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The denomination of church I go to, the UCC (United Church of Christ) has officially decided to support gay marriage. That just so kicks ass.

Individual UCC churches can vote to be designated "ONA" or Open And Affirming. My church, First Congregational UCC of Hillsboro, did that a year or two (I believe) before I started attending.

That's actually really awesome, considering it's a very old church (the original building was built in the late 1800's, and they had a minister but no building before that), and a large portion of the members are older and/or elderly people. I've talked with someone who was involved when the vote came up, and apparently it was pretty contentious. What eventually happened was that a lot of them were convinced that it was better to "err on the side of compassion." In other words, they themselves may not be comfortable with homosexuality etc, but they'd rather be accepting of everyone, because that's what Jesus did.

Not long after the UCC ads were on tv (and made a big deal of), we had a lesbian couple start showing up, which made me glad because that means that the ads themselves, or the controversy surrounding them, got the point across.

I was talking this past Sunday, to a woman who grew up in this church but now lives in the Carribean. She comes to Oregon for a month or two every summer to visit family, and joins them in church. She says that she's been really impressed with how Pastor Diane has pushed the congregation. Not necessarily in an irritating way, but she's been great about opening the congregation up to new ideas and extending their boundaries. Pastor Diane is just one of my favorite people, that's a fact. She's on sabbatical right now, and while Ellen is very sweet, I miss Pastor Diane!! She's walking a bunch of old European pilgrimage routes, including in England and Spain. She also visited the spot in Holland where the Puritans lived for a while before sailing on the Mayflower.

This seems like a suitable icon, I'd say. *giggle*

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YOUR LJ CAMPING TRIP LiveJournal Username Gender? Age? Preferred underwear type? Camper, tent, or under the stars? How pale/sensitive is your skin? Would you consider yourself a sexually active person? Would you eat human flesh to survive? Do you have a hidden psychotic rage in you, waiting to leap out? Will try to use poison Ivy for a condom: filceolaire Will leave all of the food out, after passing out, leading to a vicious bear attack, killing 8: jaynedeaux Will hide in the bushes and take pictures of everyone going to the bathroom: mechalith Only came along to get laid: aeonflux1973 Gets sick on Burger King and nearly shits themself. erica_the_vegan Gets tied up by all the other campers and is gagged fictualities Was the only one smart enough to bring water purification tabs scottbateman Secretly plans to kill everyone with a concealed handgun stolen from their mother 5minutelimit This Fun Quiz created by jennifer at BlogQuiz.Net

Aries Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

I'm going to die laughing. Especially at the one for erica_the_vegan.

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I think once my six-week neo-tribal intro is over I'll jump into the next class, which is on Tuesdays. But I also want to take Egyptian cabaret, and that six week intro class starts August second and ends a week before Aurora picks up. So for a little while there it looks like I might be taking two bellydance classes a week. My eventual goal is to pick one form or another (neo-tribal vs. cabaret) and take one a week. While singing in Aurora. Because I'm masochistic like that. *LOL*

The singing thing is so strange. By the end of the term, I was sick to death of some of the songs. I wouldn't let myself dwell on it too much or I'd go crazy--because usually the ones I really had grown to dislike, were the ones I needed the most work on (Beauty of Your Dreams, anyone? Gaaaah...) so I'd end up singing them/listening to them on the cd, over and over.

So once the concert was over, it was a relief. I wouldn't have to spend another dang second worrying about where the rythym was different in When You Wish Upon a Star, or jumping in at the wrong time (or dragging behind) in sections of Call, which was my favorite. Singing is hard!! *lol* I also wouldn't spend another Thursday night singing the same few lines (or listening to another section singing them) repeatedly while Joan tried to get a few random people to stop screwing up. It especially sucked when I was one of those people (what does she mean, "listen for the fifth"? I don't have that kind of mental pitch!).

So of course, now I'll be doing something else and get one of the songs stuck in my head ("let the river run, let all the dreamers wake the nations...") and get all pouty that I don't get to sing it anymore. *rolls eyes* There's something about joining your voice in harmony with so many other people, especially when you know you're doing it well, that's just magical. Even without the audience, just in rehearsal.

And then there's bellydancing. I'm not very good yet, but I love looking in the mirror and doing a taqsim and just feeling like, I am The Shit. Someone hand me a sword to balance on my head and lemme at it. I've always loved dancing, and I know I'll be doing that for far longer than I'll be in Aurora. No matter what the dance form, when you can see yourself getting better, or can feel how your body moves to music in very structured ways, it's just wonderful. It's a very definite, Holy crap! Look what I can do!! My main attraction to neo-tribal is getting to do that with other women in a group. It becomes a very synergistic supportive thing...not that different than singing in a chorus, really. I love watching them when they're dancing in a circular pattern, swinging their hips in sync and playing their zills, and their huge skirts billowing out with their movements.

Although I'll probably eventually stick with cabaret. *LOL* Who knows?