Welcoming Congregation

Statement of Belief

UU Priniciples

Membership Information

History

FAQ

Facility Rental

Location

Services

Sunday Mornings
10:30 AM Coffee
11:00 AM Service

Sunday Evenings
7:00 PM Service
8:15 PM Social

Celebrations
12:00 PM / Noon
Regular services do not happen on Celebration Sundays.

Full Moon Schedule
is available

Welcoming Congregations Actions

Education

1. Offer religious education that incorporates LGBT life issues, including the workshop series from the Welcoming Congregation Program.
   

Yes.

2. Promote participation by the congregation's minister, religious education minister or director, president and or moderator in the Welcoming Congregation Program.
   

We are a lay led congregation but our RE Chairperson and our president participated in the Welcoming Congregation class. Two from last years board and three from this year’s six member board also participated.

3. Offer a congregation-wide workshop program, with follow-up opportunities for study and reflection.
   

In addition to the Welcoming Cong. Workshop series, we have held special services on the challenges of Bisexuality and on AIDS awareness. Our teacher / lay leader training class also addresses the needs of the LGBT community.

4. Use the UUA's sexuality education program, Our Whole Lives.
   

We have an average age of 2 years to 7 years in our children's education program. We have only an active enrollment of 5-6 kids. We have purchased Our Whole Lives for the older children and plan to teach it the summer of 2010. With our current growth, we hope to be able to have a class of 5-6 3rd and 4th graders for this class. We are also preparing to teach the adult OWL during the Summer of 2010 and into the Fall.

Congregational Life

5. Form a broad-based Welcoming Congregation committee to offer programs and monitor progress.
   

Because of the size of our congregation (26), creating a committee just for this issue that would meet regularly enough to monitor our progress in a timely fashion is not practical. We explored the idea of adding this to the membership committee but in the end felt that this was important enough to add it to our BOD duties. We will also be asking our congregation to tell us what they think of our progress during the annual open topic congregational meeting each May.

6. Adjust congregational bylaws and other relevant documents to include an affirmative non-discrimination clause concerning membership, hiring practices, and the calling of religious professionals.
   

We reviewed all our congregational documents including policies and procedures and ensured that they included affirmative wording.

7. Use inclusive language and content as a regular part of worship services, and provide worship coordinators and speakers with guidelines on inclusive language.
   

Our worship and ritual training program includes the use of inclusive language. When we have guest speakers, a member of the ritual team or our board aids them to ensure this need is met.

8. Provide main worship space and ministerial services for LGBT rites of passage, such as services of union and dedications of children.
   

We provide both space rental and the services of our Chaplin for handfastings (our version of unions) and for child dedications. These services are available for same gender couples, different gender couples or poly-families.

9. Welcome LGBT persons in the congregation's brochure.
   

This has been done.

10. Ensure that publications, public information, and programming reflect the requested status of any individual as s/he sees appropriate; recognize same-gender couples in directories and other publications as they desire.
    

We recognize and knowledge all make ups of family units in all our publications and programming. It is up to each individual what information we share and how it is done.

Community Outreach

11. Celebrate and affirm LGBT issues and history during the church year.
    

We celebrate AIDS awareness and Texas Freedom (local version of Gay Pride) during the church year. We also look for ways to be involved with the LGBT community both nationally and locally. Several members of our congregation helped staff the UUA's booth at the national convention Creating Change 2010 and then reported their experiences to the congregation.

12. Participate in and / or support efforts to create justice, freedom and equality for LGBT people in the larger society.
    

We actively participate in and support our larger community's efforts in this area in the following ways:

• We have made our building and leadership available to the local LGBT community for the purpose of hosting town hall conversations with city and county civil leadership.
• Active participation in NTAUUS's social justice activities. Our president sits on this committee.
• Were participants last year in the Texas Freedom (local gay pride event) parade and plan to help staff the NTAUUS booth at this event in 2010.
• Helped to staff the UUA table at the Creating Change conference in Dallas in February of 2010.
• Our last congregational statement on social justice in 2007 was to express our opposition to the Texas Defense of Marriage Act
• Recently participated in the Standing on the Side of Love petition campaign as a congregation.
  
  

13. (again) Provide main worship space and ministerial services for LGBT rites of passage, such as services of union and dedications of children.
    

(Again) Yes. We advertise the availability of our building and chaplain for these events. We do not differentiate who may come and celebrate with our community.

14. Establish and maintain contact with local LGBT groups to offer support and promote dialogue and interaction.
    

We provide these groups access to post on our community bulletin board their events and services. We maintain contact with several groups and for a time until it disbanded we hosted a local pagan LGBT meetup. This is something we would like to explore again, as a new group is formed.

15. Advertise in the local press and or other media that reach the LGBT communities.
    

This is part of our regular advertising strategy.

16. Provide use of building space on a equivalent basis with other UU organizations when requested by members for programs and meetings of an Interweave chapter.
    

We have a standing policy to make our building available to UU organizations. We explored the possibility of forming an Interweave chapter last year, but with a demographic of over 70% of our membership naming themselves as part of the LGBT community and many others counting themselves as friends and family of that community, the congregation felt that it would be more isolating than inclusive to do so.