Deo Gloria Family Church

Our Vision:

• Deo Gloria aims to be a Christian Fellowship with an affirming ministry to the Gay/Lesbian/Bi-sexual/Transexual community.

  Our Goals:

  • a) The Establishment of Dignity and Healing. We aim to be a therapeutic community working to heal the wounds of self-hatred and self-rejection so often inflicted by Christians and the Church. We strive to reconcile people to God, not because of who they are, but because of the wondrous grace that is offered believers. In this process we must guard against becoming judgmental and exclusivist in any way, so as not to be entrapped into becoming the self-same critical communities which forced many of us away.

  • b) Learning to Celebrate. Through the ministry of gay spiritual groups, to bring gay people to a realisation that their gayness is a cause for spiritual celebration. We all come together with different personalities, backgrounds, temperaments, spiritual and political traditions, and personal histories. The only thing we have in common is the desire to reconcile our gayness with our Christian Faith and in doing so, be set free to worship God with all our heart. Deuteronomy states that it is when we seek God with all our heart, it is then that we find the Spirit. For our hearts to be set free, we need to learn as children to celebrate ourselves as perfect creations in God's image and sight, by the intervention and work of Christ.

  • c) A Respectful Dialogue. We should offer, and continue to offer, the opportunity for respectful dialogue with anyone in the so-called traditional Church who is willing to listen and learn. As such, we have made ourselves available to the Christian churches in Pretoria and have already taken part in inter-church discussions and workshops on the issue of Christian homosexuals with such churches as the Anglican, Presbyterian, Congregational and Catholic. Furthermore, the denomination we are a part of (the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches) has been striving for many years to receive recognition within the World Council of Churches. This has meant a fervent and committed dialogue with all the wide spectrum of churches within the Council. This is an ongoing process. We hope that God may make us instruments in removing the Church's blindness of sexism and hetero sexism.

  • d) A Vision for the Future. We strive in being a community of love, a gathering of committed believers, and body of healing and growth - Different to no other. Our purpose is to be a people of Faith, not sexual orientation. We dream of integrated communities, consisting of both hetero- and homosexual believers worshipping together in unity and harmony. The issue is no longer sexuality, but Faith, and this is our goal. We pray that we too may find the way to integrate our religious faith and sexuality in a way accepting to God and the Church without in any way suppressing or denying our diverse sexual realities.

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