Out in the Mountains

    
 

 
  
   
  
  

At the Barre Universalist Church, the
Rev. Richard Forcier is leading a program
entitled "The Welcoming Congregation."
Designed as a ten-week program, it began
on October 9th and is being held at the
Church on Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Keith
Goslant from the statewide Coalition of
Lesbians and Gay Men is assisting to facili-
tate the meetings.

The program was developed by the
national Unitarian Universalist Associa-
tion based on information gathered by the
"Common Vision Planning Committee."
The committee was set up in 1987 to study
how gay men, lesbians and bisexuals felt in
their Unitarian Universalist congregations.

The committee concluded that many
gay men, lesbians and' bisexuals either
found it necessary to hide this basic fact
about who they were as individuals, or left
the church altogether. To counter this ten-
dency and to begin to break down society's
traditional inclination toward exclusion
and discrimination, delegates of the 1989
UU General Assembly voted to initiate the
"Welcoming Congregation" program.

The program is designed to affirm the
inherent worth and dignity of every person
and to provide accurate, up-to-date infor-
mation about the lives and experiences of
gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, their
families and their friends. It is promoted as

Barre Church Initiates Gay Welcoming

   
 
  
  
  
 
  
  
 
 
    
   
 
  
  
  
   
  
  
    
 
  
  
   
 
 

a safe and supportive forum to share infor-
mation, begin a dialogue, discuss issues
and look at the similarities as well as the
differences between people.

More information can be obtained by
calling the Rev. Forcier at 479-0114, or
Keith Goslant at 454-8552.

Bent Begins
Rehearsals

Following open auditions in early
October, the Fly By Night Players have
begun rehearsals for their production of the
play Bent by Martin Sherman. The show
will be performed from January 16-18,
1991, at Contois Auditorium in Burlington.

Bent depicts the treatment of homo-
sexuals in Nazi Germany both in and out of
the concentration camps. It also explores
questions of pride and loyalty, particularly
in situations where those qualities face in-
tense adversity.

Vince Sharkey, the director of the
current production, explained that he chose
the play in order to highlight some of the
persecution currently encountered by gay
and lesbian people in American society and
around the world. He hopes to show that
Sherman's message is not exclusively his-

(continued on next page)

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