What does it mean to be Open and Affirming vs Welcoming; they're the same aren't they?

Even though pride month is officially over, the parades have been marched in, the festivities participated in and the Mom hugs given, Black Forest Community Church will continue to lean into being an Open and Affirming Church of the United Church of Christ, seven days a week, 365 days a year! 

In 1985, the United Church of Christ (UCC) General Synod urged UCC congregations to “Declare Themselves Open and Affirming.” The UCC General Synod does not tell churches how to hire a pastor for example or that they have to be Open and Affirming (ONA); it is totally up to each congregation to make that decision. At present, there are 1800 ONA UCC churches. Black Forest Community Church (BFCC), became an ONA congregation in 2017. (See https://openandaffirming.org/about/history/ for more UCC ONA history.)

BFCC went through months of classes, education, hard questions and deep conversations before being presented our ONA certificate. We also wrote our own ONA statement; a commitment and promise to our LGBTQ+ community that we are who we say we are and what we believe.

The congregation and how we live into being an ONA church has changed in the past six years. Flags with rainbows and our messages of welcome have been bought and flown; we have participated in the Colorado Springs PrideFest Parades, we have carried our church flag with the rainbow in the Black Forest Festival parade; we have signs on our doors and windows that declare we are a safe space for our LBGTQ+ community, our website says we are “gay friendly, family friendly,” we have a new outdoor sign with the rainbow on it and we have held classes teaching us about pronouns and gender identity.

Sometimes though, we still get asked, why is it so important to say we are ONA every Sunday; why can’t we just say we are welcoming to all, which to be honest, this particular church community is, just for the record. 

We are of course welcoming, after all, it says so on our welcoming/ONA statement and on our certificate. (Check out our statement: https://www.blackforestcommunitychurch.org/#new-page). Obviously, it is our desire and hope that we will be a church that is welcoming to all; however, there is definitely a difference between the two.

Once you become an ONA church, it doesn’t mean you’re done, you signed on the dotted line and that’s that. It requires ongoing classes and regular reevaluation of the ONA statement. The Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ, encourages, promotes and celebrates ONA Sunday every year in June. ONA Sunday is a chance to celebrate, to re-evaluate and recommit to doing the hard work of intentionally unlearning our biases and working through our own issues to make sure that we don't bring trauma and harm to the LGBTQ+ community.

In the spirit of continuing to educate ourselves, to live into the commitment that comes with being an ONA church, to search our hearts and minds for biases, questions, myths etc, we invited Candace Woods (a member in Discernment in the process of ordination in the United Church of Christ and one of our pulpit supply teachers since January 2023), to give a class on the question of ONA vs Welcoming.

Candace Woods said, “From my understanding, my experiences…. It really has to do with the history of exclusion of LGBTQ+ people from church life. That history of oppression, of exclusion, of being told no, you need to stay in the closet, that history is vital to understand and recognize.”

Candace talked about how someone from the LGBTQ+ community might feel walking into a church that says they're welcoming to all, only to find that the church thinks “they have to pray the devil out of you”, you are not allowed to lead any groups and you are definitely not going to be ordained. She said, “That type of welcome has been used as a bait and switch for queer folks in church spaces for a long time now.” 

Churches like to say everyone is welcome, but very often that welcome comes with a lot of conditions and buts. “The message is clear though that you're not good enough, you're going to have to get out of your loving relationship and you're expected to renounce your identity,” Candace said. “That has been part of the history and that's why saying you're Open and Affirming is a deliberant stance that says we are not going to just say that you're welcome here; we are saying that we see you, we affirm you in your identities, we are going to officiate your weddings, we are going to baptize your children, we are willing to have conversations with you about pronouns, gender and sexuality. We are going to ordain you. We welcome you with no buts.” 

She said, “When a church decides to become an ONA congregation, it is an intentional stance that says you're not only welcome here, but we want to learn from you. We welcome your gifts. We want to change because you're here. We are going to create space so you can be yourself.”

BFCC is the only ONA church in Northern El Paso County, Colorado. Candace said, “We are one church community in a sea of churches in Colorado Springs; think about the collective identity amongst the churches in Colorado Springs when you wonder why you should say you are an ONA church.”

She said, “In a perfect world, we would be able to just say, everyone is welcome, but we don’t live in a perfect world, and there are historically excluded communities to which we have to say an intentional, yes. We intentionally say, this means you, you are God's beloved, we affirm you in all of your glory and goodness.”

Candace said there's nothing wrong with saying we are welcoming to all. “It's the context of the rest of society that has historically excluded and kept out the LGBTQ+ community, it is the history of this town in particular that created the bills that made Colorado the hate state in the early 90’s,” she said. “That history exists here and so in this particular context and space where many big churches in town supported those bills, so when a church intentionally and specifically says you, LGBTQ+ community, you are welcome here, it is meaningful.” (https://www.kunc.org/politics/2016-05-20/20-years-ago-a-landmark-scotus-decision-kept-colorado-from-staying-the-hate-state).

We will continue to strive to live into our mission at BFCC which is to Serve God, With Our Whole Heart. Love, With No Exceptions, and Create Sanctuary, For All People, On Earth as it is in Heaven. And that means not only being welcoming to all, but also continuing to say every Sunday with conviction....”Welcome to Black Forest Community Church, an Open and Affirming Church of the United Church of Christ.”