Ellen Brauza talks about the Buffalo Community of the Holy Spirit

When it began four years ago in someone’s living room, Ellen Brauza (known to her flock as “Mother Ellen”) wasn’t sure of the shape of her mission but only that a group of like-minded believers felt called to come together that day. The Buffalo Community of the Holy Spirit has been meeting weekly ever since. “Our sense of mission has developed and is still subject to change as we feel God is leading us,” Brauza says. “We try to provide a safe worship environment for members of the LGBT community, especially those who would not feel safe or welcome in a church building.”

With National Coming Out Day and GLBT American History Month in October, members of the Buffalo Community of the Holy Spirit are making room in their hearts to honor those who are coming out, or who have done so in the past, and to pray for those who are still afraid or unable to do so. “The hymns, the prayers and the preaching will all focus on aspects of the coming-out experience, issues surrounding it, and the honesty with which God wants us all to live,” says Brauza. “Everyone, no matter what their religious background or lack thereof is welcome to worship in their community and to receive communion at our service.”

I recently sat down with Brauza to discuss her ministry, this community, and how religion has come to play such a positive role in the lives of many LGBT Western New Yorkers.

BW: What made you choose to minister to the LGBT community?

EB: I’ve had gay friends almost as far back as I can remember and have felt happy and comfortable in their company for many years. But it’s more than that. In prayer I’ve been led to an awareness that generations of LGBT people have lived and died without knowing that they were loved and accepted by God just as they were. So I’ve tried to live and work so that it doesn’t have to happen that way anymore, so that everyone with whom members of the Buffalo Community of the Holy Spirit come in contact with know that God loves them, accepts them, and wants them to love themselves as the precious people God created them to be.

BW: Have you found it difficult working with this community and the bias it faces?

EB: Sometimes. The members of the LGBT community have been wonderful and welcoming to me, but in any aspect of ministry there are times when you wonder whether you’re having any impact, should you continue. Then something happens making it clear that there is a real purpose in this ministry.

BW: What sets your service apart from others?

EB: In some ways it’s pretty ordinary. We use the basic form of the Eucharist or Mass that any Episcopal church would use and that any Catholic would recognize. We read the same scripture readings that we would in a “regular” church, it just happens to be at the Pride Center instead. We make a point of interpreting them in ways that are supportive to the LGBT community, although not everyone who attends is gay.

BW: What does the future hold for the group?

EB: God knows! I really mean that. We try very hard to be open to the guidance gives us.

BW: How do you see religion being a positive impact on the local LGBT community?

EB: Sadly, it hasn’t always been. The history is pretty dark. But it takes all kinds of people to truly reflect the glory of God. But every person, whether lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, straight, or any of the other variations the human family encompasses has a purpose and is a unique and precious creation that deserves the freedom to develop their spirituality and their own relationship with God. And if we can help that happen, I, for one, feel privileged.

The Buffalo Community of the Holy Spirit meets Mondays at the Pride Center, 6-7pm, with a social hour afterwards. For more information, call 852-PRIDE.