Seventh-day Adventist Kinship, International, Inc.

A los humanos nos gusta conectarnos. Nos conectamos con miembros de la familia en ocasiones especiales. Muchos de nosotros disfrutamos de las conexiones semanales con amigos en los servicios sabáticos cuando era permitido, y esperamos volver a esos momentos nuevamente.

Conectarnos nos permite ponernos al día con la vida de los demás (viajes, ocasiones especiales, celebraciones) o brindar apoyo a otros en momentos estresantes. Podemos compartir nueva información, tal vez visitar nuevos lugares, aprender nueva información o brindar apoyo a otra persona.

SDA Kinship Brasil se dio cuenta, con gran pesar, del terremoto que sacudió la costa sur de México el martes (23), que causó la pérdida de vidas y una importante destrucción de material.

Estos últimos meses, en los Estados Unidos donde vivo, han sido extremadamente estresantes para todos. La cuarentena ha sacado lo mejor de algunas personas y lo peor de muchas. Los incidentes de violencia doméstica han aumentado significativamente ya que a la mayoría de las personas se les ha pedido que se queden en casa. Y no solo millones de personas perdieron sus empleos, sino que la cantidad de personas que murieron a causa de COVID-19 en mi país superó los 100,500.

Si el brote de coronavirus no fue lo suficientemente fuerte, los ataques más recientes contra nuestros hermanos negros, incluido Tony McDade, un hombre trans en Florida, han sido desgarradores. Todos debemos hacer nuestra parte para enfrentar el racismo y el odio cada vez que lo vemos. Ya es hora de que termine.

La humanidad disfruta de conectarse entre sí. ¿Cuántos de ustedes esperan ver y conectarse con sus propias familias para celebraciones, reuniones especiales, o simplemente relajarse y divertirse juntos?

Many Americans are focused on the upcoming presidential election and local elections to be held in November. It seems that with the pandemic situation, many states are working towards holding fair elections. There are also some states that are purging folks from the voter rolls, closing many polling places, and making voting harder in order to influence the outcome of the elections.

We are still accepting nominations for the Board of Directors positions listed below. However, we are looking to close nominations by May 15, so you have only a few days to get your name in! Although we have some candidates already, we are still looking for additional members who are talented, creative, and passionate about supporting your SDA Kinship community. 

The following positions are open for election this year:

41st ANNUAL ONLINE KAMPMEETING

Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 18, 2020. We will have an abbreviated Kinship Kampmeeting Sabbath program online via Zoom. Start time 12 pm EST/9 am GMT.

More details to follow. 

SDA Kinship wants to give you all the resources possible to help fill your time during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place.

Kinship Family & Friends desean convertirse en expertos y promotores de esas tres acciones.

While it may not seem like it, we’re living in historic times.

SDA Kinship Latinoamérica te invita a participar de nuestra reunión de Recepción de Sábado vía ZOOM. Este viernes 08 de mayo a las 7:00 PM (Hora de Perú y Colombia).

Region Coordinator:
  Yolanda Elliott  

• Review and describe our list of resources
• Review and Caption videos from previous Kampmeetings
• Join our Social Media Team to curate and schedule content for future postings
• Join the Publishing Team to curate and create content for the Connection magazine
• Help translate content into other languages
• Review areas of the Kinship website and provide feedback

Send an email to communications@sdakinship.org if you would like to volunteer!

We are still planning to have our 2020 election of directors. However, because we won't be meeting in person for Kampmeeting, our schedule for elections (online) will be changed somewhat. Stay tuned for exact dates!
The following positions are open for election this year:

• Vice-president
• Treasurer
• Director of Youth Interests (under age 30)
• Director of Communications

If you have any interest in running for one of these positions, or if you know of another Kinship member who does, please send an email to nominations@sdakinship.org. Vice President Floyd Poenitz says: "Make a difference for LGBTQ+ Adventists who are coming to grips with what it means to wrestle with understanding faith and gender and orientation constructs by being part of the Kinship leadership."

If you want to know the Position Description for any or all of the above, please go to https://www.sdakinship.org/kinshipneedsyou.

Due to the corona crisis, the near future is uncertain and we don’t know when things will get back to normal. Nevertheless, the European Kinship Meeting (EKM) is still planned for the end of August. We expect that by that time things will have gone back to normal.

It is understandable that you hesitate to register as long as it is uncertain when travel and meeting restrictions will be lifted. For that reason, we are giving you until the end of June to register at the early bird rate.

When Seventh-day Adventist Kinship was founded more than 40 years ago, we could never have imagined the progress recently realized by the LGBTQI community. We are still seeing advances in cultural, legal, and personal acceptance in most societies.

Sadly and ironically, religious prejudice and intolerance is one of the last barriers we have to overcome. We are happy to report that the Kinship Advisory Council, made up of friends and allies throughout North America, is working to increase the awareness of Adventist members and congregations about the dignity and equality owed to all members of the LBGTQI community and their families. The Advisory includes pastors, professors, administrators, and lay members and is committed to making equality in the Adventist Church a reality. It has now been meeting annually for the last twenty years. The most recent meeting has sent recommendations to the Kinship Board for ways to engage the denomination in the coming year, along with a report of how members of the Advisory have been involved in supporting Kinship during the past year. Members of the Advisory were given a copy of the book, Unclobber, by Colby Martin.

We are all experiencing a new way of life. We are hoping it is temporary, but we don't know exactly when this will end. In the meantime, please do all you can to help globally. Even if there are few or no reported cases where you live, please follow the safety guidelines that are being given. Limit your in-person contact with others and do self-quarantine as much as possible. Wash hands often and eat as healthfully as you can to prevent any illnesses that might be around during this season. Together we can come out of this crisis much stronger.

During this time, find new ways of keeping busy and helping others. Check on friends and loved ones and see if there is anything that is needed. Go to the Kinship website and check out our resources. There are tons of good videos and articles to read and share with friends, family, and pastors. Although the General Conference in Indianapolis has been postponed, we want to do some aggressive outreach programs to Adventist pastors and educators to invite them to learn more about SDA Kinship and our community of current and former Seventh-day Adventists who identify as LGBTQIA+.

Unfortunately, it is necessary for us to postpone our Rehoboth mini-kampmeeting until perhaps the early fall, or possibly even next Spring. However, we are still planning to meet virtually for an abbreviated version of our retreat.

Stay tuned for more information. As we did for Region 2 vespers on Friday evening, let's all stay connected via Zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangouts, or whatever works best.

¡El mundo de hoy es un poco caótico! Hace unas semanas nuestro mundo político estaba lleno de discusiones, opiniones, necesidades, deseos y reuniones. Nuestro mundo físico estaba saliendo del invierno y esperando la primavera con menos nieve, tornados y lluvia, y más flores silvestres y maravillosos atardeceres. Las maletas y las mochilas de senderismo salían de sus armarios preparándose para los viajes de diversión, esperando los cruceros, las vacaciones, los bailes de fin de curso y las graduaciones, y las vacaciones de primavera.

Entonces, de repente, nuestro mundo cambió. Nuestros planes se vieron empañados y algunos fueron arrastrados. El virus llegó y, con él, grandes cambios en nuestros planes, nuestras vidas y nuestro futuro inmediato.

As February comes to a close and March has arrived, it’s time for our scheduled Kinship Board of Directors' meeting. All officers, directors and leadership staff come together to discuss what Kinship has been doing since the last board meeting, make plans for future events and programs, discuss ways to keep our members more engaged and connected, and find ways to meet the needs of our members. We also discuss the finances of the organization and ways to fund the programs and events we have planned for 2020. 

It can be a daunting task as we come together and go through the prepared agenda. Historically, we’ve traveled to meet face to face. That, in itself, is a costly endeavor. And although it is by far the most effective way to go through our agenda and for various committees to meet together, it’s not always possible for many of our board members to do. If most of our board are unable to travel since everyone’s schedules need to align, we move to have a virtual board meeting. And that is how this upcoming board meeting will happen. 

The registration form is now live for European Kinship Meeting (EKM) registration. Plan your vacation and attendance at EKM 2020 in Holland on August 27 - 31, 2020, by registering here: www.sdakinship.org/ekm.

We just had a special election to fill the seat of recently deceased Congressman Elijah Cummings here in my county in Maryland.  I took my one Democratic resident and myself up to the local elementary school to vote.  It is such an important thing for all of us to do so that we all have a say as to how our county, our state, or our country is run.  If we don’t vote, I don’t think it’s our right to complain.  The only way things get changed is if we are willing to step up to help make the changes we want to see. 

That’s also the way I feel about Kinship.  It’s easy to comment on the things we don’t like about Kinship; but I feel that if we don’t like something about the way Kinship is going or being run, then we have a right to step up to help make the changes we want to see.  One way to do that is to run for an open position during our elections in July each year.  Another way is to lead a project or make suggestions for great projects you’d like to see Kinship undertake.  Maybe volunteer in your local group, region, or chapter.  If you have certain skill sets that you would be willing to share, donate some of your time to Kinship.  If you have the ability, donate towards a project or Kampmeeting scholarships or to our general fund to help Kinship continue to grow.

President's Holiday Message

Many people deal with depression that can be amplified at this time of year because of the holidays. Some people find this is their least favorite time of the year because of loneliness, anxiety, grief, medical issues, big family or social events, and other kinds of stress.

When we have partners, siblings, or other family and friends to lean on, it can be a little bit easier to handle things like these or the pressures of the season. But what about those who have been disowned by their families and churches and have nowhere to turn nor anyone to turn to?

By Helen Pearson

I was brought up at the heart of the Seventh-day Adventist community. My father was a paid and ordained minister for forty-four years. Working with equal commitment to the church, my mother was an unpaid pastor (eventually ordained as an elder). But my parents never tried to hide either their own imperfections or those of the church. They taught us to be “boundary dwellers” to look for truth everywhere —both inwards into the church and outwards into the wider and very real world.  They also taught us the core Adventist value of “present truth”—the idea that new truths are revealed to the people of God at different times in history. They taught us to look for and seek to discern that truth wherever and whenever we could find it. I believe I heard some of that “present truth” last weekend at European Kinship Meeting.

By James Appel

I've been trying to figure out why a straight, cis-gender male like me is finding my spiritual home with SDA Kinship, a Seventh-day Adventist LGBT+ community. Here's what I've figured out so far after having just come back from the European Kinship Meeting at Othona Retreat Center in the southern UK:

By Catherine Taylor

I am told, repeatedly, that each year I say “that was my favorite.”…So I won’t. But…