UCF’s Welcoming Congregation Renewal (WCR) Committee started talking about hanging a Progress flag outside our church back in the spring of 2022. We felt it was important, in the face of the recent increase in anti-LGBTQ sentiment and legislation, to show our community that we are a safe and welcoming place for people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. We had a meeting to discuss this possibility after church in October of that year. Several people in the congregation felt that if we were going to fly the Progress flag, we should fly the American flag too, so we started looking at flagpoles.
Over the next several months, the members of the committee, Amy Jones, Holly Rogers, Marty Newcomb, Harriet Altman, and Barb Thomas, began to research flagpoles to help us decide what we needed. We concluded that we wanted a nautical flag pole so that we could hang an American flag at the top and two smaller flags on the yardarms – one being a Progress flag and the other a rotating flag. It was decided that we needed a congregational vote to support the installation of the flagpole and the flying of the Progress flag. Congregational conversations were held in the weeks before the vote, which occurred during the Annual Meeting in early June 2023. The congregation approved the flagpole and our next task was to raise the money to buy the flagpole and have it installed.
Marty Newcomb and Holly Rogers donated the money for the flagpole itself in the name of Marty’s late mother, Gwen Newcomb. Gwen was a member of our congregation and a warm and lovely woman who demonstrated how the power of love can overcome biases and fear. Other members of the WCR committee donated more money to pay for the installation and the order for the flagpole was placed in summer of 2023. Due to supply line difficulties, the flagpole wasn’t installed until December of 2023.
On Sunday, January 21st, after our service, we held a short celebration ceremony followed by the raising of the three flags. Mark Rasdorf, Senior Associate Director for the Jesse R. Peel LGBTQ Center at ECU spoke at the ceremony, along with Rev. Micah Ma, and Marty Newcomb on behalf of the WCR Committee. Despite the cold, our hearts were warm as we watched the raising of the flags. Then we went to the Social Hall to celebrate with coffee and cake!
