Thamesford church paints rainbow sidewalk to show its support

Westminster United Church painted a rainbow sidewalk to show support for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. (Mark Marshall photo)

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

After learning that someone felt accepted at the church with just a small rainbow sticker on a door, Westminster United Church decided to include more signs of support.

Westminster United Church painted a rainbow sidewalk outside to let members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community know they are welcome and accepted in the space. Rev. Mark Marshall said that the idea came about a few months ago when the church put on a play, and a woman saw a loonie-sized sticker of a rainbow on his office door. As a result, she felt more welcome.

"She came from a family background that wasn't accepting her sexuality,” Marshall said.

“She’s already had her girlfriend come once with her to a rehearsal and didn't introduce her that way - she was just a friend until then - but that made her feel comfortable enough to open up to a few people to say how welcome she felt and eventually had her girlfriend come with her and introduced her as such and people embraced both of them together."

Westminster’s board then came together and came up with ideas to show solidarity with the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

“If something that small could make that big of a difference, could we be making a better statement that's outside of our doors that would help people know?” Marshall said. “We're not going to get it perfect, we're not pretending we are, but we're going to try to do our best and be as welcoming to every human as we can.”

The church thought about including a Pride flag but decided to have a rainbow sidewalk instead, as flags could be torn down, ripped, or fade. The sidewalk was painted to commemorate Pride Month in June as well as to celebrate 100 years of the United Church of Canada.

Marshall said that while backlash was expected, comments about the rainbow sidewalk have been positive.

“For the most part, we've just heard nothing but kudos from the community and from our congregation,” he said.

The United Church of Canada was the first to ordain same-sex marriage, elect an openly gay member to the clergy, and apologize publicly for previous treatment of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Marshall acknowledged past mistakes in churches have alienated people in the community, it is important to take steps forward.

“The church has made mistakes in the past that have certainly made people feel unwelcome. We also have certain parts of the Christian church that would still have those people be unwelcome,” Marshall said. “We want to be able to say that we have a different understanding of Jesus' teachings that we understand love to be the biggest answer to any question that’s asked, that Jesus accepted with everybody, that he ate with everybody, that his message was for everyone."