John Doner founded the first church for gays
and lesbians in Latin America, Iglesia de la Comunidad Metropolitana
Reconciliación (MCC), in Mexico City in 1981. In 1992 he and the Rev. Dr. Tom
Hanks, along with Episcopal attorney Gordon Herzog of St. Louis, founded
Other Sheep – Multicultural Ministries with Sexual Minorities. John has served since
that time as volunteer coordinator for Latin America, while teaching
English for income. In 1982 John met his life partner Pepe
Hernández in Mexico City. John and Pepe made a seven-month mission trip by public bus
and river boat in 1994 from Mexico City to Santiago, Chile, to Buenos Aires, Argentina
and return, visiting lgbt leaders in seventeen countries. The purpose was
to identify potential leaders for future lgbt ministries in the cities visited
and to establish some 40 documentation centers in universities, seminaries and
lgbt groups which make available to the public gay-positive
Christian literature supplied by Other Sheep.
Born in Chicago on July 6, 1938, John was raised in Ft. Collins, Colorado,
where he made a commitment to Christ at a very early age and his parents were
leaders in the Church of the Nazarene and later in the Free Methodist Church.
When he was 16 his family moved to Sacramento, California, where John became a
youth leader in the local Free Methodist Church. His first year of college was
at Vennard College in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and he later graduated from Greenville
College (Free Methodist) in Greenville, Illinois in 1962. He interrupted his
graduate work at the University of California-Berkeley School of Social Welfare
to join the Peace Corps in 1963. John served in Lima, Peru, for two years, where
he established that country’s first foster care program for abandoned children.
He worked with Esther Iriarte, a Peruvian attorney, whom he married in 1966
(thinking this would “cure” his homosexuality!) after receiving his Master of
Social Welfare degree from Berkeley. From 1966 to 1980 he worked in a variety of
social welfare agencies in Denver. In 1974 he finally accepted his homosexual
orientation, was divorced, and in 1977 became active in Metropolitan Community
Church of the Rockies, pastored by the Rev. Elder Charlie Arehart.
Returning from a vacation trip to Mexico City in January 1978, while sitting
in his plane waiting for take-off, John strongly sensed what appeared to be God
speaking to him: “John, Mexico City needs a Christian ministry to gays and
lesbians.” His mother and only brother had died years before, and due to his
father’s age, John was unable to respond to this call until his father’s death
in January 1980. In response to God’s call, John resigned from his position in
the Colorado Department of Health, and in December he moved to Mexico City. He
soon met Horacio Flores (who two years later became the MCC pastor) and, in
October 1981, the first MCC service in Latin America, and to his knowledge the
first lgbt worship service, was held. In 1984-85 John made many weekend 8-hour
bus trips to Guadalajara to assist Tom García in founding ICM Guadalajara. At
MCC’s 1985 General Conference, Rev. Troy Perry awarded John the Founder’s Award
for his pioneering work in the establishment of the first two MCC’s in Latin
America.
Since Other Sheep’s founding in 1992, John has done much translation and
editorial work to make Christian gay-positive materials available in Spanish.
Since 1997 he has managed Other Sheep's Spanish website, has counseled many gays
and lesbians in Latin America via email to help them reconcile their faith and
their sexuality, and, with his partner Pepe, has made numerous mission trips to
Central and South America in search of potential leaders to initiate Christian
lgbt ministries where they currently do not exist. While John never sensed a
call to the professional ministry, he considers his search for indigenous
leadership to begin Christian lgbt ministries throughout Latin America to be his
most important work.
(This biographical statement provided by John Doner.)