Gustav Thiel
TWICE every Sunday the congregation of the Deo Gloria church gathers in Pretoria to worship.
Members of the church prefer not to disclose where they meet, except that it is in another church.
They represent many deminations, coming together in the belief that the Bible should be the focus of their worship.
What they also have in common is a belief that sexual preference should not get in the way of religious worship. About 80% of the 200-strong congregation is gay or lesbian.
“It has been impossible to function within traditional churches,” Deo Gloria’s “pastor” Sue Welman says.
“My feeling now is that we can change perceptions from within the so-called gay churches and in the end reconcile all Christians, which is our ultimate aim.”
Welman is speaking from her home in Centurion, which she shares with partner Diane Bennett whom she hopes to marry “as soon as this becomes legal”.
She doesn’t want to say more about Deo Gloria’s members, or about where they meet because “there is always a threat that we may be attacked”.
But she says she founded Deo Gloria – one of an estimated 20 gay churches in South Africa – after she realised that there was nowhere else for her to go – the only other alternative for a gay Christian was to “go straight and masturbate”.
Welman (32) was born and raised in Bloemfontein’s “ultra conservative” environment, the daughter of a preacher in the Evangelical Reformed church where her mother played the organ.
“I knew from birth I was gay, but living in that society made it impossible to confront it publicly,” she says.
“It was only when I was 18 while at Bible school in Cape Town that I had the courage to come out. The result of this decision was that I got kicked out of Bible school and thus a long journey started for me to find a home in the church.”
She went on to study religion at the University of Port Elizabeth before joining the Anglican church, which she quit two years ago.
Until Deo Gloria was established two years ago, Pretoria’s gay worshippers had to drive to one of four gay churches in Johannesburg. When the church opened, word spread quickly. Welman says Deo Gloria has also managed to attract heterosexual congregation members who “find the atmosphere more conducive to the worshipping of God”.
Though she has received anonymous threats, Welman says the attitude of the public generally, and of the traditional church establishment, has been one of respect. This does not, however, “extend to allowing us in their fold and condoning our natural sexuality”.
Whether that will change under the new Constitution looks unlikely. “We were hoping that when it was adopted our struggles would be a thing of the past,” Welman says. “But we find that document is still just a piece of paper which does not guarantee gays the right to belong to churches.”
Until it does, Welman is resigned to continuing her fight for recognition not only against traditionalist religion but also against traditionalist society. She has filed a lawsuit against life insurance company Southern Life, for example, because the company refuses to share her partner’s medical aid benefits.
“This is just another struggle which we’ve had to face and will win in the end,” she says.
“What people often fail to see is that homosexuals do not seek the limelight but that notoriety often becomes necessary for us to achieve our ultimate goal which is to be accepted as normal members of society,” she adds.