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Barbara
Lungalang
MCC Manchester |
..."Why would an evangelical, charismatic, fundamentalist,
bible-believing Christian be an attender at a
gay church?
Furthermore, why would a straight,
middle-aged woman, with all of
the background
described above, attend a church 40 miles away from
home, whose congregation is primarily made up
of gay
people?
"Confused? I was - still am at times.
"I had spent an evening with a gay work colleague, his
partner and a friend. We had enjoyed one of
our heated exchanges
when as an almost
throw-away remark he said that I couldn’t be a
Christian and not be homophobic. I disagreed
at once but later began
to wonder if perhaps
that was true. His words had almost hurt me as
I had grown to love him as a friend. I hated
the thought that my
beliefs had contributed to
some of the issues of acceptance some gay
people experience.
"He had
given me a copy of the Pink Paper and on one
of the pages was an
advertisement for MCC.
Some months passed and I felt more and more
compelled to visit the church to see for
myself what these ‘people’
were like. I
doubted I would hear the Christian gospel or be part of
a worshipful congregation but I needed to test
it out for
myself..."
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Jenny-Anne Bishop
MCC Manchester |
"We
went to the Metropolitan Community Church in
Manchester, which I
immediately found to be a
truly inclusive and supportive church. I
don't
say it's perfect - we're not - but we do welcome any and every
body, unless they're disruptive! I was so
amazed to go and feel the
welcoming love and
support of the people at this church after
feeling that churches had rejected me for so
many years. I felt it
was the most Christian
Church I'd ever been to, and felt, at last, I
'd found a spiritual home to be
in.
"After a while of going to the MCC church, I was asked to
become a full member rather than just somebody
attending. So Linda
and I went to the classes
about the faith of the church, and very
broadly it was quite similar to my faith as a
Catholic. Both of us
joined the church as full
members and I began the process of
forgiving
myself for being transgendered and beginning to believe
that maybe God was quite happy with me going
to church as Jenny-Anne
and being the person
God had created - although I do sometimes still
feel, 'no, no, no, you're just cheating and
fooling yourself!'
However, I feel much less
like this than I used to, because my faith
and
acceptance by others has made me feel much more comfortable with
myself.
"At
the AGM the only person who didn't vote for
me, was myself!
..."
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Philip Jones
MCC
Manchester |
...
"After many years in the Anglican Church I
grew tired of the way
their official position
on my sexuality disowned me. I felt I was
used
for what I could give to the church, but not affirmed in who I
really was.
"So,
in 1994 I made my first visit to MCC
Manchester and was immediately
struck by their
exciting and liberating vision of God's
unconditional love for all people. After
further visits I soon
realised that I was
being challenged to make a new start, to bring
my time, tithe and talents to this young and
developing church, and
to let God grow and
develop my own spirituality among this diverse
group of people."...
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Rev Andy Braunston
MCC
Manchester |
... "I
started to realise that I was made to love
other men and I realised
that it would be
difficult, if not impossible to live out my
vocation in either the Catholic or Anglican
communions. I knew I was
not called to
celibacy and I believe that Jesus did not see this as
a sin, or as something which should be denied.
This led to a long
period of depression and
questioning. I felt that I had to give up
one
thing or the other - and I knew I could not give up being
gay.
"This
struggle got worse when I went to university,
and I knew I could not
continue within an
evangelical church, so I started attending Mass
again, just sitting at the back and being
anonymous. In my second
year at university I
came out and started to explore my gay self. At
the same time, and for the first time, I read
of gay people who
celebrated their faith, who
had come to a full understanding of the
Scriptural passages used to condemn us. I
became very angry that I
had never been told
there was a debate on these passages and there
was another point of view!"...
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