e all know that there is a lot of very real hatred, inequity, and pain in this world. There are people dying from unjust laws, hatred brought on by lack of knowledge, and unfair actions based on anger or stereotypes. So when our pride flag was stolen it was easy to put it off as something that didn’t really matter.

Our church, like many UU churches, is a Welcoming Congregation and one of the ways that we publicly announce that is by hanging a Rainbow Flag outside our congregation. We are also far from the first church, even in Massachusetts, to have our flag stolen, vandalized, or destroyed. At least seven UU congregations have reported eleven separate instances of vandalism to their rainbow flags. We suspect the flag was torn down once in late August, and then it was stolen entirely in mid-September; today we rededicated and re-raised a new flag. After our main service we gathered back in the sanctuary to sing, to pray, to listen to members of the LGBTQ community and then to walk out to the front of our church and watch our flag be raised. We were joined by clergy from neighboring congregations and organizers from Massachusetts Equality.