June 14 – Rev Stephen Atkinson Pride Sunday "I’m Comin’ Out… and Out… and Out" Ministers are frequently encouraged to preach their ‘call story’ regularly: the steps in their lives that brought them into service. It’s occurred to me that, as a gay minister, it’s important for me to share my coming out story as well: what was it like, what happened, what is it like now? When the spiritual path and the coming-out path interact, all the more reason to tell it. And further, the metaphor of coming out is not limited to SBGLTIA+ folks. In many ways, most of us ‘come out’ about something, sometime. The Rev. Stephen Atkinson has enjoyed being with us in the past, and is glad to be here again this week. His parish ministry was at North Shore Unitarian Church in West Vancouver BC, and he trained and practiced chaplaincy briefly at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. Now, he enjoys retirement, volunteering for First Unitarian Church of Hamilton and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee of the UUA, and, especially, guest preaching.