WILSON. there are Christian leaders who are supportive of MCC being here and they have to break their silence

America-based gay church leader Rev Nancy Wilson says her fellowship enjoys firm support from mainline religious leaders in Jamaica and that she has been pleading with them to publicise their views on the existence of her Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) in the island.

"There are Christian leaders who are supportive of MCC being here and they have to break their silence," Wilson told the Observer in an interview two Sundays ago.

"We have strong allies in heterosexual church leaders here, but sometimes they are afraid to speak out for fear of being criticised by others, and so I met with many of them this week and say you have to come out and tell the others that they don't speak for all of you," she said.

Wilson, who said she was in Jamaica to give support to the gay community, officiated at a 'renewal of vows' ceremony for two Jamaican lesbians at a 'church' in Kingston on April 29.

She used the occasion to urge Jamaican homosexuals to get out of the closet and predicted that the day will come when her flock will have a building here where they can worship in peace.

Jamaica has earned a reputation for a high level of intolerance for homosexuality. In recent weeks, reports of homosexual men being beaten by the public have been carried in the local media.

In one particular case in Montego Bay, the men were chased and beaten after they went onto a carnival street parade stage and started gyrating on each other.

Two Sundays ago, Wilson condemned violence against gays in Jamaica, but noted that her church was in contact with gay persons worldwide who, she said, are existing under very dangerous conditions.

"We are in touch with a community of 200 people in Pakistan who are very oppressed and frightened, and so we have a church group there trying to help," she said.

According to Wilson, people are sometimes surprised at how hungry gay and lesbian people are to have God. "It is hard for them to figure out how they invite people to worship when there is fear that a worship service could be attacked," she said.

Wilson, who has been married to a woman since 2004, said there are only six passages in the Bible - three in the Old Testament and three in the New Testament - that have been interpreted to be negative about homosexuality.

"We questioned all those passages in terms of looking at all the original Hebrew and Greek words which were used and understanding the context of those stories, and in many ways these stories have been interpreted through people's prejudice," she said.

"We believe it is important to look at these verses through the experiences of gay people who say it is possible to live a godly life and to be a gay person."

The MCC has been described as leading force in the development of queer theology. The church was founded in 1968 by Rev Troy Perry, a Pentecostal minister who was excommunicated after confessing to his superior that he was gay.

According to Wilson, the denomination now has 300 churches in 28 countries.

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