At Unity Fellowship in Harlem, LGBTQ Parishioners Find a Haven

LGBTQ congregations grow uptown despite disapproval from traditional churches.

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By Feven Merid

“As soon as I walked through the door, I felt like I was at home,” said Reginald Brown. 

The HIV activist was describing their first visit to Unity Fellowship, an LGBTQ church in Harlem. “The love was so real and overwhelming, it was actually frightening. I thought, this is what I’ve been looking for,” they said.

Brown, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, is one of many queer parishioners who have found solace at Unity Fellowship, whose motto is, “God is love and love is for all.” The church is a part of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a network of 17 congregations founded by a gay archbishop in 1990 in Los Angeles.

The New York church, at 521 W.126th St., draws mainly African American and Latinx LGBTQ parishioners and leaders. Founded by Bishop Zachary Jones in 1992, Unity Fellowship has operated in several locations, including downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, before coming to Harlem five years ago.

Because the church’s founding coincided with the AIDS epidemic of the ‘80s and ‘90s, “our first mission was to address, from a spiritual perspective, how our people were dying drastically,” said Jones.  “As we started working with the community, we realized there were a lot of other needs that we needed to attend to, so we started the church.”

Unity is among a growing wave of Harlem churches with LGBTQ members. In addition to Unity, First Corinthian Baptist Church and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church are Harlem religious institutions inclusive of queer parishioners and clergy.

Unity has since described itself as a social justice ministry that addresses issues the LGBTQ community faces such as homelessness, social stigma and healthcare access. 

The church came to its current location after a year-long stay at the National Black Theatre. It now shares space with St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, which operates a homeless shelter, a food pantry and a free health clinic. 

“I thought they were a great match,” said Reverend Mary Foulke, rector at St. Mary’s, about sharing space with Unity. Her church had previously considered partnering with other churches but discovered some had troubling ideas about acceptance. 

“I actually found links to conversion therapy,” said Foulke, referring to the discredited practice of attempting to change a gay person’s sexual orientation, which some churches promote.

Ribbons with messages adorn the outside of the church shared by Unity and St. Mary’s, photo by Feven Merid.

 

Many traditional churches still reject LGBTQ members altogether. 

In August 2017, the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an Evangelical Christian organization, released a statement, signed by 187 evangelical ministers, declaring queer sexual orientations a sin. Shortly thereafter, Pope Francis publicly denounced gender-affirming medical procedures. 

Unity remains unbothered by the opposition. “We continue to fight the isms,” said Pauline Kennedy, a reverend-elect at Unity. “This is who we are. God created us in his image, in her image.”

Jones also noted that changes in cultural norms among younger people are impacting the way institutions treat the LGBTQ community. “I think their ideas around social justice are important,” Jones said of millennials. 

“This is the first place of worship that I ever came to where I was taught that I was all right,” said Dominique Spooner, 28. “Like, I’m not the opposite of God’s love.” 

Like Spooner, many LGBTQ parishioners have had negative experiences at church.

Brown recalled the reaction they received at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, when they confided in fellow church leaders about their sexual orientation. They were told “to go and pray in another part of the church during the services.”

Brown recalled feeling stunned. “I’ve been going to this church for 10 years, paying tithes, doing all these things, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Am I not still the same person that I was before I said that to you?’” The Brooklyn Tabernacle declined to comment.

While Jones urges his congregation to be comfortable with who they are, he acknowledged that not everyone feels safe coming out. “My boyfriend is in the closet because he’s Trinidadian,” Jones said of his partner of 10 years. 

Bishop Jones singing with the choir, photo by Feven Merid.

 

Traditional black churches like First Corinthian Baptist Church are fostering more LGBTQ acceptance among their parishioners.

“We’re ever-evolving and continuously growing,” said Heaven Berhane, First Corinthian’s minister of programming and community engagement; she mentioned the church celebrated Pride Week and has a queer pastor among its leaders.  

But Berhane said First Corinthian is far from the norm compared to most traditional black churches. “The conversation is being had, but the majority of black churches are not safe spaces,” she said. “It’s still a homophobic institution.”

An August report by the New York Police Department showed a decrease in crime citywide, but hate crimes increased by 41%.

Nationally, there have been 18 known killings of transgender women this year, most of them black, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The American Medical Association has called assaults on the transgender community an “epidemic of violence.”

“I’m sensitive to the reality of the world,” Jones said. “We read about the Stone Age in books but to live that is a reality I don’t want to remind myself of.”

But Jones remains positive. ”You hold the hope for a new world and you build legacies for that time to come.”

(Photo of Senior Pastor Deborah Rice addressing parishioners by Feven Merid)

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