To kick off Pride Month, Fr. William Danaher began his Sunday service with an opening statement about the meaning of pride and Trinity Sunday at Christ Church Cranbrook.
We celebrate the fact that the God we worship is not only one God, but three. And the purpose of that is to remind us that at the heart of all things, God is love. God is a relationship of love between the names that we use as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is a trinity of persons who is bringing us into that beautiful circle of love. And the mystery of life is that love is overflowing.
It’s abundant. It’s always there, and we are included in it, and that is the wonder and mystery of Trinity Sunday. It’s also important on this day to celebrate our LGBTQ community members here at Christ Church Cranbrook and everywhere. This is the Sunday that we celebrate Pride, and this is the time in which we lift up the more than 200 members of this congregation who identify as LGBTQ. We are grateful for that opportunity to celebrate Pride. You are welcome and loved and just as much a part of this company as everybody else because you matter to us.
One of the things about God is that the glory of God is not a scarce commodity. When we lift up one, that does not mean another is demoted or somehow not seen. When we lift up, there is abundance. We are all made in the image of God. We are all miracles. We are all beloved. We are all part of this community.
Pride is a moment in which we make the point to ourselves and to the world around us that the members of the LGBTQ community are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. They have just as much a part in this beautiful, expanding circle of love that begins with God. They are reminders to us that God is love.
Several years ago, the vestry of Christ Church Cranbrook, at my invitation, decided to fly the Pride flag outside our church on Pride Sunday and in June. The reason why they decided to do that was not because they were advocating for a cause, because this flag does not represent a cause. It’s not to advocate for some kind of brand. There is no brand called Pride. There is no trademark over that flag. That flag represents people, and it represents people who God loves. And we believe in a time in which those people are sometimes not seen as the gifts of God that they are, that lifting up that flag tells that community that you are loved and you are safe here.
So I want to invite you all to see that in that flag. You may not agree with the fact that we’re doing it. I ask you to see through that flag to the people, to the people who are here today, the people who are gifts from God to us, and the people who make our life what it is at Christ Church Cranbrook and in our wider community. I hope that if any of you have any questions, that you seek out one another and talk about them. I believe the vestry was right several years ago when they said that we should have that flag flying on Pride Sunday because that reminder is a reminder to all of us, and it’s something that we hold dear on this day and always.
Fr. William Danaher is the Rector of Christ Church Cranbrook.