Frankfurt. At the start of March 2008, a delegation from “Rainbow-NAC”, a private initiative of homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual members of the New Apostolic Church, met up with the Committee for special affairs (CSA) in order to carry forward regular discussions which began in 2002.

Building on the results of past years, the meeting focussed on the pastoral care needs of homosexual and transgender members as well as the qualifications for pastoral care in general. The concept presented last year by “Rainbow-NAC” does not look as though it can be fully implemented at present. Nevertheless, some of its elements can indeed be put into action and even applied to other areas of pastoral care. For example, a central collection of addresses and web links to counselling sites has been proposed as an info-pool which could be made available on websites of the Church.

In addition to other topics, the group also discussed the pseudoscientific “cures” promoted by some fundamentalist Christian groups. Both the committee and “Rainbow-NAC” are in agreement that such re-education attempts are to be rejected.

All the participants have agreed to keep in contact, and will meet for further discussions at the beginning of next year. In the meantime, concrete points will continue to be developed bilaterally.

Rainbow-NAC is a private initiative of homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual members established in 1999. For more information visit: www.regenbogen-nak.de.