Feeling shut out from your community can be hard for some people.
The sense of having nowhere to go or no one to talk to can take a toll on a person’s mental and physical health, but a local church has opened its doors to every member of the community including the LGBTQ.
Lethbridge’s McKillop United Church states on their website they believe in a person’s right to name, shape, and express their faith in many ways.
They welcome gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, and two spirited people into their church.
Minister, Trevor Potter, believes it’s important the community has a church that doesn’t discriminate against different types of people.
“Our world likes to make categories of who’s in and who’s out and even religion does that. We believe the spirit of God is within everybody and everybody is sacred no matter who they are or what society says about them,” he said.
Jesse Harsanyi, a member of the LGBTQ community in Lethbridge, grew up a Christian and remembers the difficulty she had balancing who she was and her faith.
“I would try to find the right arguments and find the right information to get my friends and family to realize they could accept me and could also have their faith. In doing that I exhausted my own faith because I felt angry,” she said.
The McKillop United Church has been supporting and petitioning in favour of the Lethbridge School District 51 policy 502.2.
A policy, which is committed to establishing and maintaining a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environments that respect diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions.
For Harsanyi, growing up in a church gave her a sense of community and having a church in Lethbridge that includes everybody is something she feels can benefit people who experience themselves in similar situations.
“I think that it’s an amazing step and an amazing start that there are safe places like that because it’s really important not to lose yourself when you are going through such a big realization in your life. That’s when you need community the most,” she said.
Although, the intentions are there to welcome all walks of life into the church, Potter admits there is still a little bit of a barrier when it comes to putting your faith into a new Christian religion.
“Christianity has been really exclusive and hurtful of a lot of different people. So it takes time for people to build trust and to feel like it really is safe to be who you are without being persecuted or looked down on,” said Potter.
Potter adds he believes young people sometimes feel judged by religion and they worry about having to be perfect to attend church.
“McKillop is trying to grow that way where you can just come and be on your journey and not have to believe in a strict doctrine or dress a certain way,” he said.
The McKillop United Church holds their worship period every Sunday from 10-11:30 a.m. and welcomes newcomers.
