In this January-February 2020 edition: Invitation: Taking action against “conversion therapy” PIE Day updates for 14 March 2020: worship and new video cuts!
Augmentation des droits d’adhésion en 2020/ membership increases in 2020
Our annual conference 2020: July 24-26 in London ON
National GSA Leadership Forum, May 2020
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Upcoming Affirming celebrations! St John’s United Church, North Saanich BC; and Knox United Church, Lower Sackville NS
Local Affirming news and work
Welcome to 2020! We look forward to sharing in more Affirming good news this year, and to new directions for AUSE as our movement continues to grow. We have many opportunities to get involved in our collective work- there are three in this newsletter alone!
A reminder that we archive all our newsletters on our site here; and that you can invite friends and colleagues (and enemies?) to sign up for this, our free bimonthly newsletter here. Want to print this out? Open the newsletter in your browser using the link at the top and use your browser's print or save as PDF functions. In between editions come join the conversation in our private Facebook group or public Facebook page.
Our work is the work of thousands of people across the land, and partners around the world. Deep thanks to our members, donors, and supporters who keep our shared space growing and thriving.
Taking action against conversion therapy
In December 2019, the now-Liberal minority government said it would move to place conversion or reparative therapy in the Criminal Code, making the practice illegal and punishable. We need to speak out in support of this, although we also need to be aware that the proposal has some problems and limits. Whatever the advocacy options, whether national or local, we know that our advocacy and education efforts are important and much-needed. We must continue to advocate for regional and local responses, like the one currently before Calgary’s council.
And we need to make it clear to our faith communities that conversion therapy is alive and in practice across Canada to this day. Please have a look at this action suggestion from AUSE, in solidarity with incredible local and regional work across Canada. (Photo: Edmontonians in the Affirming movement make their point at the AB Legislature.)
PIE Day updates for 14 March 2020: worship and new video cuts! Public+Intentional+Explicit= PIE. These are our standards for the full inclusion and celebration of LGBTQIA+ and Two Spirit people. Get your recipes/ ice cream/ creative planning tools ready. PIE Day 2020, Saturday March 14, is happening!
Thank you to all the members and donors who make it possible to offer free resources, including a website, videos, and planning materials to anyone who wishes to hold a PIE event of any size.
The United Church of Canada has dedicated a worship page to PIEness! Click here, and watch the space (and pieday.ca) for a commissioned order of service from United Methodist-rooted group Enfleshed.
Remember that the free 15 minute PIE Day video is still as fresh as ever. No day olds here! We’ll be adding some new, shorter versions of the video for sermon and announcement times to www.pieday.ca and Vimeo.
All can participate: you do not need to be part of an Affirming ministry; you don’t need to be United Church; and pie substitutes are welcome. You just need to be enthusiastic or curious about a Public, Intentional, and Explicit celebration of diverse genders and sexualities in your community and place of worship. That’s all. Have at it! Sponsored by Affirm United/ S'affirmer Ensembleand Affirming Connections.
Augmentation des droits d’adhésion en 2020/ membership increases in 2020
A reminder that we have important news related to membership fees. At the 2019 AGM in Calgary, members present voted to make changes to the institutional and individual membership fees for the first time in over 20 years. In December a print mailing went out to all current members, and to the entire national list via our e-newsletter.
Nous vous écrivons pour vous transmettre des renseignements importants au sujet des droits d’adhésion à AUSE. Lors de l’AGA 2019 à Calgary, les membres présents ont adopté une résolution visant à augmenter, pour la première fois en plus de 20 ans, les droits d’adhésion des membres à titre institutionnel et à titre individuel. (Photo : membres du ancien Synode Manitou apres leur célébration inclusive. Members of the former Manitou Conference following their Affirming celebration.)
Un grand merci à vous, et à votre ministère, de continuer à créer un espace sûr et sacré. Merci pour tout ce que vous avez apporté à ce mouvement grandissant de personnes et de communautés trans, non binaires, bispirituelles, intersexes, asexuées, pansexuelles, bisexuelles, lesbiennes et gaies – et d’alliés cisgenres et hétérosexuels. Vous incarnez la raison d’être de notre mouvement : ensemble et unis.
The AUSE Council thanks you for the safer sacred space you and your ministry continue to create. Thank you for all you as supporters and members have offered this growing movement of trans, non-binary, Two Spirit, intersex, asexual, pansexual, bi, lesbian, gay people and communities—and our cisgender and heterosexual allies. You are the reason for our name: ensemble (together) and united.
Annual conference 2020: July 24-26 in London ON
In 2020 we look forward to a time of visioning for the future of our Affirming movement. As the movement continues to grow, AUSE needs to look at what its work should be, and why, and how. We need perspectives from across the land to help in this time of discernment. Please join our lovely host, First-St Andrews United Church in London (and other co-hosts to be announced) July 24-26. This time will also include participating in London’s Pride Festival, and other fun things TBA.
Photo: come to the conference and Joyce Payne will cook up fab Affirming burgers for you (and for all of London Pride).
GSA Leadership Forum, May 2020 The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity is holding its annual national Gender and Sexuality Alliance Leadership Forum, which invites 75 GSM (gender and sexual minorities) and allied students (ages 14-17) from across the country to participate in a week of leadership education. This training event will take place in Ottawa from May 12th-May 16th, 2020. The students will learn to be leaders in their school and youth communities on topics of GSM identities, diversity, anti-bullying, anti-racism, and mental health. Concurrently, the participants of the event will be trained on how to run a successful Gender and Sexuality Alliance club and related activities at their school. Have a look at this great opportunity and get ready to apply quickly: deadline is February 9!
Upcoming Affirming celebrations! St John's United Church in North Saanich, Vancouver Island BC, becomes 2020's first Affirming Ministry birth! Send them a note of welcome, please (and note celebration details should you want to attend the party. All Affirming celebrations are always public.)
And moving over to the lovely East Coast, Knox United Church in Lower Sackville, NS celebrates March 15.Send them a note of welcome, please.
(Left: Trinity United Church in Edmonton at their Affirming celebration in November 2019.)
Local Affirming news, work and events
(Above: A beautiful part of the Affirming celebration at Grace United Church in Sarnia ON last June.)
Thank you to all who have begun to plan for PIE! (See our overview post of sweet PIE/ pi/ pie resources here.) Remember, please, to register your event!
We celebrate with Rev Ralph Carl Wushke, formerly of SK and now living in Toronto. Ralph Carl has long served in ministry in the United Church, and has been a blessing to the UCC and the Affirming movement. Originally, Ralph Carl is Lutheran and in January his denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, apologized to him for stripping him of his ordination because of his sexuality, and reinstated his ordination in a ceremony. CBC interviews him here.
Video on vocabulary and pronouns:Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Produced by Lawrence Park Community Church, Toronto, which is in the Affirming process, this short video is an accessible intro to why pronouns are important, and how people’s identities aren’t always (or often) what we assume.
We need to speak out in support of this, although we also need to be aware that the proposal has some problems and limits. Whatever the advocacy options, whether national or local, we know that our advocacy and education efforts are important and much-needed. We must continue to advocate for regional and local responses, 
hip fees for the first time in over 20 years. In December a print mailing went out to all current members, and to the entire national list via our e-newsletter.
orward to a time of visioning for the future of our Affirming movement. As the movement continues to grow, AUSE needs to look at what its work should be, and why, and how. We need perspectives from across the land to help in this time of discernment. Please join our lovely host, First-St Andrews United Church in London (and other co-hosts to be announced) July 24-26. This time will also include participating in London’s Pride Festival, and other fun things TBA.
