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Manchester Pride 2009


Once again the Unitarians marched in Manchester Pride. And it's good to see the faith contingent in Pride getting bigger and more organised. Here's a good report from Changing Attitudes. Let's hope this just keeps getting bigger and better.

Comments

Andrew Bethune said…
I think it's tremendously encouraging that religious groups are taking part in Pride marches.

Maybe people will finally get the message that churches are not uniformly anti gay, and indeed many are very gay friendly, even if this is against the official policy of their hierarchy.

We were at San Fransisco pride last year and Brighton the year before that. One of the surprises in SF was a group of priests who walked along ahead of the March giving holy communion to the waiting crowds. Another suprise was seeing San Fransisco's Lutheran bishop-elect in the procession.

Although there was no official Unitarian presence on the march, San Fransisco's 1st UU Church provided the venue for the 30th anniversary pride concert.
Yewtree said…
Yay!!

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