Andre Musskopf | Profile

André S. Musskopf is a theologian and religious scholar, raised in the Lutheran tradition in Brazil from Sunday school to seminary and graduate studies. He has been denied ordination by the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil and, in 2022, twenty years later, has been ordained as a pastor in the Baptist Church of Nazareth, in Salvador, Bahia. At the occasion of his ordination, he received the support of many denominations, ecumenical, interreligious groups and social movements and organizations. Over the years he has focused on articulating a gay/queer theological and religious discourse and fighting for the religious citizenship of LGBTQIAP+ people, both academically and working with different groups and institutions. 

André holds bachelors, masters and PhD degrees in theology from Faculdades EST (São Leopoldo, Brazil) and is currently working at the Department of Religious Studies at the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora. He has been a long-standing member of the Gender Research Group (NPG) and from 2013 to 2019 was a member of the coordination of the Gender and Religion Program, after teaching at a Masters Program on Theology and HIV/AIDS at the same institution. With the NPG he has been part of the organization of the Latin-American Congress on Gender and Religion (2004, 2006, 2009, 2019), and coordinator of the event in 2015 and 2017.

Andre Musskopf ordinationAndré has done volunteer work in the area of HIV/AIDS at ASPA (Support, Solidarity and Prevention to AIDS), a nongovernmental organization founded by Lutheran seminarians since the 1990’s. In 2002, he was one of the founders of the Ecumenical Inclusive Worship Group at ASPA, which has had a partnership with Lutherans Concerned/North America. He was the coordinator of this group and also coordinator and facilitator of the meetings of the LGBT Christian Groups of the South Cone of Latin America. Through ASPA and the Worship he was part of the organization of Pride Parades in São Leopoldo and in the approval of anti-discrimination laws in the city. After finishing his PhD, from 2008 to 2012, he worked in the local government with public policies for LGBTIAQP+, and collaborated with the Ministry of Human Rights in Brazil in the same area and in religious diversity committees.

André has also been guest lecturer and facilitator at several meetings and conferences in Brazil and internationally while also working with grassroots groups and social movements. He has participated and been part in the formation of several forums and networks related to theology and religion and sexual diversity in the academic, ecclesiastical and political arenas. From 2014 to 2022 he integrated the Reference Group on Human Sexuality of the World Council of Churches.

Andre Musskopf preaching

He is the author of “Uma brecha no armário – Propostas para uma Teologia Gay” (A Gap in the Closet – Proposals for a Gay Theology), the first publication in Portuguese to name itself in this field of studies in Latin America and which has had three different editions (2002, 2005, 2015); “Talar Rosa – Homossexuais e o Ministério na Igreja” (Pink Robe – Homosexuals and the Ministry in the Church) (2005), and “Via(da)gens teológicas – Itinerários para uma Teologia Queer no Brasil (Theological faggotting – Itineraries for a Queer Theology in Brazil) (2012). He has co-edited several other books and has published extensively in different languages (including English) and currently is responsible for a series of “Ensaios teológicos indecentes” (Indecent Theological Essays), which has already published 5 volumes. In the volume 5 of this series – “Há vida depois da igreja” (There is life after the church) – he tells his personal story in relation to the ordination process in the Lutheran Church in Brazil.

(This biographical statement provided by André S. Musskopf.)

Biography Date: February 2007; rev. November 2022

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