September (Web-only) 2000

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Excluded from traditional churches, homosexual Christians in Latin America are forming their own congregations with help from the biggest homosexual denomination in the United States.

"Gay and lesbian people throughout Latin America are buried, they're frightened, they're ashamed. Our churches in Latin America are like the catacombs of the early Christians, they're new millennium catacomb congregations where people can hide and yet still believe," according to Judy Dahl, a pastor and director of global outreach for the US-based Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), which ministers to gay people.

Dahl was interviewed by ENI during a two-day visit to Honduras, one of seven countries on her 18-day tour of Latin America. A former Catholic nun, Dahl came to Honduras to meet members of the Violet Collective—a national gay and lesbian organization—about forming a UFMCC-related congregation here.

As she celebrated a worship service with members of the Violet Collective on September 12 at the collective's headquarters in Tegucigalpa, Dahl declared: "Christ has come to free you of your sins, not your sexuality."

According to Nelson Arambu, of the Violet Collective, it was the first formal worship held specifically for gays and lesbians in Honduras. "Given the dominant culture of Honduras, it's very difficult for homosexuals or lesbians to enter a church without being rejected," Arambu told ENI. "A majority of homosexuals here are people of faith, but the attitude of the churches toward us has been very negative. They see us as sexual aberrations, people who aren't capable of positive lives, much less of having access to the glory of God. And since the churches have a lot of influence with the government and ...