“So, how many gay, Harley-riding, ex-nun, guitar-playing pastors have you interviewed?”

Not many, Pastor Julia DiFiore, not many.

DiFiore, pastor at the United Church of Christ (UCC) — which is a part of the Protestant faith — in St. Clair, has known her entire life that she would, one day, end up standing at the pulpit.

“I was called to this from the womb,” she said. Raised in the Catholic church, “I was five years old when I was pretending to be a priest.”

But, alas, the patriarchal Catholic church doesn’t allow women to become priests.
“So I became a nun.”

Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, DiFiore took her final vows as a nun in 2000, but left the sisterhood by 2007. She knew she wanted to continue following her calling, but she had also reached a point in life where she knew she needed to be true to herself.

She knew, from a very young age, that she was gay.

“Being a gay woman and believing in love in its truest form, I wanted to share my life with someone,” she said. “But my sexuality is a very small part of who I am.

“What surprises some is that I am very conservative. I believe in the sacredness of the scripture. It never stopped me from being my truest self. I knew God molded me, and he molded me for a reason.

What surprises some is that I am very conservative. I believe in the sacredness of the scripture. It never stopped me from being my truest self. I knew God molded me, and he molded me for a reason.

“When the call got bigger, I had to do the next thing,” she said. “I had to leave the Catholic church and go to the Protestant church.”

And though today DiFiore is at ease with herself, and she has a clear understanding of the fact that she can help others better understand both God and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, it was not easy when she was young.

In fact, she almost took her own life.

“I was 15 years old,” she said of the time when she almost ended her life. “The whole world was telling me God hated me (because I was gay). I hated myself. I tried to change myself. I tried to like boys.”

But, that was not who she was.

She kept hearing negative messages in the world about God not loving the LGBTQIA+ community.

“I loved God and they say God doesn’t love me, and I don’t want to live without God,” she said. At a critical moment when DiFiore was ready to end her life, she heard, very clearly and distinctly, one, singular loud and booming word spoken out loud: “NO!”

DiFiore said God intervened and let her know, with a a whisper: “‘You are not finished yet.’
“From that moment on, I stopped being ashamed of myself,” she said. “I knew God made me and I was to love myself.”

DiFiore graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Malone University, a Bible college in Canton, Ohio, in 2018.

She came out to collegiate peers and professors during her senior year.

And presenting herself to the world as a gay pastor has presented challenges.

“It has not been easy,” she said. “It is a lesson in forgiving and loving on the people who are screaming at you and hating on you. But I believe we need to be in those spaces.”

She was called to the UCC church in St. Clair in August 2024.

“It is an open and affirming church,” she said. “What I asked is, are you an open and affirming church by name or by action?” She learned it was, indeed, by action.

“The people who walk these halls are people who believe in the spirit of radical hospitality. I believe in radical hospitality. No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you will be welcome and loved here.”

DiFiore said the UCC church does have a number of LGBTQIA+ members who worship alongside everyone else who comprises the congregation.

“We have a small group of LGBTQ folks here, but it’s not huge,” she said. “But we welcome anybody who believes in receiving the stranger as if they are family.”

One of the most meaningful duties she performs at UCC is baptism into the church. It becomes even more meaningful when she baptizes a transgender person with their new name.

“The right of baptism is a celebration of ‘I see who you are now,’” she said. “The right to be baptized can be lifesaving to a trans person. It is the right of baptismal identity and they are baptized in that name.”

As a student of theology she noted: “Even Jesus and Matthew talk about the eunuch. The eunuch was born that way and He lifts him up.”

The formal study of the Bible and theology, like DiFiore studied in college, is something she believes others should seek out when choosing where to worship, noting some churches have pastors not formally trained who preach about a god they have created.

“We (pastors) should be formally trained in ministry,” she said. “When a pastor makes a god in their image, they come into the world and put their belief system into the pulpit.” She noted that typically happens when someone does not have formal ministerial training.

“It’s important to remember that church doesn’t get you into Heaven,” she said. “Jesus already did that work. No matter if you believe or not, Jesus is going to show up for you. Some churches keep saying you have to do this, this, this and this, and you have to earn your salvation. That’s not in the scripture.”

DiFiore understands that the fact that she is part of the LGBTQIA+ community causes some to see the church as political.

“A healthy church is going to have every political party represented and will be a melting pot,” she said. “That’s a healthy church when we can all agree on the love of Christ. It doesn’t’ matter who we vote for.”

That said, she knows her sexual identity brings out cruelty in some folks.

“I always say, ‘Hey, I understand where you’re coming from…are you willing to sit down and talk to me?’ The Bible says ‘If you say you love me, but you hate your brother, you’re lying.’
“I love everyone, including those who hate me,” she said. “I love for Christ’s sake, and I live for Christ’s sake.

“I believe that we all believe in the same God, so can’t we all just get along?”

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit…Amen.

Amen, sister, amen.