Celebrate Pride Month with 2S and LGBTQIA+ Apology Worship Resources

One way we are inviting United Church communities of faith to celebrate Pride this year is by engaging in the apology offered to 2S and LGBTQIA+ people at last year’s 45th General Council. Anchored in a time of worship, the words of the apology were understood to be part of an ongoing and emerging process of truth-telling, listening, and accountability.  

To support communities in their journey of reflection, accountability, and action during Pride season, we are offering several resources to help deepen engagement with this year’s focus on the apology. These include a national webinar, From Words to Practice: Living Into the 2S and LGBTQIA+ Apology, on June 9, a downloadable apology resource to guide engagement, and a Pride prayer, Waiting for God’s Rainbow, for use in personal and communal worship.  

The apology resource, adapted from Gathering worship materials, offers theological reflection on apology and forgiveness, explores what it means to practice a “living apology,” and includes worship elements and questions to help communities move from words into faithful action. Together, these offerings are intended to help communities meaningfully embody the apology and discern faithful next steps—grounding this work in worship, relationship, and a shared commitment to justice. It is within this spirit that we return to the apology itself, and the ongoing call it places before us. 

Pride 2026: The Living Apology  

“The call of Jesus is that we love one other,” says Rev. Aaron Miechkota, Iridesce Project Coordinator and Apology Task Group member. “The United Church of Canada apology to 2S and LGBTQIA+ communities was simply one opportunity for us to live this call and promise, this time in a dialogue between the 2S and LGBTQIA+ community and the United Church. It is my sincere hope that the sacred call to love and know each other will continue, with the apology being a touchstone and marker along the way.”   

In a time where religious-based homophobia, biphobia and transphobia continue to cause much harm, the United Church’s apology is an act of bold discipleship that continues our tradition of being a justice-seeking church. It is also an action of confession and lament that returns us to moments of deep harm and reminds us that the work of healing and reconciliation cannot be embodied in one statement alone.  

And so, we invite you to use these resources so that they may guide and inspire your communities of faith to be present to the work of the Spirit that is flowing through the words of the apology.  

How might your community of faith celebrate this public, intentional, and explicit naming of the belovedness of 2S and LGBTQIA+ people in the eyes of God? How might your community of faith tend to broken and grieving hearts? How might these words, the dry bones of an apology, become enfleshed with grace and justice through your worship and prayers?