Background: The Affirming process is designed to help a community faith, ministry, court of the church, or ecumenical body become publicly, intentionally, and explicitly inclusive of Two Spirit and LGBTQIA people and communities. The journey involves education and engagement in the ministry and (ideally) the wider community. Affirm United/ S'affirmer Ensemble is the independent partner who holds the Affirming process and designation. You can find much more information about them, and the process, at www.ause.ca
AUSE is endorsed by the United Church, and most of its membership and roots is United Church. Northern Spirit Regional Council entered the Affirming process in 2019 after a vote to do so at the inaugural annual meeting of the new Regional Council. A task group was selected and appointed to guide the process for the Regional Council.
Task group members: Cathy Kinsman, Wilson MacLennan, Linda McLaren, Louise Rogers, Monica Rosborough. (Many thanks to Shylo Rosborough, former task group member.) Staff support: Julie Graham.
About this form: In a congregation or other ministry that's in the Affirming process, it's common to offer a physical feedback box for ideas, questions, and concerns. A Regional Council can't do that as easily, so this form is our online comment box. Constructive and honest comments, questions, and concerns are welcome. None of the fields are required, but if you would like a response, please be sure to include an email or phone number.
How to contact the task group: Any communication with the task group is held in strict confidentiality. To protect task group members' personal emails, we ask that you use this address, which automatically forwards to task group members:
northernspiritaffirming@gmail.com
Full information about the task group and the Regional Council's Affirming work is on the Northern Spirit website: https://northernspiritrc.ca/programs/affirming-lgbtqia2s/