The Provincetown Project:  

A Presence of the United Church of Christ                  

One UCC member was inspired by Provincetown, Massachusetts, and by his denomination to imagine a new thing. Knowing there was no UCC church in that idyllic, welcoming town, Rick Carson from Florida imagined a UCC presence in some new and different form. After he contacted the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns, his idea was adopted by the Massachusetts Conference Open and Affirming (ONA) Task Force, which made connections locally and at the General Synod in Hartford this past June. To shorten a long story, after much discussion and planning, two teams descended on Provincetown on two weekends in August 11 and 25, 2007.

Both days were picture-perfect. Teams of 5 to 6 people from UCC churches in Massachusetts, equipped with “God Is Still Speaking” and “Let It Shine” T-shirts, “LGBT By God!” stickers, national ONA church lists, 250 homemade rainbow bracelets, and dogs (!), staffed a table, walked Commercial Street (the main drag in P’town) and the beach, and visited the Tea Dance. The dogs offered conversational entrees, but the words on the shirts, displays with “Our faith is over 2000 years old - Our thinking is not,” and the faces of the volunteers helped us meet and engage with people about their faith, their needs and questions, the UCC or what a beautiful day it was.

In a total of about 4 hours each day, we interacted with 178 people from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Maryland, Washington, DC, and North Carolina, as well as from many towns in Massachusetts, including Provincetown. A few were members of churches going through the Open and Affirming process. Some were not associated with any denomination. Some wanted only to talk with another person of faith. There were people of various ethnicities and races, men and women, adults and children, straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, same-gender-loving and questioning. One father and grown son were excited to find a Protestant denomination advertising in Provincetown. We heard comments like these:

• “I’ve never heard of the UCC, but I love your message!” (A woman from Chicago looking at the God is still speaking T-shirt)

• “My daughter just came out. She’s not a believer in God right now… but maybe…” (A mom gratefully took the rainbow bracelet with the message: “God loves you! Just as you are” and www.ucc.org.)

• “Oh, that’s my church! It’s great they’re here.”

• “We’re UCC! Thanks for doing this.”

• “You made my day!”

• “This is the church I told you about, the one with the rainbow flag.”

This was the first light of the Provincetown Project. And, if you’ve ever been to Provincetown, you know that the light there is like no other light anywhere. We’re counting on that and the presence of the Holy Spirit, as we plan for the next stage next summer.

For more information, contact MA Conference ONA Task Force Chair:

Kathie Carpenter kacarp@comcast.net

Endorsed by the ONA Task Force of the Massachusetts Conference United Church of Christ