us something you learned this weekend or one way you were impacted by the event?

Awareness of 2SLGBTQ+ issues:

• LGBTQ is leading the way to help us have these conversations in humanizing and respectful ways
• Naïve about gender/sexual differentiation
• There is work to do to bring LGBTQ awareness and acceptance in nearly all faiths
• I was unaware that struggles with faith impacted one’s sexuality to the extent it does
• Lot of people who are faithful, queer, and questioning

Identity:

• I feel a much stronger sense of identity, and a stronger need to express that identity
• People too often feel that their sense of self disappears when faced with the pressure of not fitting in to society.
• Idea of bringing whole self to table
• That it is difficult to communicate between the various parts of my life
• Motivated me to be more of myself, and hoping more gatherings like this – can save lives!
• To remember to love self and to share that love with everyone
• Everyone is many ones in one
• “What stage to start speaking truth”

Pain and Trauma:

• How much suffering we can potentially cause others, and our capacity to heal others’ traumatic experiences
• Depth of the pain of being ‘other’
• Impacted by the hurt  - religious communities have hurt some in our midst
• Trauma is deep, trauma speaks to trauma
• The sins of religions & the damage done to LGBTQ2S communities
• It was hard to hear islamophobia in LGBT+ community (2)
• Antisemitism 
• I think my awareness of being a person of privilege has increased. My awareness of ways God has been put in a box has increased. 
• Look for which voices are missing and who are missing

Multifaith/Interfaith:

• Impact of multifaith backgrounds
• Learned that I didn’t know much about other faiths, and that it is important to work interfaith across differences
• I am very aware of my desire to pursue interfaith relationships and learnings
• I appreciated discussion of ways people of different faiths can be together 
• I’m considering the difference/interaction between faith and religion

Spirituality

• Learned it is important for Indigenous people to reconnect spiritually. I think all of us are connected spiritually.
• Intersections of Metis identity and spirituality
• Appreciated reflections of coming home: to ritual, ceremony, family, chosen family, etc.
• Increase in Awareness of ways God has been put in a box

The need for this space:

• I found it an inspiring space – a needed space, to talk about intersections of identity, race, gender, and spirituality. LGBTQ is leading the way to help us have these conversations in humanizing and respectful ways
• That there is a need for a queer and faithful space in the world and in my life – a need I didn’t know was so great in me and in others
• People are out there to journey with
• We are all connected
• There are people of faith who are open and accepting
• “Those who have loved are those who have found God.”
• Everyone has different experiences but sometimes we have the same feeling on it
• Humanity needs to be more open, inclusive, live with less fear

Hope:

• Gives me hope for continued bridge building – listening with your heart
• Reaffirmed my faith and hope

General comments:

• Always more ways to grow
• Stimulated lots of thoughts. 
• How to engage with audience (speaker)

Q3. Any advice or suggestions? What should we do differently if we do this again?

Time:

• More breaks during whole day event
• Fewer long breaks
• Start earlier in day 1 – end by 3:15.
• Started too early on Sunday (coming from church)

Format:

• More conversations regarding the dynamics of rural life and all these intersections. The world is bigger than cities and rural areas have fewer resources.
• Would be better if there were more forms, and better for people who are not good at English if there were more text prompts
• Would appreciate a list of resources
• Sunday keynote reflection, mapping self-reflection was powerful but I would have found it more healing to have some quiet time after it. It didn’t feel to me that enough depth of community was developed in such a short time to create the sense safety and trust for sharing anything but most shallow experiences
• Begin the notification process 6 months earlier than this event
• More workshops
• Community building – hard to meet new people and would have liked some structured ways to do that.
• Do community building early on to create a more comfortable space for sharing so we know who we all are.
• More intentional mixing at tables with opportunity to share
• Perhaps charge more
• Keynote speech was somewhat low-key
• Include music next time

Things to be aware of:

• Trigger warnings would have been good before panelists to avoid audience being re-traumatized
• Food could be more diverse
• Food with meat please!

Missing from the conversation:

• No pagan or heathen people? Maybe I missed them?
• Bringing Two-Spirit artists next time?

Next time:

• As someone who would like to make our church a place where anyone can feel acceptance and God, I’d love another conference where we can hear from the Queer community on how to do this. 
• Do this again / more often (2)

Anything else you would like to say?

• Well planned and organized (3)
• Good balance between interaction and listening 
• Full marks for the format, time allotment, consideration of church obligations
• I was encouraged by the resilience of people, regardless of their struggles
• Appreciated the diversity of voices
• Inspired/inspiring event
• Openness and honesty was overwhelming
• Thanks to all organizers for thought, energy and time
• Congratulations for planning a great event.
• Reiterated by many people: I had a great time, Thanks so much, This is awesome, Good job!

2. Q & A Questions

Several panelists said, they are done with religion. What is the role of queer folks to transform the religion, or religion to be saved. Can religion be saved?

What can we do to increase queer visibility in LGBT community spaces

What makes you feel like you belong in a space?

Tia, when you came out as a “Lebanese” to your family, how did that go (at 13)

Was there a breaking point, a moment where you found yourself unable or unwilling to hold the various parts of yourself separate?

Tia, What was India’s relationship with queer sexuality before colonization?

How can queer people of different faith groups work together?

How can we have a presence at Pride?

Jenna, Do you have any advice for balancing survival (Tokenism) and honouring our queer POC identities?

Given the impediments in your social and personal life - whether related to your sexual orientation or practice - what in your religion or faith has empowered you to go forward?

It’s spring cleaning time. Have any of you cleaned out your religious closet?

What are the teachings in your faith that strengthen and nurture you?

Don’t have to be in a “house” of God to worship God. Do you believe that the racism that may show up is from the religion vs from person “practicing” the religion? 

Tia, when you came out at 13 how did you identify/have you found that that identity has evolved or changed from then to now?

3. Bike Rack ideas 

I’d be really interested in ongoing events throughout the year/ an inclusive worship space. If there are plans for this (by anyone!) could you post details to the Facebook group?

I came from out of town and an interfaith queer community would be amazing to see, especially with a broader reach, perhaps Manitoba wide with an online community. That would be something that, I believe, would make a huge difference in spaces and towns like mine that are very religious and have small queer communities. 

If this is done again it would be super cool to encourage people when coming back from break to sit at a new table!