Anthony Venn-Brown is a former Australian evangelist in the Assemblies of God

Assemblies of God

The Assemblies of God , officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 140 autonomous but loosely-associated national groupings of churches which together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination...

 and an author whose book describes his experience in Australia’s first ex-gay program. . He is also the Co-founder and Convenor of Freedom 2b(e)

Freedom 2b(e)

Freedom 2b[e] is an Australian based network that supports GLBTIQ people from Pentecostal, Charismatic and Evangelical backgrounds. It helps them resolves issues of faith and sexuality and works to promote understanding and acceptance both in the church and within the wider community...

} which is a network for GLBTIQ

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 (Gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, Lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, Bisexual, Transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

, Intersex

Intersex

Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...

 and Queer

Queer

Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...

) people from Pentecostal, Charismatic

Charismatic movement

The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...

 and Evangelical

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

 backgrounds.

Early Life

Anthony Venn-Brown was born in 1951 and raised in a family with a strong Anglican Church background (Anglo-Catholic). His family were committed to church life during his early years but as a teenager Anthony felt that the rituals, language and beliefs were irrelevant not only to him but also the generation of the 60’s and he ceased all involvement in the church. It was also at this time the awareness of his homosexuality increased. Australian society in the 60’s viewed homosexuality as a mental illness/perversion and it was a criminal offence. This led to deep depression and a suicide attempt. Anthony Venn Brown eventually made contact with evangelical Anglicans in the Sydney Diocese in his quest to be "normal" and acceptable to his family and friends and was converted in 1969. After his conversion in 1969, Anthony continued to be involved in evangelism and was baptised in a Baptist church. Many times he felt that God had answered his prayer and that he had been set free of his attraction to the same sex. However, although these moments were spiritually exhilarating they did not have a lasting impact on his life. Believing that ‘more faith and more power’ was needed to overcome his ‘problem’, Anthony began to explore his Christianity in the Charismatic renewal, which had just commenced in Sydney, and also traditional Pentecostal contexts. In 1971, after feeling a strong call to ministry, Anthony attended Faith Bible College, a pastoral and missionary training centre in New Zealand. After confessing to the leadership of the college that he still struggled with homosexuality, he underwent several weeks of exorcisms through the ministry of Pastor Neville Johnson at Queen Street Assemblies of God in Auckland. However, on returning to Australia, Anthony was still troubled by his sexuality, and believing that he could never serve God until this part of his life was overcome, he signed himself into in a ‘live-in’ ex-gay program for six months at Moombara and Bundeena Christian Fellowship (a rehabilitation centre that claimed success for drug addicts, prostitutes and homosexuals). Anthony then moved to Orange New South Wales in 1972 and began youth work for the local Assemblies of God Church and was married in 1974.

Early ministry

Venn Brown pioneered several Assemblies of God

Assemblies of God

The Assemblies of God , officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 140 autonomous but loosely-associated national groupings of churches which together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination...

 churches in regional NSW including Port Macquarie, Gunnedah, Wauchope

Wauchope

Wauchope may refer toPlaces*Wauchope, New South Wales*Wauchope, Saskatchewan*Wauchope Forest, Scotland*Wauchope, Scottish BordersPeople*Andrew Gilbert Wauchope , British soldier; killed in action at Magersfontein, South Africa...

 and Laurieton before moving to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 with his family in the early 1980s and founding "Every Believer Evangelism." Venn-Brown became a popular preacher at all the major churches of the Assemblies of God in Australia

Assemblies of God in Australia

Australian Christian Churches , also known as Assemblies of God in Australia , is a Pentecostal Christian denomination and the Australian branch of the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world...

 including Hillsong Church's predecessor Christian Life Centre and also preached overseas. In 1990 he became the first Pentecostal to be appointed to the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Youth Alive

The Assemblies of God asked Venn Brown to start a new youth work to replace the NSW Assemblies of God current youth organisation which was called Christ's ambassadors and start some large scale youth events. The first Youth Alive event was a concert held in the beachside suburb of Manly, New South Wales

Manly, New South Wales

Manly is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Manly is located 17 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of Manly Council, in the Northern Beaches region.-History:Manly was named...

 on 23 February 1985. Some more conservative members of the Assemblies of God opposed the event because of the use of Christian rock music and walked out. However, Youth Alive became a very successful youth organisation and eventually grew to events of over 20 000 people. Venn Brown eventually handed over the ministry to his assistant Pat Mesiti as he wanted to concentrate on developing "Every Believer Evangelism".Venn-Brown, A. (2007) A Life of unlearning: a journey to find the truth.

Coming out

Venn-Brown resigned as a minister in 1991 after coming out

Coming out

Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....

 as a gay man. In 2004 he published his autobiography, A Life of Unlearning - Coming out of the church, One Man's Struggle.The book detailed his struggle to reconcile his homosexuality with his Christian beliefs. It won the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Business Association Literary award in 2004. The revised edition, A Life of Unlearning - a Journey to Find the Truth was published in 2007. Anthony doesn't feel he will return to preaching, saying ˜30 years down the track someone who is gay or lesbian will be allowed to minister. I hope I'm there to see it, but I feel I've had my ministry. When I came back to God I felt like I had the essence of what it was all about. What I have now is real. I have learned to live non-judgementally, to live with integrity and I didn't have that as a preacher." Anthony Venn-Brown was voted as one of the 25 most influential gay and lesbian Australians in both 2007 and 2009 and was one of the keynote speakers at the 2009 "Evangelical Network Conference" in Arizona."

Dialogue between the church and the LGBT community

Preferring to be known as a gay ambassador instead of gay activist, Venn-Brown is now a representative and advocate of gay and lesbian people. He seeks to create an informed, intelligent yet respectful dialogue about the issues of same sex orientation within the Christian and particularly Pentecostal community. One of the models that he has developed is "Creating a Space for Change" . This is a non confrontational way of changing stereotypes and preconceived ideas . One of the first people to be involved in this dialogue was Pastor Mike Hercock , a Baptist minister who was leading a church in Darlinghurst, Sydney . A friendship developed and Anthony relayed the many stories of tragedy and loss experienced by gay and lesbian people who had been rejected by the church. Anthony introduced Mike to the work of Freedom 2 b[e]. He was deeply touched by the stories of those he met. In 2007, Freedom 2 b[e] marched for the first time in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. Seeing the profound impact this had on those who had lived for so many years in shame, guilt and fear, Pastor Hercock stated that the following year he would encourage 100 Evangelical ministers to sign an apology to the LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 community for the way the church had mistreated them and march in the 2008 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. This movement became known as the 100 Revs and led to the following statement.

“As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognise that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Indeed the church has often been profoundly unloving toward the GLBT community. For these things we apologise, whatever the distinctive of our Christian position on human sexuality – to which we remain committed. We are deeply sorry and ask for the forgiveness of the GLBT community. We long that the church would be a place of welcome for all people and commit ourselves to pursuing this goal.”

In 2007 he co-ordinated the release of a statement from five Australian ex-gay leaders who publicly apologized for their past actions.

In 2010 Anthony was invited to lecture on “An Alternative Approach to Sexual Orientation, Gender Diversity and the Christian Faith” at Tabor College in Melbourne (one of Australia’s leading bible colleges). This was the first time an openly gay man was invited to speak at a Pentecostal/Evangelical bible college in Australia.

In 2011 Anthony resigned as the leader of Freedom 2 b[e] to concentrate further on his bridge-building, ambassadorial and educational activities. He has recently founded Ambassadors and Bridge Builders International, his focus continues to be the deconstruction of the ‘ex-gay’ myth, educating in the areas of faith sexuality conflict, working with gay and lesbian people in heterosexual marriages and creating respectful, informed dialogues between the LGBT community and the Church. Anthony was twice voted one of Australia’s 25 Most Influential Gay & Lesbian Australians (2007 & 2009). Anthony was nominated for an ACON Honour Award in September 2011 in the category of Community Hero . These awards recognise outstanding LGBT community achievements and/or contributions.

Anthony currently attends Hillsong at Waterloo..

External links

• "gayambassador"
• ABC Radio National "The Religion Report" Homosexuality and the church 2005-06-29
• 774 ABC Melbourne "Guilt about the past" http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2009/08/20/2661989.htm?site=melbourne 2009-08-20 * Category:1951 births Category:Assemblies of God in Australia Category:Assemblies of God people Category:LGBT Christians Category:Living people Category:LGBT people from Australia Category:Australian Pentecostals