Archives:   WE ARE ONA (Open and Affirming) – Continuing to Learn and Grow

 

February 2026 Article

Hello Pilgrim family & friends! Welcome to February!!

MAJOR shout out to all of you that grabbed an LGBTQ+ pin from the bulletin board in the narthex. More will be added soon. Remember to wear them wherever you go!!

We also thank you – for your attendance and input at our listening/education session on January 25th where we discussed the possibility of expanding our Open and Affirming covenant. We had some very interesting conversation that your ONA Team and Pilgrim’s Council will utilize as the decision is made on how to proceed.

No one signed up to prepare the meal for Café Q youth in January, so they utilized gift cards they had received in 2025 to get their meal. Remember, if you are interested in making a meal, you don’t have to do it alone! Give Sue Kaiser a shout out at: suekai@aol.com/920.946.5563. She’ll team up with you to get a meal accomplished.

Please review our link to the Sign Up Genesis calendar for 2026 meals and sign up for the month that works for you! (Tracy Abler and CSA have already signed up for THREE months!! THANKS! Is that a challenge!!?? 😊 We got this Pilgrim.)

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090F4CA4AF2AA4F58-60367587-2026/182850317#/

Pilgrim’s Council will soon be advertising for help at the 17th annual CELEBRATE commUNITY event, hosted by United for Diversity. The event will take place on Saturday, February 21, 2026, at the Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds Expo Center. More than a festival, CELEBRATE CommUNITY is a reminder of what happens when people come together to share experiences and strengthen the bonds that make a community thrive. We encourage you to sign up to help represent Pilgrim at this event. Great place to wear your pin. 😊

And lastly, because we can always continue to learn and grow…..we offer you this Ted Talk: ‘Joyful Life Lessons from the LGBTQ community’. Mischa Oak (educator and 2SLGBTQ+ advocate) reflects on his personal experience and how it sparked his lifelong mission to champion LGBTQ+ inclusion. He highlights the challenges faced by queer individuals, debunks myths about sexuality and gender, and emphasizes the joy and innovation that diversity brings to communities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5IupYZL4bw

Stay Warm! Your Pilgrim ONA Team!

 
 

January 2026 Article

Hello Pilgrim family & friends! Welcome to 2026!

We lift up in gratitude, Tracy Abler and the Congregation of Sisters of St Agnes (CSA), for providing the December meal for Open Circle Unitarian’s Church Café Q’s (LGBTQ+ youth) monthly gathering. CSA really had to do meal prep!! When asked what they wanted for their December gathering the youth responded: “We would like “KFC” style, since we no longer have a KFC in town! Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, potato logs, biscuits.”

And then Tracy and her ‘crew’ added baked but undecorated Christmas cut out cookies with ALL the fixings! No questions asked – just giving! And we give thanks for that too!!

We are ready for Café Q meal volunteers for 2026! Please review our link to the Sign Up Genesis calendar for 2026 meals and sign up for the month that works for you!

Cafe Q LINK Please see Sue Kaiser with any questions: suekai@aol.com/920.946.5563

Friends, as we move forward into the New Year – we look to deepen our understanding of what it means to truly BE Open and Affirming! We invite you to attend our Open and Affirming education session on January 25, 2026 following our worship service. As we contemplate the final content for this education session there are several topics of discussion we are considering:

Understanding our ONA Covenant: Discussions on why a public ONA statement is important to explicitly welcome LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, reducing the possibility of misunderstanding who is included in the “welcome”.

Intersectionality of Justice: Exploring the current challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly those at the intersections of racism, poverty, and gender-based violence, and how the church is called to respond with faithful public action.

Shifting Power and Shared Leadership: Making intentional space for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people to lead within the church community, ensuring the voices of those most affected by injustice are centered.

Community Building and Outreach: Strategies for ONA churches to become a visible and reliable presence in the local LGBTQ+ community, especially regarding issues like protecting youth from bullying or advocating for equal protection under the law.

“Our Whole Lives” (OWL) Programs: Some churches use the UCC’s comprehensive lifespan sexuality education program, which incorporates religious values and up-to-date information on gender and sexuality, as a basis for discussion and education.

We look forward to sharing the end of 2025 with you and learning and growing WITH you on January 25, 2026 as we continue our ONA learning journey.

Wishing you well in 2026. Your Pilgrim ONA Team!

 

OCTOBER 2025 Article

Part of continuing to learn and grow – means we must travel into the uncomfortable at times.

We (both Pilgrim and the wider UCC) can’t learn to accept what we don’t know.

Your ONA Team has two videos for you this month!

  • The first video is Rev. Derek Terry the UCC Acting Executive Director of the Open and Affirming Coalition, as he addresses the delegates and visitors at this year’s General Synod 35 to honor the 40th anniversary of the 1985 ONA resolution.

His message? That LGBTQ+ people have always been part of the church—and that inclusion, justice, and love are sacred callings.

https://vimeo.com/1101670425?share=copy

  • Our second video comes from The Trevor Project – the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) young people, ages 13-24.

“Are you ashamed of this about me?” is a video about Mat.

When Mat asked his mom Haylin that question, everything changed. In our latest episode of Learn with Love, we hear their powerful journey. Haylin, a therapist and loving parent, learned to accept and understand that what her son Mat truly needed was unconditional support for who he is.

Together, Mat and Haylin show us that family support, acceptance, and access to transgender healthcare can turn fear into love, and silence into pride

Parents everywhere (all of us!) can learn from their journey: acceptance saves lives.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18U7c3RvUg/

Our challenge as an Open and Affirming congregation is to Watch, Learn and Grow then get INVOLVED!

We would LOVE seeing you at our ONA meetings.

Or helping us prepare a meal for monthly Café Q meetings.

Check out our ‘home page’ on Pilgrim’s website: https://www.pilgrimuccfdl.org/open-and-affirming/

Your Pilgrim ONA Team

November 2025 Article

Hello Pilgrim!

We apologize for missing our November Quill monthly education message. Thank goodness for Neal and Friday Eblasts! We’ll do better for December! Promise!

We want to thank all of those who have contributed thus far to our young friends at Café Q, by providing a meal for their monthly gatherings. We CELEBRATE:

  • Crystal Lee – Church of Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran

  • Barbara Lent – All God’s Family

  • Debbie Wamser – Pilgrim UCC

  • Tracy Abler – CSA Associate Home Circle /Pilgrim UCC

  • Tina Potter – Pilgrim UCC

We wanted to spend some time in thought, this month, about the importance of an ONA covenant. Our ONA covenant DOES make a difference to:

    • Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+ adults who have personally experienced silence or condemnation in other churches.

    • LGBTQ+ youth who are at higher risk for suicide when they experience bullying or mistreatment because of their sexual orientation or gender expression.

    • Parents of LGBTQ+ children whose families need the same affirmation and support congregations offer to other families.

    • LGBTQ+ seniors who are often closeted and isolated.

    • All those who attend or are affected by your congregation, who will experience a deeper understanding of the Gospel.

Attached is a video, The Power of Covenant, which was created over three years ago by the Open and Affirming Coalition of the UCC and a video that Pilgrim viewed during our ONA adult education session last year. We ask that you continue to prayerfully consider how you, a member of an ONA church, could become even more supportive of our surrounding ONA community.

Open and Affirming: the Power of Covenant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBJgrdIILoQ

Thanks for being you, Pilgrim! And all you do to keep your hearts and minds OPEN to all that God is teaching us.

Thanks, from your ONA Team!

December 2025 Article

Hello Pilgrim family & friends!

We want to thank Sue Kaiser for providing the November meal for Open Circle Unitarian’s Church Café Q’s (LGBTQ+ youth) monthly gathering. When asked if help with meal prep was needed, Sue responded: “I’ve got it easy! Pizza was the requested Thanksgiving meal!”

Friends, as Pilgrim UCC continues to grow into our ONA covenant, we look for new ways to educate ourselves about the difficult lessons we need to spend time with.

GLAAD, is the media advocacy organization formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. They promote fair and accurate representation of LGBTQ people in the media.

GLAAD states: “At a time when transgender people have become targets of extreme political discrimination and violence, it’s imperative that anyone who is interested in and invested in protecting a free society learn the facts about who trans people are, become educated about the realities trans people face, and understand that our collective equality is connected to the safety and freedom of people who are transgender.”

We look back onto November 20th, Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual commemoration of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998.

Here is a video – which includes members of Rita’s family – explaining how the Day of Remembrance started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjaKfFUIpQo&t=15s

Trans Day of Remembrance is a day to honor those we have lost within the trans community.

As of November 2025, advocates have reported at least 58 transgender people who have passed away in the United States since November 2024, with 27 of these being due to violence and 21 to suicide. READ their stories! SEE them as the people they were.

(and YES! Wisconsin is part of the list!! https://www.transremembrance.org/in-memoriam)

But honoring the trans people we’ve lost is not enough. Transgender people and people who defy gender norms have always existed. We fight for a world where trans and non-binary people belong and where trans lives are honored no matter the day. We all have the right to live openly and authentically. We all have the right to be ourselves — today, and EVERY DAY.

Thanks for being you, Pilgrim! And all you do to keep your hearts and minds OPEN to all that God is teaching us.

Your Pilgrim ONA Team!

SEPTEMBER 2025 Article

It’s been 10 years since same-sex marriage was recognized nationwide, but in recent months, the Trump administration has targeted the LGBTQ+ community and has been working to roll back some of the policies that support them.

The video included here,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huifF-EolKw
is centered in Boston, MA; however it provides solid insights into the MULTIPLE changes that our current administration is placing on our LGBTQ+ friends and family!
Watch – Learn and Grow. Then get INVOLVED!!
Your Pilgrim ONA Team