Gruppo VARCO

Who we are and what we want to do!

The Gruppo Varco (evangelical group for valorisation and acknowledgement of the homosexual community) has been born for an own initiative of some members of the Waldensian Church of Milan, after the conference about "Civil marriages, families and common-law partnerships" moderated by the theologist Letizia Tommassone on February, 25th 2006 at the Libreria Claudiana of Milan.
The meeting was going on in a placid  and conciliatory way, when suddenly some members of the international pentecostal community Ministero di Sabaoth, hosted in that period in our church, declaired:

"The Church cannot open itself to any homosexual request, nor adapt itself to the needs of the society with the risk of falling into the relativism. The only way for the State to tackle this issue is by the recourse to penal convictions, because the homosexual love is a perverted behaviour for the society, destructive for the family, enemy in the path for the "holyness": the Word of God must be understood litterally".

These words let many of us surprised and embittered. We weren't able to believe that there was so much intolerance around us, hidden beside the words of the Gospel. This circumstance caused our reaction: hence the idea to found a group that would take care of the support for people of different sexual orientaton. 

The gruppo Varco intends to earn two targets.
First of all it hails and increases the social value of gays, lesbians and transgendered people with confidence, respect and seriousness, as a group of consulence and religious assistance.
Many homosexuals, that attend services in evangelical churches, find  real troubles to make a public "coming out", even to a pastor.
The Gruppo Varco works to make the communication with them easier. Actually we are trying to study a welfare/helping program for the victims of "reeducation" by those religious grups whose purpose is the changing of the sexual orientation.

Our second target is to promote in the Baptist, Methodist, and Waldensian Churches a large debate about homosexuality, with conferences, meetings with experts, and articles publishing.
The gruppo Varco intend to be a place for spiritual research and for a formative work. We have considered, in this way, necessary to link ourselves to a supporting network , the REFO (Evangelical Network of Faith and Homosexuality), and now we are its local headquarters.

From its birth, made official by an act of the VI Circuito Lombardo-Piemontese, the Gruppo Varco has performed some initiatives.
For example the conference "Nessuno è uguale a me", with the contribution of AGEDO, Famiglie Arcobaleno and Il Semaforo Blu, in May 2007, and the Prayer Vigil for the victims of homofobia on June 29th 2007 in the Waldensian Church of Milan, with a huge presence of believers, with the collaboration of Il Guado.
A lot of articles of ours have been published by REFO, the newspaper RIFORMA, the magazine VIOTTOLI of the Comunità di base di Pinerolo, and broadcast by Radio Popolare.