Read: Genesis 1:31

Reflect: Pride Month is an annual celebration of the many contributions made by the LGBTQ+ community to history, society and cultures worldwide. In our community, as in many places, Pride is usually celebrated during the month of June. When so many look for ways to label, divide, and isolate people from each other, it is more important than ever to seek out opportunities to come together, build relationships, and support one another in all of life’s challenges. God still creates and delights in diversity! There is room in the arms of Jesus for us all!

Prayer: O God, your divinity transcends distinctions of gender, and through the generations you widen our awareness of human diversity. We gather here before you in our various expressions of gender identity, all of us one in Christ Jesus. Bring our society to peacefulness concerning a wider understanding of gender. Give courage and healing to those who express outwardly the gender they testify as a gift from you. Open the church to their witness. We ask that with your creative Spirit you cultivate new relationships, mend old wounds, and nurture communities of respect, for the sake of the one who embraces all persons in love, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. (from All Creation Sings, p. 51. ©2020 Augsburg Fortress, used by permission.)