Pride Day Service at CCC

On August 5th, 2012, close to 80 worshippers gathered in the sanctuary of the diocesan cathedral to participate in this annual celebration of Holy Eucharist on what was to be the hottest day of the year.
Prior to the singing of the opening hymn and the Collect, the Service of Light was celebrated.
Clergy, servers and lay representatives gathered around the Altar and in a brief yet moving liturgy 8 candles were lit signifying: light in the face of fear, light in the face of violence, light in an age of AIDS, hope, healing, courage, community and resurrection. At the beginning of the interactive Service of Light, the presider says these words, “The Lighting of a candle is a simple act yet becomes a powerful sign. For when we don’t have the words or don’t know how to pray, a small candle burning brightly expresses our prayer that is always with us –and becomes more powerful with each candle lit.”
The preacher for the service was The Reverend Canon Douglas Williams. Douglas preached on the transfiguration of Jesus. He explained that “Jesus’ transfiguration is the crucial one, and it bears much pondering. His Transfiguration was essential to enabling Jesus’ followers to cope with, and eventually to comprehend, the events of that last week in Jerusalem, and the execution, and then the resurrection of Jesus. That Transfiguration liberated them from the dungeon of grief and confusion in which they would otherwise have remained trapped. But there are other transfigurations, just as there are other dungeons. And so we must seek, and be open to, the transfigurations which can free us from the dungeons in which we so often live.” He went on to say, “Our only hope is in transfiguration, in which we see the world in a new and different light, in which we see perhaps a little more nearly what it really is, and what we really are. You cannot make transfigurations occur. They must happen to you. But you can look for them and strive to be open to them. “