Inclusivity a watchword at Newport Beach church during Pride Month and beyond latimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from latimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach celebrates Pride Month beginning with the lighting of the church in rainbow colors each Friday and Saturday evening during the month of June with the exception of June 18 and 19 when it honors Black Lives Matter colors (green, black, red, yellow).
Why do we celebrate Pride Month?
It provides an opportunity for the LGBTQ + community to come together and celebrate accomplishments such as freedom to be themselves and to receive support from allies.
The movement grew with national organizations formed as a result of a raid at the gay bar, Stonewall Inn June 28, 1969.
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For the Rev. Canon Cindy Evans Voorhees of St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, the pandemic has been especially challenging in addressing escalating emotional turmoil experienced by parishioners.
Since the initial lockdown last spring, Voorhees along with the church Care Team began witnessing intense and unusual behavioral changes from normal stable people as the pandemic rocked their world.
“There was heightened anxiety with everybody,” said Voorhees. “Mothers going bonkers about taking on a new role of home- schooling children, divorce among elderly couples, unreasonable anger, people with cancer so scared of COVID they avoided surgery and the most vulnerable seniors feeling expendable.”