New inclusive faith response to human sexuality

In January of this year a new network was founded, the Global Interfaith Network on sexes, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, GIN-SSOGIE for short. This has been in response to a growing awareness of the poorly informed nature of faith communities generally when it comes to matters relating to human sexuality. As a preconference to the 2012 ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) Conference held in Stockholm in December of 2012, a group of participants form the faith community discussed the divisive and non-affirming nature of responses from faith communities generally to sexual diversity.  A steering committee was put in place, and the work towards establishing a Global Interfaith Network, mostly of people from the LGBTI community, was initiated.

From the very beginning it was determined that there needed to be a specific focus on “the global south”. This was in response to the growing rhetoric around homosexuality seen in many countries in Africa, but also including the responses which had been seen immerging in Russia and various Asian countries. In reality 83 countries in the world have legislation against homosexuality, and there is a growing antagonism in many of these countries related to what they call “neo-liberal imperialism”. In most cases religion is given as the reason to impose legal penalties in relation to homosexual acts, relationships or what could be construed as promotion, and the majority of these countries are in Africa.

GIN-SOGGIE was therefore deliberately launched in Africa, making a strong statement about the commitment of this network to engaging in the most challenging of areas. Sixty with participants from across the globe, representing all major world faiths and a broad spectrum of sexes, sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions were present. Church of Sweden is proud to have been one of the donors to this meeting. At the end of it GIN-SSOGIE was launched and a new Steering committee was put in place to guide the network through its formal establishment phase.

We have already begun to see the benefits of this network. Plans are underway to have an LGBTI stream during the Uppsala Festival of Theology which will take place from 6^th to 8^th February 2015. The stream will host a panel discussion with representatives from the three Abrahamic faiths. Already we are able to use this occasion as an place to launch dialogue with GIN-SSOGIE and prominent representatives from Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This broad engagement became possible when Church of Sweden invited and hosted Imam Hashim Jansen from GIN-SSOGIE in Uppsala recently. Being both a member of GIN-SSOGIE and a recognized Islamic scholar, his valuable experience gave the grounding for a more informed and realistic target for the LGBTI stream.

The Rev.d Fr. JP Mokgethi-Heath and Imam Hashim Jansen
(Photo by The Rev Dr AK Hammar)

Imam Hashim will himself represent Islam as one of the Muslim panelists. His groundbreaking work with LGBTI Muslim youth in Netherlands has not always made him popular amongst the Islamic leadership. It has however brought comfort, relief and affirmation for the many young people who are given space to celebrate their sexual identity rather than hide with fear of rejection.  He is a good example of the strengths members of this new network bring to the dialogue space. His positive interaction creates examples of inclusive ministry which will help to challenge existing paradigms of engagement.  An informed faith community will be a community who responds to the deeply personal issues of human sexuality with the same generosity we would hope for from a loving God in any other area of our lives.  We warmly welcome the establishment of GIN-SSOGIE and wish them well in their prophetic role to faith communities at large.