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Dignity
Toronto Dignité
Dignity
Toronto Dignité meets on the second
Saturday of each month at 2 pm at the
519 Church Street Community Centre
located on Church Street (one block
north of Wellesley Street).
For more information
contact
toronto@dignitycanada.org, and be
sure to visit our webpage at dignitycanada.org
and on Facebook.
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Dignity Toronto Dignité
Chapter Report 2020-2021
Meetings:
We continue to hold monthly Chapter
meetings on the second Saturday of the month
from 2pm to 4:15pm. As the pandemic continues
all our meetings are online, using the Zoom
meeting app. We have re-applied to meet at the
519 Community Centre, Church Street, Toronto
when they re-open. Attendance varies from
about 7 to 10 people. In addition to the
chapter meetings, we hold an informal monthly
get-together which usually takes place on the
last Tuesday of the month. This replaces the
pre-pandemic monthly potluck which rotated to
different members’ homes. We have also
continued to hold an on-line series of monthly
meetings of "Queer Bible Study" hosted by a
member.
Monthly Meeting Structure and Topics
Discussed:
Our Chapter meetings typically follow an
agenda which begins with a Welcome, a
"Check-in", a Reflection provided by different
members, a time for sharing any news of
interest concerning Church and Social Justice
issues, followed by a presentation or video
and discussion on a particular topic, and
concluding with a time of shared prayer.
This past year the presentation/video
section has included:
·
A Presentation
by Fr. Bryan Massingale on Liberating
Religious Liberty hosted by the Center
for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in
Religion (CLGS) at the Pacific School of
Religion in Berkeley, California;
·
a PBS documentary
on Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker
movement;
·
a discussion of the
Christmas birth narratives;
·
Richard Rohr on
Franciscan spirituality and on
eco-spirituality;
·
an address by Fr.
John Dear on the topic of active nonviolence
and contemplation;
·
a
podcast interview with John Dominic
Crossan on the Jesus Seminar and other aspects
of his biblical scholarship;
·
recordings
of a series of talks by Sr. Maureen Sullivan,
OP, Ph.D. on Vatican II for Future Church
(a progressive Catholic organization in
the USA,) which were relevant to what was
happening in Germany and Belgium; and
·
on September 11th
a Liturgy/ritual organized by Future Church,
on the recent occasion of the Feast of Mary of
Magdala -an opportunity to acknowledge the
first among the disciples and many other women
who have lived the calling of Jesus.
Emailed announcements:
The monthly meetings are announced a
week in advance via an email to a mailing list
of about 60 people. As well as indicating the
agenda for the meeting and notices about other
upcoming events which may be of interest, the
email contains a “Food for Thought” section.
Dignity Toronto Dignité
Chapter Report 2019-2020
Meetings:
We continue to hold monthly Chapter
meetings on the second Saturday of the month
from 2pm to 4:15pm. Prior to the Covid-19
shutdown of community centres, these
meetings were held at the 519 Community
Centre, Church Street, Toronto. Since the
shutdown our meetings have been held online
using the Zoom meeting app. Attendance
varies from about 8 to 10 people. In
addition to the chapter meetings, we hold an
informal monthly get-together which usually
takes place on the last Tuesday of the
month. Prior to the Covid-19 restrictions
this took place at a member's home and
included a pot-luck meal. This meeting now
also takes place online using Zoom. Since
the Covid-19 restrictions we have also held
an on-line series of monthly meetings of
"Queer Bible Study" hosted by a member.
Monthly Meeting Structure and People and
Topics Discussed:
Our Chapter meetings typically follow an
agenda which begins with a Welcome, a
"Check-in", a Reflection, a time for sharing
any news of interest concerning Church and
Social Justice issues, followed by a
presentation or video and discussion on a
particular topic, and concluding with a time
of shared prayer.
This past year the presentation/video
section has included:
- a CBC
Tapestry broadcast of an interview with
the poet John O'Donohue;
- a
video of Rev. Elizabeth Edman on how
queerness can inform how we read
scripture;
- a
video of Richard Rohr's opening remarks
of "The Universal Christ" conference;
- an
audio recording of priest and author
Donald Cozzens about the roles the laity
can play in overturning clericalism;
- a
couple of presentations on a queer+
hermeutic to reading the Bible by our
member Eugene;
- a
conversation about positive changes
(marking Pride month);
- a
personal documentary about two gay
brothers;
- an
interview with Bryan Massingale, S.T.D
on "How the church can combat racism and
white supremacy";
- messages
from presenters of the cancelled
Outreach 2020 conference at Fordham
University compiled by Fr James Martin
S.J. contrasted with a YouTube recording
of a homily by a homophobic priest;
- a
documentary about the rise of the
Catholic Right in Poland: "A New
Crusade: Poland's Embrace of Catholicism
and Anti LGBT Ideology"; and
- videos
of talks given by Thomas Ninan, Mary
Hunt and James Alison at the recent
on-line meeting of the Global Network of
Rainbow Catholics.
Emailed announcements and Food for
Thought:
The monthly meetings are
announced a week in advance via an email to a
mailing list of about 60 people. As well as
indicating the agenda for the meeting and
notices about other upcoming events which may
be of interest, the email contains a “Food for
Thought” section. This past year this has
included excerpts of writings by the
following: Bryan Massingale, S.T.D, Mary E.
Hunt, Miquel H. Diaz, Frederic Martel, Richard
Rohr, Meister Eckart and Dorothee Soelle
as quoted by Matthew Fox, Patrick S. Cheng,
excerpts from Dignity Canada Dignité's "Cultivating
Justice Love: Toward a Revision of Catholic
Sexual Ethics (A Position Paper
prepared for the Canadian Conference of Catholic
Bishops). February 11, 2019, Barbara Brown
Taylor as cited by Richard Rohr, Geoffrey
Robinson, Cynthia Bourgeault and John J.
McNeill.
Chapter Action:
One action of the chapter in November 2019 was to write a
letter of thanks (via email) to the members
of the Toronto Catholic District School
Board who formed a majority in passing a
motion to explicitly
include in its Code of Conduct the terms
gender identity, gender expression, marital
status and family status as prohibited
grounds for discrimination. This is
consistent with the Ontario Human Rights
Code.
Here is the letter which was
sent:
Re. TCDSB Code of Conduct
Policy
On behalf
of all Dignity Toronto Dignité members,
I would like to extend my sincere
appreciation to you and all other TCDSB
trustees who voted in favour of
explicitly including gender identity,
gender expression, marital status and
family status in the updated TCDSB Code
of Conduct Policy at your meeting last
week. Transgender persons and other
sexual minorities face a great deal of
prejudice in our world.
We know that that
the institutional Church has made
mistakes in its teachings in the past.
Three examples immediately come to
mind: (a) Church teachings enabled the
buying and selling of slaves; (b)
Church teachings blamed Judaism and
the Jewish people for the execution of
Jesus; and (c) Church teachings stated
that salvation is only to be found in
Catholicism. (When I was small in the
1950’s, well-meaning Catholic nuns
taught me that it is sinful to enter a
Protestant church.)
As found in
a number of surveys, there can be a
large gap between the teachings of the
institutional Church and the views of
the majority of Church members,
especially in sexual ethics. (e.g.,
Bibby, Reginald and Reid, Angus. “Canada’s
Catholics: Vitality and Hope in a New
Era”. Novalis, 2016, p. 92.)
Regrettably, the institution continues
to rely heavily on “natural law” as
developed by Thomas Aquinas and others
based on their readings of Greek
philosophy and scripture.
In
February, 2019, our parent organization,
Dignity Canada Dignité, sent a position
paper entitled “Cultivating Justice Love:
Toward a Revision of Catholic Sexual
Ethics” to the president of the
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
(CCCB) in advance of an important
meeting at the Vatican. It can be
found here.
In it, we urged the institution to be
open to the findings of anthropology,
sociology, psychology and the medical
sciences, as well as listening to Church
members in the pews. It’s time to
move beyond medieval philosophy.
Finally, as an example
of listening to the lived experience of
Catholics, I invite you to listen to Rita
Celli’s interview with Rick Prashaw,
father of a trans son, which took place on
CBC Radio One’s Ontario Today on
February 8, 2019. It can be found here.
To close, thank you for
your vote last week. Also, please
contact me if you have any questions about
Dignity’s submission to the CCCB
president.
Yours
truly,
Frank Testin
dignitytoronto@gmail.com
dignitycanada.org/toronto


Dignity Toronto Dignité Mission
Statement
-
To provide a safe place for LGBT/Q Catholics
and allies to bear witness to the integrity
and holiness of our lives and relationships,
including opportunities for members to share
our experiences as LGBT/Q and allied
persons. This requires us to foster
diversity and inclusion. In response
to Jesus’ invitation to become more fully
human and alive, we aim to integrate our
sexuality with our spirituality, and to
nurture self-acceptance.
-
To work in collaboration with other Catholic
organizations seeking reform in our church’s
governance and official teachings,
especially in the area of sexual
ethics. Acknowledging the large gap
between what is officially taught and the
actual beliefs, values and lives of most
church members, we develop proposals for
sexual theology, taking into account
scripture, reason, scientific knowledge,
tradition and the real-life experiences of
our members.
-
To bring about an increase in justice,
transparency and accountability within the
institutional church, we support the
increased involvement of laity in governance
structure, including decision-making roles.
-
We advocate the acceptance of qualified
persons in all church ministries, regardless
of sexual orientation, gender or marital
status, and commend Catholic parishes which
offer LGBT/Q-affirming ministries.
-
To work with others within and outside our
church to live out the Gospel values of
charity, justice, compassion and
community in helping those living in
poverty, suffering illness or despair, or
others living at the margins of society.
-
We are all the people of God who endeavour
to practice Jesus’ messages of non-violence,
love and goodwill in dealing with any
oppressors while working toward the
non-violent elimination of conflicts among
nations, injustices in our society and
elsewhere in our global village and
reversing the degradation of our sacred
environment.

Dignity
Canada Dignité is Canada's organization
of Roman Catholics who are concerned
about our church's sexual theology,
particularly as it pertains to gay,
lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
persons. We work in collaboration with
other Catholic organizations seeking
reform in our church's leadership and
teachings.
