Anthony Venn-Brown
Anthony Venn-Brown OAM (born 13 March 1951) is a former Australian evangelist in the
He is also the founder and CEO of Ambassadors & Bridge Builders International (ABBI).Early life
Anthony Venn-Brown was born in 1951 and raised in a family with a strong
Early ministry
Venn-Brown pioneered several
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 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 as a gay man, this was after being caught having an affair with a 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."[3] Anthony Venn-Brown was one of the keynote speakers at the 2008 "Evangelical Network Conference" in Arizona.[4]
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 2b. He was deeply touched by the stories of those he met. In 2007, Freedom 2b 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
"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, Anthony co-ordinated the release of a statement from five Australian ex-gay leaders who publicly apologized for their past actions.[5]
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 Evangelical bible college in Australia. Anthony was also featured on the ABC series, Hungry Beast in 2010.[6]
In 2011, Anthony resigned as the leader of Freedom 2b to concentrate further on his bridge-building, ambassadorial and educational activities.[7] 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).[8] 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.
In March 2012, Anthony Venn -Brown was featured along with other
In 2012, Anthony was awarded a lifetime membership of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Business Association (SGLBA)[12] for his work with the LGBT community including the creation of the Ambassadors and Bridge Builders International organisation (ABBI) and the founding of Freedom2b. [13]
Honours
- 8 June 2020 Order of Australia (OAM), For service to the LGBTIQ community.[14]
References
- ^ [1] " A life of Unlearning" accessed 6 September 2012
- ^ ABC Radio National: "Reconciling religious faith and sexuality", 10 March 2011 accessed 8 April 2012
- ^ "Anthony Venn Brown – Mr Charismatic Gay Australia", 15 February 2007 accessed 9 April 2012
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 January 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Apology from Former ex gay leaders ", 16 August 2007 Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 9 April 2012
- ^ series=Hungry Beast|network= ABC1|season=2 Archived 8 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine accessed 9 April 2012
- ^ Noonan, Andie."New leader for Freedom 2b", 13 July 2011 accessed 9 April 2012
- ^ "A gong for gays of influence", 9 September 2007 accessed 9 October 2012
- ^ "The Cure", accessed 12 October 2012
- ^ "Healing the gay worshipper", 8 April 2012 accessed 9 April 2012
- ^ "Ministries preying on gay shame", 8 April 2012 accessed 9 April 2012
- ^ ""SGBLA",October 2012". Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
- ^ "Venn-Brown honoured", 23 September 2012 Archived 16 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine accessed 9 October 2012
- ^ Queen's Birthday Honours 2020 (PDF), Governor General, retrieved 7 June 2020
External links
- "gayambassador" Archived 28 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- "Exgay Australia-New Zealand"
- 774 ABC Melbourne "Guilt about the past" [2] 2009-08-20
- JimJaz (21 February 2007). "Cut from a different cloth". Archived from the original on 4 April 2012. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
- Ray Martin (19 August 2007). "Dad's coming out". Archived from the original on 11 October 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
- Anthony Venn Brown (14 October 2011). "Anthony Venn Brown". Retrieved 14 October 2011.