A reprint of an article first published in the Washington Post, Sunday 29th September 1996.

DALLAS - Until she discovered the cathedral of Hope two years ago, Pam Dunnam, a 38 year old telecommunications engineer, could not shake the conviction that she was going to hell. Pray as she did, try as she might, she said her deep Chrstian faith could not conquer her lesbianism.

"I kept thinking I had to be one or the other - gay or Christian," Dunnam said, "But in church I can be fully myself - gay and Christian".

As she waited silently in line for communion, her pinkie finger hooked around her partner's pinkie, Dunnam was surrounded by hundreds of other gay worshippers, who experienced similar dilemmas. This was Gay Pride Sunday at the Cathedral of Hope, the largest church in America where gay men and women are welcomed. With a congregation that has quadrupled to 1,734 over the past eight years, it is one of America's fastest growing churches.

As more and more gay Christians step into the open, many seek this Church as a sanctuary from what is increasingly seen as a growing religious war. The issue of homosexuality is dividing religious Americans today nearly as dramatically as slavery divided them more than a century ago. Mainline Protestant denominations are bitterly ruptured over whether to ordain gay ministers and whether to welcome or try to change gay congregations.

And in many evangelical churches, condemnation of the "homosexual lifestyle" has become a driving political cause. Gay congregations across the world are swelling with refugees from churches that preach that homosexuality is a sin. They practise a home-grown Christian liberation theology, which teaches that being gay is not grounds for hellfire and damnation, but a "gift" from God.

In a community that faces AIDS, gay Christians say they seek solace from suffering. In a political system that denies homosexuals the right to legal marriage, we seek ceremonies to bless our love. However, homosexuals are drawn to Church for many of the same reasons as heterosexuals: spiritual inspiration; quiet prayer; uplifting music; a sense of community; an outlet for charitable service; and a place to meet friends or to teach their children values.

Cathedral of Hope MCC is the most visible Church in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), the first Christian denomination founded to minister especially, but not exclusively to the lesbian and gay community. From the MCC's fragile beginning 28 years ago when 12 fearful worshippers gathered in a living room, the denomination has grown into a fixture on the modern religious scene, 352 Churches in 19 countries (1996).

Whilst most mainline Protestant Churches are losing members, the MCC is expanding. While many Churches count fewer at Sunday services than on the offical membership, at MCC Churches there are far more participants than official members.

"From a political perspective," said Daniel Zingale, political director of the Human Divinity School, "in the way that black Churches were essential in advancing civil rights, you'll see the MCC emerge as an important force in the struggle for gay rights."

But whether or not the Church ultimately has an impact on how society sees homosexuals, some gay people say it has already changed the way they see themselves. Ten years ago, John Hankins was a Southern Baptist who said he felt like, "I wasn't good enough to breathe God's air." Now he serves as part-time Pastor of the MCC in Atlantic. He said that MCC convinced him that "being gay or lesbian is nothing ashamed of. God has chosen us to be very special people with special gifts to offer to society... The Israelite children were oppressed too. Maybe we're like the Israelite children, chosen by God."

Each Sunday, in congregations large and small, MCC ministers meld familiar relgious traditions with new liturgies unique to MCC. From the United States to South Africa, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and elsewhere Metropolitan Community Churches members and friends are experiencing for themselves what real freedom in Christ is all about in both traditional and new ways.

"If there's one spiritual truth God gave me years ago." Perry said, "it's that God didn't create me so that God could have something to sit around and hate. In our community I run into so many people who've been beaten up emotionally, who have very poor images of themselves. I say homosexuality is a gift from God... Jesus came to take away my sin, not my sexuality."

Tammy Bima has listened to it all and now stands in line for Communion, something she hasn't done since she was in high school. Twenty-eight and gay, she has long felt like an outcast in the Catholic Church in which she was raised. Today, she reaches the altar, sips from the cup, bows her head, and walks to her seat, hands clasped before her. The service ends and the Church foyer is filled with friends hugging, showing off their children. Bima eyes the hubbub around her. "Coming today, I was very moved," she says, "I could definitely feel I could go back to Church."