Members of the Diocese of Massachusetts will be joining the party in style for the Boston Pride Parade on Saturday, June 13. All are welcome to join Bishop Alan M. Gates, The Crossing worshiping community of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul and the whole diocesan community for this joyful celebration of equality and inclusivity.
“It’s getting warmer and many program years are winding to a close… I think we’re ready for a big fat celebration,” said Isaac Everett, liturgist for The Crossing.
Members of the Crossing at Pride 2014
The Diocese of Massachusetts will have a float in the parade, featuring The Crossing’s band. A crucifer (carrying a cross made of cardboard, per parade regulations) will lead the diocesan contingent.
Banners and signs are encouraged, as is clerical wear for clergy.
“If we consider it to be an act of faith to march in this parade, why not embody that in the fullest way possible, in terms of what we wear and what we bring with us?” said Matt Gesicki, a Life Together intern working with The Crossing and the primary organizer of the diocese’s Pride parade presence.
Both Everett and Gesicki stressed the important public witness that the Episcopal Church makes by participating in the Pride parade.
“It doesn’t necessarily take a lot of courage to be in the Pride Parade when you live in Massachusetts—last year we were in front of Zipcar and Zipcar was in front of Microsoft,” Everett said. “That said, I think that having churches present means a lot to people. In the Episcopal Church so many of us are refugees from other religious traditions, who have found our way here after being cast out of our homes…even if it doesn’t feel like a huge thing to walk through the city of Boston in an LGBT-friendly way, having the church’s official stamp on this is so affirming to those who come to the Episcopal Church wounded.”
Gesicki said that in the past, he’s found something profound amid the party atmosphere of the Pride Parade.
“It’s a crazy, fabulous feast day,” he said. “This a time when a community is truly liberated to be as extravagant and expressive in public as possible, and there’s a sort of riotous joy to that liberty that I consider to be not unlike the deep energizing fulfillment of being part of a worship service.”
The Pride Parade on Saturday, June 13, begins at noon. Participants planning to join the diocesan contingent in the parade should meet in Copley Square at 11 a.m. (exact line-up location is 28 Exeter Street). Gesicki urged participants to bring signs—the more colorful and creative the better—and encouraged clergy to wear clerical garb. Participants may simply join the group at the beginning of the parade route, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged. E-mail Matt Gesicki at gesickim@diomassintern.org by June 6 to RSVP.
--Ellen Stuart Kittle