O.C. Pride Festival and Parade, June 24, 9:00 AM

Saturday, June 24 is the annual Orange County Pride Festival and Parade, and the Episcopal Church is showing up! The festival and parade take place in downtown Santa Ana. For location details, see the Pride website: www.prideoc.com. The day will begin with Eucharist at 9:00 am in the Hands Together Parking Lot, with Bishop Diane Bruce presiding and Kay Sylvester preaching, in the parking lot of Hands Together, catty-corner from Church of the Messiah, Santa Ana (614 N. Bush Street, Santa Ana, CA). All are welcome; drag your friends along to hear the good news of God's inclusive, expansive, abundant love. There will be t-shirts for sale for parade marchers. The Eucharist will be timed to give folks about 45 minutes to an hour to get to the parade step-off point. The Episcopal contingent will represent Orange County Episcopal congregations, wearing the black "I am love" t-shirts. Bishop Bruce will be in the parade, as well. More to follow about the parade details. After the parade, the Pride Festival will open at noon. Last year, the Episcopal Church booth ran out of our rainbow cross necklaces in five minutes. This year, we have multiple congregations assembling necklaces, and we hope to run out a little more slowly! Signups for the booth staffing will be coming soon. The booth interactions can be truly life-giving, and we'll be sure you have literature and a script to help you get started. Both laity and clergy are welcome to help in staffing the booth. Save the date! Plan to spend Saturday, June 24, representing the inclusive love of God in the LGBTQ community of Orange County.