(no subject)

[beachlass]

As someone whose profession and religion converge, you'd think there might be more days when I am actually gleeful about my denomination. But today is definitely one of them.

Go check out our new website.   Seriously... I'm not trying to convert you, but you've got to check out our new ads, and the answer squirrel. I saw a preview of the ads a couple of months ago at school, and my fave one was the bible one, until I saw the one with the whipped cream.  And that's not even the one with the gay content.

Seriously... my church is launching a national advertising campaign with queer content, whipped cream and a squirrel. Today, we rock. (Tomorrow, I have to read about the way we ran residential schools for native kids, and the cultural genocide and sexual abuse that happened there, but let me enjoy today.)

Comments

[beachlass.livejournal.com]

The purpose of that website and ad campaign is to reach Canadians age 30-45. They've done a bunch of research to try and identify what that demographic knows about our church/is looking for in a spiritual community; and the ad campaign is trying to break some stereotypes and get our name out there. One of the big shocks within the church is how many Canadians don't even know who the United Church of Canada is anymore. And we're still the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

So I think the first thing the ads are trying to do is grab attention; and grab attention of a particular group. And then they are trying to highlight that in our denomination there's a lot of room for discussion. We also describe ourselves as 'big tent'... we're a church that tolerates a lot of diversity of opinion under one roof. Overall, we're pretty mainstream. But we're mainstream Canadian: which means that at the latest hearings on same sex marriage, the head of our denomination was there speaking in favour of same sex marriage, and affirming that we need the religious freedom to perform them. And we also have out gay/lesbian/bi ministers. But whether or not a congregation decides to have same sex marriages performed by their minister is decided at the local level. So my own congregation decided against it. *smacks them lovingly* And I'm not really out where I work is ashamed

And I LOVE the EZ squirrel.

[eshala.livejournal.com]

'we're a church that tolerates a lot fo diversity of opinion under one roof'
Hmmmm.... But what if what I want is acceptance, not just diversity??

Okay - my real question is why the U.C. of Canada uses an americanism - or is it really the 'Ee-Zed' squirrel?

Overall I think that the ad campaigns are really cool, and that it says quite good things about the United Church that it is trying to stimulate conversation in ways that will work for that age group. And that there is a 'naturalized' bit of queer content is also quite nice.

AND there seem to be actual folks of colour there.

Shocking really.

[eshala.livejournal.com]

So I don't have anything new to add.... But thought you might like the icon...
You get an extra point if you know where the quote is from!

[beachlass.livejournal.com]

I love the icon... but don't know the quote!