Uniting Church Float makes a rocky entry into the 1998 Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade

This year's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday 28th February 1998 will include a group marching as members of the Uniting Church in Australia. The inclusion of this group is going ahead despite concern and criticism from many parts of the Church opposed to the inclusion of homosexual people in the life of the Church.

One of the organisers Liz Yeo said 'The entry of a group of members of the Uniting Church provides a strong and visible expression of our hope that the Church can be a place of acceptance and welcome for gay and lesbian people. The Church has to come to terms with its responsibility for promulgating attitudes of hatred and exclusion towards homosexual people in the past. The Uniting Church prides itself on its social justice stance and that commitment will be tested by the manner in which it deals with this issue.'

Up to 120 people will be marching with a diverse range of responses to the way the Church is dealing with this fundamental issue of human rights. Some have expressed deep hurt and pain that lesbian and gay people are forced into silence in the Church. Some people have family members, sons and daughters, whose lives they feel unable to acknowledge in the Church. Other people see it is as a matter of social justice that the way the Church treats gay and lesbian people is a marker of its health or disease. Other people come from Parishes where lesbian and gay people share in membership and leadership and want to show their support and thankfulness for recieving the gifts their friends bring to a more inclusive form of community. Many people point to Jesus as an example and feel it is appropriate to go into the streets to express their faith. All these people have replaced fear with love.

Rev Rod Pattenden said 'If Church people take offence at this action then I believe they choose to miss the point. It is a convenient act of blindness to take offence at the Mardi Gras and not to look closer at the reasons why strong statements of human justice are being expressed. Is the Church after all more interested in manners than justice.'

'For too long the Church has forced people to hide and to deny their sexual identities. This has resulted in self-loathing, and sometimes in personal dislocation and violence which is a basic denial of the Church's teaching on God's acceptance and love.'

'Many people are telling us that it is inappropriate for a Church group to be included in the Mardi Gras Parade but it seems to me that we are in the right place and that this is the right time for the reality of these issues to be made visible.'

The theme of the group 'Celebrating Diversity' emphasises the Christian faith as one of hope and liberation for all people irrespective of race, gender or sexual orientation.

A press conference is being planned for Tuesday 23rd February 2pm at the Paddington Uniting Church Oxford St Paddington (site of Paddington Bazaar) where some of the people marching will give an account of their deeply felt concerns for human rights in the Church and their hope that the Church will respond to the hurt and pain of gay and lesbian people.

For further information contact

Rod Pattenden or Liz Yeo
Phone 02 9331 2646 Fax 02 9331 4864