First Pride in Ulverston

Rev’d Hayley Edmondson, minister at Ulverston Methodist Church, shares this report of the first Pride to be held in the town.

On 20 July 2024 I got up very early for a Saturday and headed out to meet a team of volunteers and our Superintendent Minister, Rev Grace Cauldwell, at Ulverston Methodist Church. The weather wasn’t looking great so I packed a raincoat just in case! It was the day of the town’s very first Pride Festival and we were the only church hosting a stall there.

We had decided that our stall would not charge for anything and would simply give people things that might remind them of God’s love and grace, which is freely given to each and everyone of us no matter who we are by our amazing God.

Our stall had a mixture of activities and gifts. Our Angel Fellowship had knitted 200 brightly coloured angels to give away; we had the Methodist Church ‘Love is Love’ posters and postcards alongside literature on the activities of our church, on the local open table services, on local churches that are available for same-sex weddings and on the pioneer work happening in our circuit. All this along with small bags of sweets to give away.

For the activities we had a brightly coloured rainbow where people could add their names to show support, scratch off sheets for people to write or draw messages of love and support for the local Pride community, props like a rainbow balloon and rainbow glasses for taking selfies and a basket for prayer requests. We also gave out a variety of stickers including rainbow patterned hearts and animals and some with the message ‘Smile! Jesus Loves You!’. The stickers were our biggest hit with people coming back to ask for more and, by the end of the day, everyone who passed us was wearing them including the Police officers, marshals and security personnel!

Fuelled by hot drinks and sweets, our volunteers, whose ages were from 8 to 92, ran the stand from 10am until 4.30pm and we spoke to hundreds of people and shared God’s love with them. We had brilliant conversations about what we believe with those who had faith and those who had none. We explained that we are all made in God’s image and that he loves each of us. We invited people to come and join us at any of our events and we explained that same-sex marriages are now allowed in some Methodist churches including ours. To our surprise and delight on a board of Pride related firsts we were listed as having conducted the first same-sex wedding in a church in the town and the couple that we had married just 3 months before came along to support our stand on the day. We chatted to some of the acts from the main stage and one of our church members performed with his band.

By the time we took the stand down we were getting quite tired but we were truly overwhelmed by the way God presented opportunities for us to talk about His love and the way that a majority of the people we spoke to were really open to discussing faith and the life of our church. God also provided for us with the weather – we had a little bit of sun in the afternoon, and it stayed dry until 30 minutes after we had left, when it rained torrentially!

Our day was filled with joy, delight, fun and colour and we were able to support, encourage and celebrate a group of people who are too frequently encouraged to live at the edges of our society. We will continue to support our local Pride group and we’re already looking forward to next year’s Ulverston Pride festival. We pray that as Ulverston Methodist Church we can continue to be a witness of our amazing God’s inclusive love and grace, from which nothing can ever separate us!