Very short notice, but the event has been organized very quickly:

dare to love: We Remember Pulse – tonight 7-9 pm at NGen Youth Centre. “An evening of remembrance, featuring local speakers, musicians and performers from Hamilton’s LGBTQ communities.”

Tuesday evening about 35 people gathered in the New Vision sanctuary for a vigil of grief and hope addressing the hate crime murder of LGBTQ people in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando Florida last Saturday evening. We connected and grieved as a community. We acknowledged fear and we affirmed hope. We sang “We Shall Overcome” and “We are a Gentle, Angry People.” We lit candles for each of the 49 killed.

This weekend is our second anniversary weekend! On Saturday evening our pay-as-you-may dinner and show commences at 6 pm. We look forward to hearing leading local black activist Evelyn Myrie address us at our anniversary service Sunday morning.

Pride Sunday this year is Sunday June 26. As we’ve done in the past, we will combine Pride with our Welcome Summer BBQ.

I’d like to draw your attention to World Refugee Day. It occurs on June 20. For some time prior to the year 2000, many African countries celebrated Africa Refugee Day on June 20 each year. Beginning in 2001 the UN invited the world to begin to celebrate an annual World Refugee Day on June 20.

New Vision will mark World Refugee Day this year with something on its outdoor sign.

The photo is of Syrian refugees in the summer of 2015.

I’ll leave you with this thought: “Refugees are people like anyone else, like you and me. They led ordinary lives before becoming displaced, and their biggest dream is to be able to live normally again. On this World Refugee Day, let us recall our common humanity, celebrate tolerance and diversity and open our hearts to refugees everywhere.” — Ban Ki-moon, General Secretary, United Nations

Grace and peace,

Rev. Ian