As I reflect on the past half century or so, and the remarkable transformation during that time in the churches’ responses to homoerotic relationships, I identify five key trends that have contributed to it. The first of these, a reassement of the biblical evidence, I have already discussed. Below, I consider the second - the world - wide emergence of queer self-ministry and support groups, and their impact. (Later, I will discuss three more: queer clergy in all major denominations stepping out of the closet, the emergence of gay/ lesbian or queer theology as a recognized academic sub-discipline, and the challenge presented to the churches by increasingly visible queer families).

Let’s begin within a simple reminder of just how far we have come (without minimizing how far we still need to go).

By the middle of the twentieth century, ministry to LGBT Christians (let alone by them) was simply inconceivable. At best there was ministry at us, along the lines of “Repent, and be saved”. In the Catholic Church, the response was simple. There was not even any acknowledgement that “homosexuals”, as a class of people, or that “homosexuality”, as a recognizable sexual orientation, even existed. All that the Church took account of at best, was the ancient term “sodomy”, as a simple sin of the flesh - or phrases like “the unmentionable vice”. Across all denominations, it was just impossible to imagine gay men and lesbians and the church, except in terms of serious sin that needed repentance.

Then in 1968, an American Baptist minister was accused before a church court of having had sexual relations with a man - not by any means the first pastor to have faced such accusations. Like the others before him, the result was that he was expelled from ministry. Unlike those previously accused, the pastor in question, Troy Perry, did not simply accept the verdict meekly. Instead, meeting with a handful of supporters in his own living room, he founded the Metropolitan Community Church, the MCC. Today, this is said to be one of the fastest -growing of all Christian denominations, with a world-wide presence in 37 countries.

In 1969, Fr Patrick X. Nidorf started a group for gay Catholics under the name Dignity. Although a priest, this initiative was an extension of his work as a psychotherapist, because

It seemed obvious that the Church wasn’t meeting the needs of the gay community. In counseling gay Catholics, there always seemed to be an excessive and unreal problem of guilt that was sometimes reinforced in the confessional instead of being resolved.

-Dignity USA, History

(It’s worth noting, as an aside, that this ministry began as an extension of therapeutic work. Coming out, including out in church, is a process of healing).

In 1973, nine British Catholic laymen met together, advertised in the Catholic press and began to publish a newsletter. In 1976, they adoped a Constitution, confirming the name, Quest.

Both Quest and Dignity began independently of diocesan authority and oversight, but for a time operated with some official approval, before finding themselves excluded from church property or listings. Undeterred, they simply continued, and grew, doing it for themselves: self- ministry. A few years later, Sr Jeannine Gramick and Fr Robert Nugent began New Ways Ministry

Other self-ministry and support groups followed for other denominations, and in all parts of the world. In the UK, the Gay Christian Movement (now the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, LGCM) was founded in 1976. The American Episcopal Church has Integriy, British Anglicans have Changing Attitude. Other examples are Lutherans Concerned, More Light Presbyterians, Reconciling Ministries (Methodists), United Church of Christ Coalition for LGBT Concerns, Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Queer Concerns (Quakers). I used to say that the only denomination for which I have not found an LGBT support group, was the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but I have had to withdraw that. The Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Switchboard has an extensive list of Australian religious groups - including one for Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The bulk of the links I supplied above are for North American and British groups, but that’s because they are the easiest to identify and research. They have counterparts in all parts of the world, including regions where they may not be expected. Some examples in Europe are David and Jonathan in France, Progetto Gionata in Italy, and Drachma in Malta, while the European Forum of LGBT Christian groups lists groups for several denominations, and Other Sheep is a global ministry by queer Christians, working with LGBT Christian groups in Asia, Latin America and Africa .

As queer self-ministry has expanded so dramatically over the past half- century, how have the established Church authorities responded? When I look at the chronology, I have a perception (no more) that the church leaderships have followed, not led, the self-ministry and support groups by attempting to offer their own forms of more sensitive LGBT pastoral care. Taking the American Catholics as an example, not that Dignity began in 1969, and New Ways Ministry in 1976/77. The officially approved ministry, Courage, was conceived in the early 1980s as a spiritual support system to keep people in adhering to the Church’s teaching on sexuality and sexual behavior. Courage continues, but in spite of active promotion by some bishops, has not been particularly successful in practical ministry. At diocesan and parish level, other bishops have developed more pastorally sensitive (and more successful) plans, which are less strident on celibacy, and which explicitly recognize the importance of not passing judgements on others. Nationally, the USCCB has issued a series of documents (such as “Always Our Children”), stressing the importance of sensitivity and respect when dealing with gay or lesbian Catholics. In London, the Westminster Diocese for several years simply ignored the existence of the Soho Masses, before formally incorporating them into their diocesan pastoral provision. All the while, there have been a small but steadily increasing number of bishops who have been saying publicly that the church needs a shift in emphasis from genital acts to the quality of queer relationships, or even to an explicit change in doctrine. Even more significant, has been the change in attitudes by ordinary Catholics: the evidence is that they no longer agree with the oligarchs that homosexuality is even a matter of morality, and Catholics have been prominent in the political struggles for LGBT equality.

I am not suggesting here that the institutional Catholic Church has changed substantially: clearly it has not, and there is a long way yet to go. But what is clear, is that there has been an enormous shift in the real church, outside the Vatican and episcopal offices, and that the emergence of visible queer self-ministry may have been an important contributory factor in that. The oligarchs will have no choice but to catch up.

In other denominations, where decisions are taken more democratically, progress has been even more dramatic. In these, LGBT support groups began rather later than in the Catholic Church, but because they had more direct access to local, regional and even national decision processes, they were able to operate more fully within mainstream church structures, encouraging local congregations to declare themselves “welcoming and affirming” and the like, and sponsoring resolutions at national general assemblies to change the rules on ordination and even on same -sex marriage, or church blessings for civil unions.

The impact of this self - ministry has been profound. In all denominations, it has contributed to greater self- confidence among individual LGBT Christians, including the confidence to come out openly as queer but simultaneously Christian, and in turn has led to the development the rapid expansion of gay/ lesbian and queer theology as respectable academic sub-disciplines, as we are not longer willing to submit to the theological verdicts of others, but insist on reaching our own theological conclusions - from unashamedly queer perspectives.

Together with the reappraisal of the Biblical evidence over the past sixty years, this has forced many church leaders to think deeply about the challenges of full LGBT inclusion in church. This is most evident in the mainline Protestant churches, but has also had an impact on the Catholic Churches, where there have been discernible shifts in tone (not yet in substance) in evaluating homoerotic relationships.

Related articles

• “Blessed Are The Queer in Faith”: Preamble
• “Blessed Are the Queer in Faith”: 60 Years Reassessing Scripture
• English Bishop Backs Gay Marriage: Queer Ferment in the Anglican Church.
• Towards Full GLBT Inclusion in Faith: Some Signs of the Times.
• Soho Masses: An Example for the Church of England?
• Young Gay Catholic Affirms: “And yet, I am still Catholic”.
• Introducing Gay Catholic Theologian, James B Nickoloff
• James’ Alison’s Catholic Football Match.
• “Churches becoming more gay friendly” (But Roadblocks Remain)