Receiving Powers Acts 1,8: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

A Christian ministry Nuntiare et Recreare with support of the Russian LGBT Network will held international interdenominational conference for LGBT Christians for developing spiritual communion and mutual encouragement on the way of following God. In the post-Soviet countries, LGBT people of faith experience a double marginalisation and discrimination - as believers and as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.

A homophobic attitude of the dominant Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) has been expressed univocally both in the official documents and in blessing of violence against LGBT people.

The position of the majority of Protestant Churches in Russia and other post-Soviet countries is very conservative or even fundamentalist. The Catholic Church keeps silence about homosexuality hiding behind a heterosexist teaching expressed in the Catechism.

In such a situation LGBT Christians should work together and make their voice advocating change be heard. Doing this effectively using exclusively the internet is impossible.

After expelling from or leaving their own churches, many LGBT Christians have not found a new home in other communities and have been excluded from spiritual and prayerful communion for long years. Despite sincerely believing, LGBT Christians are strangers to Churches. They also are strangers to the current LGBT community. Some representatives of that community put responsibility for Churches' homophobia on LGBT Christians; it only leads to a deeper estrangement.

At the same time, there is a great need in LGBT Christians' self-organising and establishing contacts with brothers and sisters in other countries. The Russian language affirmative theology is hardly developed and correspondent translations are virtually absent. It will true to say that Russian theology is quite isolated from the international theological discourse; this relates not only to queer theology.

The first international LGBT Christians' Conference in Russia will be a gulp of fresh air for many believers. It will demonstrate that LGBT Christians have a lot to offer to and share with Churches, LGBT community and the whole society.

We would like to invite for this Conference everyone who has interest in LGBT Christians in the post-Soviet countries - theologians, clergy, LGBT-activists and lay people - all for whom the Christian faith the life style. You also may assist the Conference in many different ways, e.g. keeping us in your prayer, sharing information about the Conference with others and/or financially.

To contact the Conference's Working Group please write to: conferencelgbt2009@gmail.com Individual members of the Working Group can be reached in Russia (Moscow and St Petersburg, Latvia and the United Kingdom).

Organisers:
Nuntiare et Recreare (Lat. "to proclaim and strengthen") - the oldest (est. 2000) and currently the only Russian-language affirmative ministry working via the internet with believers of all religions and denominations. Website: nuntiare.org

Russian LGBT Network - a largest LGBT organisation in Russia (est. 2006) with branches in 13 regions of the country and over 100 organisations-members. The main areas of work are: advocacy, lobbying for LGBT community interests, discrimination monitoring, education, psychological and legal support, supporting grass-root LGBT organisations. Russian LGBT Network's partners are ILGA-Europe and Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. Website: http://www.lgbtnet.ru/eng/

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