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Dear friends,

With only 10 days until Christmas, we wanted to pause and share a word of gratitude, reflection, and hope with you.

We’re grateful to share this year’s Open and Affirming Coalition Christmas card artwork, Beloved and Affirmed, created by our Acting Executive Director, Rev. Derek Terry. As both an artist and a pastor, Derek found himself returning again and again to the image of the Madonna and Child during this difficult year. The image draws on one of the most tender and enduring symbols of the Christian faith.

In this season, we remember Mary not as a distant or idealized figure, but as a young, vulnerable mother holding a child the world would one day reject, threaten, and try to silence. She cradles him with fierce love, courage, and trust. For centuries, the Madonna and Christ have reminded us that God enters the world not through power or domination, but through vulnerability, relationship, and love made flesh.

This image also calls us to remember that Jesus and his family were refugees—forced to flee violence, dependent on the kindness of strangers, and shaped by displacement. In a moment when immigrants and refugees are being dehumanized, criminalized, and scapegoated, this truth matters. God chose to enter the world through a family on the move.

For the Open and Affirming movement, this image speaks directly to our present moment. God’s beloved LGBTQ+ children are facing renewed attacks through legislation, rhetoric, erasure, and violence. Like Mary’s child, they are precious and holy, yet treated as threats simply for existing. The rainbow colors wrapped around mother and child are not decoration; they are testimony. They proclaim that LGBTQ+ lives are held, honored, and named as beloved by God.

In a time when fear and exclusion are too often mistaken for faithfulness, this image stands as a quiet but defiant witness. God is still choosing love. God is still drawing close. God is still holding those the world tries to cast aside.

Because we operate with a very small budget, we weren’t able to mail cards to everyone on our list this year. We sent printed cards to covenant partners and supporters who help sustain this ministry. Some of you gave generously this year but did not receive a card simply due to the limits of our budget. Please know how deeply grateful we are for you—and know this without hesitation: you are beloved and affirmed.

As we close out the year, we are also in the midst of a powerful opportunity. Through December 31, 2025, the Coalition has received a 2-for-1 matching grant. When our community raises $10,000, a generous donor will add $20,000—bringing $30,000 of support to this movement.

These funds sustain the coaching, resources, advocacy, and accompaniment churches rely on to live out God’s radical affirmation—especially in a time when LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, refugees, and so many of God’s beloved are facing renewed harm and exclusion.

At the heart of the Open and Affirming movement is a simple truth: every person is BELOVED.

You can learn more about this opportunity or make a gift here:
https://openandaffirming.networkforgood.com/projects/265515-the-beloved-fund-2-for-1matching-grant

Grace and peace,
Rev. Derek Terry
Acting Executive Director
Open and Affirming Coalition of the UCC