God Loves Gay Women

Introduction When I began my Doctor of Ministry degree I was working in an Anglo-Saxon congregation as a Pastoral Minister in Northern Ontario. We were embedded in an Aboriginal context of Ojibway and Cree people who had a very different understanding of what spirituality was all about. Although I had a degree in Cultural Anthropology, there were many things I realized these people could teach me; if I had the humility to listen. As with many cultures of the world, storytelling is used as the principle means whereby truths are communicated in the Aboriginal community. Profound respect is given when another speaks of their soul’s journey. People sit in a circle each one being accorded an equal place in the “circle of belonging”. No one is to comment on the story; they are only to listen and to take learnings from it that have meaning for them. No one is silenced. No one is rushed. No one is forced to speak if they choose not to. No one is called a “sinner”. No one is thrown out of the circle because of their sharing. I left honoured to be included in the “circle of sacred storytelling” when invited. I was profoundly moved not only by the stories, but by the courage with which these people lived their lives in the face of tremendous desecration of their culture, their spirituality and their personhood. I will be forever transformed and sensitized because I have heard these sacred stories. It was painful to pass through the terrible process of knowing that the Church I love and serve has been involved historically in a very profound and unspeakable way in the suffering and desecration of a people. This reality continues to affect their lives. As Christians, we have too often been arrogant and disrespectful and have silenced people while we foisted our theologies upon them. I am appalled and ashamed. We would not listen. We would not hear. We had all the “right” answers. Because of this experience with the power of personal storytelling to transform and enlighten, I decided to do qualitative research in the area of narrative storytelling. I chose six lesbian women between the ages of 40-60 years of age to interview. I offered them the opportunity to share their sacred stories with the Church. I chose middle-aged lesbians for my research because they have, by this time in life, considerable life experience as well as a knowledge of what, for them, is the truth of their being. As we journey along in life our sense of self solidifies. In my research, I have attempted to honour what has been for each of these women, an excruciating, joyful, frustrating journey. They have had to peel off layers of societal overlay, as we all do, to find the sacred self. The search for self is a private matter between a person and God as they come to understand God. Protestant theology has always supported the belief in personal conscience. Most lesbian women have had others tell them who they are for centuries. It is only in our time, with the advent of the Gay Liberation Movement, that they are finding their voice in the arts and in every institution in society. They have long had the need to speak their truth to an often disparaging world. This paper is but a small effort to that end. My theology would say to me that when I do not allow another to speak their truth and honour that truth then I have dishonoured God in whose image we are all fashioned. “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26 NRSV). It has been a great honour and privilege to interview six lesbian women. I approached them with the Christian mandate to live God’s compassion for one another. My hope is that these stories will form the basis of a transformational encounter with the reader. The Swiss theologian, Paul Tournier has said: “What counts for me is encounter. Encountering other people, a particular person, an idea, nature – encountering God, who is hidden behind all these encounters.”1