Sacraments Bar on Gays In Mizoram

Homosexuals will be allowed to pray, says Mizoram Church

Aizawl, Jun 9 : A major church congregation in Mizoram has said homosexuals would be allowed into the church for regular prayers but would not be allowed to take part in the community ritual of the Sacraments.

Rev. Zosangliana, the moderator of the Mizoram Presbyterian Synod, the largest church assembly in the state, today told The Telegraph over telephone that his church would not include the sexually deviant individuals, both male and female, in the practice of the Sacraments inside the church.

The Sacraments is a religious ceremony during which baptism and penance are bestowed on practicing Christians.

The reverend also denied a national agency report quoting the Synod saying homosexuals in Mizoram would either be excommunicated or suspended if they were found to be “gross deviant” in nature.

The Synod is a revered body among the Christians in the state, with nearly 3.5 lakh members, over half the total population of Mizoram. It has over 1,000 churches spread over the state.

Rev. Zosangliana said the Synod recently conducted a survey in Aizawl and found that among the church members, at least 13 pairs were homosexuals.

He said the reports from the state’s other towns and rural areas on the number of the homosexuals in Mizoram were yet to be collected as Presbyterian churches were either in the process of either compiling data of corroborating the cases of these individuals through confessions.

The reverend said in December last year, the Synod was accused of being “too lenient on the cabal of homosexuals”.

At that time it had even toyed with a proposal of excommunicating two homosexual men and two lesbians living together like man and wife, thus “vitiating the general air of decency in society”.

However, Rev. Zosangliana said such a harsh measure did not find favor with the Synod Executive Committee, the highest decision-making body of the Presbyterian congregation in Mizoram.