Good Shepherd at Olympia Pride Festival

Good Shepherd had a radiant presence at the July 1st Olympia Pride Fest. Our LGBTQIA+ Mercy & Justice subcommittee sponsored a colorfully decorated booth at Percival Landing and were present to greet visitors and welcome them to come visit and worship at Good Shepherd. And welcome we did!  We gave out over 325 “You Are Beautiful” stickers which were attached to small cards that had a welcoming message, our location and our RIC message statement printed on them. We proactively walked up to visitors and nearby onlookers telling them they were beautiful just for attending the event and supporting the community by doing so.  We also gave each visitor our tri-fold brochure and an Eco-Fair flyer. In addition to flyers we distributed a wealth of donated buttons, flags, bracelets and pride soaps. On the suggestion of our youngest committee member, Aspen, we also served two large jars of tasty and refreshing pickles.

Along with so many allies we also met people who have been asked to leave the church they were brought up in, people who didn’t know about us and were surprised to find that there’s such a loving congregation in town, and several who said they have attended in the past and would hopefully come see us again. The crowd was quite diverse with persons identifying with every letter in LGBTQIA+ and their supportive allies. All ages were represented and colorful and the creative costuming was awesome.

Our hope is to see a return on the effort of this outreach by seeing new faces at Good Shepherd worship gatherings and other events.  Thank you to the congregation and greater community for being so supportive.