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Canadians tend to be rather reserved. Liberal-minded Christians tend to be even more so.
Liberal-minded Canadian Christians simply disappear into the forest. We don’t want to make a scene, draw too much attention, come across as pushy or evangelical.

The book study on “Queer Virtue” taught us that Christians can learn a lot from the Queer
Community about how to stand up and stand out with pride to change perceptions and in doing so change our attitudes towards ourselves.  Standing out proudly for what we believe can be the first step towards actively standing up for what we believe, towards putting into practice the social justice that Christ calls us to make central to our lives. “Love your Neighbor as yourself”.

We need to let the Lynn Valley Community know that this church community is not just
welcoming but has come to recognize the missing. We are missing the members of the Queer Community. We are missing the members of the Indigenous, Black, and racialized minorities.  We are missing those who have been persecuted or left out because of their beliefs or disabilities.

To this end, the Affirming Ministry Committee has been in conversation with the District of North Vancouver and the Parent Participation Preschool across the street about having a rainbow-coloured Pride crosswalk painted across Mountain Highway. We received word last week that this project has been approved! The District will be installing this crosswalk in the near future.  And at their cost!!  This Committee is also in the process of ordering a beautiful all-inclusive Rainbow coloured bench to grace the South side of our church building as one symbol of welcome and hospitality.

We are setting up a fundraising campaign for which everyone is invited to contribute. The bench will cost around $5500 including installation and taxes. This is a very high-quality bench meant to withstand the rigors of the outdoors and still look beautiful for years. We were going to ask Kane to paint a wooden bench but decided it would probably be a Golden Gate project where he would be continuously trying to keep the thing looking fine.

Instead, this beautiful bench will stand as a symbol of what we believe in a quiet and
unassuming way as a first step towards standing proud in our faith and our convictions.

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