The understanding of Christianity by the MCC BH goes through moments of openness that make its liturgical experience unique. One example is the questioning of gender issues by the so-called âMCC Delasâ program.5 Considering that Christian spaces are predominantly masculine, in the attempt to subvert an ideology in which women do not have space to play key leadership roles, MCC Brazil has created a project of feminine leadership. The âMCC Delasâ program was a national project of the MCCs, started on April 7, 2012, as a suggestion by the Moderator, Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson, in SĂŁo Paulo. Initially, it would be a worship service that would happen once a month in which the leadership would be in the hands of the women. The project sought to make possible not only the discussion of gender but also the insertion of women in spaces to which they would not be traditionally visible.
Gender, as a category of analysis, seeks to recount the stories of women, under the bias of patriarchal oppression. Therefore, the importance of this perspective is clear when dealing with patriarchy, since the use of gender as a category of analysis seeks to unmask the patriarchal structures present in religions. The relationship between feminism and patriarchy is so intertwined that it is possible to find the concept of patriarchy in the very definition of feminism, as bell hooks (2000) states. According to that author, âfeminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. [âŠ] The movement is not about being anti-male. It makes it clear that the problem is sexismâ (hooks, 2000: 8â9). For hooks, the best definition of sexism, when institutionalized, is patriarchy.
According to SchĂŒssler-Fiorenza (2009), âman is the paradigmatic human being who is the center of androcentric societies, cultures, and religions; the woman is the Otherâ (p. 132). The author explains that:
patriarchy builds structural and institutional relations of domination. [âŠ] This concept is developed as an instrument to identify and challenge the social and ideological structures that allowed men to dominate and exploit women throughout recorded history. (SchĂŒssler-Fiorenza, 2009: 133)
However, it is necessary to clarify that women are not only the objects and the victims of male domination, they are also to some extent âcomplacentâ agents of God's will, wishing to live in the service of men's well-being (SchĂŒssler-Fiorenza, 2009). In this sense, women could mean a place of conflicting discourses.
SchĂŒssler-Fiorenza (2009) points out some questions that must be taken into account when thinking about patriarchy. First, patriarchy does not concern only the relations of subordination established between men and women. Men also occupy unequal positions of domination, for example, white men over black men. On the other side, women also exert power over women, as white women over black women, or white women over black men. Thus, an analysis of patriarchy from the category of gender is only one of many dimensions of a complex system of domination marked by intersectionality.
Gender discussions allowed the âMCC Delasâ program to take place every last Sunday of the month, between the years 2012 and 2018. Although the proposal was to create spaces for a more prominent role for women, it was later perceived thatâdue to queer theology and new individuals joining the groupâthe original project needed some adjustments. The binarism âman/womanâ did not meet the demands of the church members. Some of them came to regard themselves as non-binary people and, therefore, claimed space in that worship service because they understood that they could transit in a realm dedicated to women. Other people who dressed as drag queens also demanded a space among women. It is noteworthy that drag queens do not relate to a specific identity, but the construction of a character. In other words, they inscribe within the art realm, configuring themselves as part of theater shows or performances (AmanajĂĄs, 2018).
Within that environment of tension, the church proposed an innovative worship serviceâmarkedly plural and interconfessionalâthrough which they sought to break away with gender binarisms. The movement that took the community to create that suitable experience of spirituality was not only based on the emergence of new theological subjects who did not fit into the binary âman/womanâ but also on the intellectual formation lived by that community. Through the use of books, films, and talks, the community appropriated queer studies to the point of wanting to experience âthe queerâ as a theological possibility. Thus, on August 30, 2015, an innovative worship service took place that vindicated the insertion of new theological subjects in the liturgy of the church. I transcribe below a text read during that ceremony:
At that time, Jesus was walking between Trianon Park and the MASP Museum, and crowds were all over the street, gays, lesbians, transgender people, bisexuals, blacks, heterosexuals, a fluid diversity celebrating the pride of their identities. Jesus was happy; it was the first time he had walked among the people with his bare chest, feeling the wind on his skin and the vibration of the music. Something caught his attention, a transgender woman, her name Viviany, stood on top of a float, crucified, half-naked, her body marked by blood, and in the background a blue sky. At that moment, he breathed deeply, feeling the air fill his lungs, and exhaled full of contentment and abundance. He put his hand on his chest and smoothed the scar of the surgery that removed his breast, with which he could not identify himself. Then, still overflowing with love for everyone there, gently smoothed his beard that could already be perceived, after having started intakes of T hormone. Identification and joy with his body. Once more, he looked at the crucified transwoman, and a glance recalled another crucifixion that occurred more than two thousand years ago. At that momentâjust like the one people say goes through our minds recalling our whole life at moments of deathâhe was invaded by an avalanche of feelings and images of his people coming his way. He remembered the last words resounding and melting in the air. It is done. And he said: It was worth it. It was worth it. It is worth it. These are for us words that can save. Glory be to you, Lord! (MCC BH, 2015)
The suggested reading for that innovative worship service represented a challenge based on the reflections of what happened at the 19th LGBT Pride Parade in SĂŁo Paulo on June 7, 2015. In that parade, Viviany Beleboni, a transgender woman, like Christ, appeared crucified.
The transgender woman marched during the Parade on a float. Crucified, she kept her arms wide open like those of the Christ. Her hair covered her breasts. Instead of âINRIâ displayed on the cross, the sign read the words âenough,â âhomophobia,â and âGLBT.â Tainted with blood, she had on h...