Calgary Young Queer Church hopes to offer safe place to worship

A project to offer a safe place for young LGBT Christians opened its doors in Calgary Sunday evening.

Pace Anhorn is the director at the program called Young Queer Church.

As a transgender man, Anhorn says his faith backgroundis complicated.

"Since I became a Christian at 14 there was always this desire, this passion inside of me for authentic living," Anhorn explained.

"And going into these different churches and different denominations, I found out that there just wasn't this authentic living that was happening, there was a lot of conformity."

The goal of the project is to offer queer youth a safe place to come together and worship.

"It was like, the church needs to change, there is something that we need to do to revolutionize what we are doing so people can come in and go, I am accepted just as I am, and I long for that and all of the churches I went to, I didn't find that," he said.

"It is here."

Kiran McKee is part of the support team for the project.

She also has a complex background in worship.

"My mom's family are Hindu, my dad's family are Presbyterian and I joined the United Church when I was 18. I found it a very positive experience."

McKee says she hopes a place for queer youth to come together, will help offer balance.

"It was important to me, because as an LGBT person myself and as a Christian I believe that it is really important for queer youth who have a faith background to have a place to express themselves and to feel included in both communities."

The program aims to run the first Sunday of each month at the Parkdale United Church.