Gay organist suing NGK
2005-08-02 22:31
Cape Town - A gay organist is suing the biggest congregation of the NGK for R100 000 after they suspended him for being involved in a homosexual relationship.
Johan Strydom of Pretoria registered a complaint at the equality court on Tuesday against the church's Moreleta Park congregation, in the eastern suburbs of the city, for loss of income and violation of his dignity.
Strydom gave music lessons at the congregation's school of music.
The church informed him by letter last month that "the congregation is well aware of the high quality of the product he is delivering, but that we have to keep in mind that the congregation's values have to be mirrored in the training it provides".
It added: "The congregation's opinion on sexual orientation is well known and has been published, and we cannot deviate from this point of view."
Homosexuality 'is a sin'
Moreleta Park, a huge congregation of about 17 000 members and 10 dominees, recently organised a seminar on homosexuality.
The speakers agreed that homosexuality was a sin according to the Bible.
Dominee Dirkie van der Spuy, who heads the ministers, said on Tuesday he was not aware of Strydom's legal action.
Van der Spuy said: "We invited him to talk to us about his view of homosexuality, but he was not willing to talk about it."
The church said it had not yet received a subpoena and could not comment on the issue.
Strydom said he had been working at the church since January and that he was not a member of the congregation.
He was summoned to a meeting last month with Van der Spuy.
When he arrived, he was told by Janie de Bruin of the church's art academy that someone had called to inform the church about his homosexual relationship.
Strydom then wrote a letter to the church in which he stated he was not willing to discuss his sexual orientation with the leaders of the church and that he would turn up for classes the following Tuesday, unless they fired him.
'In line with the Scriptures'
Shortly afterwards, he received a letter from the church informing him that the church's values were "not negotiable", that the church wanted to "act in line with the Scriptures" and that they were suspending his services.
The letter also wished him the best of luck with his career.
The NGK decided last year at its general synod that it needed to think more about the acceptability of homosexual relationships as there were still too many differences of opinion in the church.
The church also apologised to homosexual people for harm done to them in the past.