Gay-friendly church may leave Laguna

After serving the gay community in Laguna Beach since 1992, Christ Chapel of Laguna will most likely be leaving the city.

The church has been meeting at the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club for more than 10 years, but this will be history at the end of May.

The club, which has housed the nondenominational church that caters to gays and lesbians since 1996, told Pastor Lillian Lobb in November that the church would need to find a new space.

“We felt really blindsided,” Lobb said.

According to Woman’s Club board member Anne Johnson, the decision to ask the church of about 120 people to leave came because of the interference it has with rentals for Saturday nights and Sundays.

“We’ve accommodated them at times at expense to the club,” Johnson said.

Johnson says the time has come for the two groups to part ways.

“We bend over backward for community groups,” Johnson said. “We hope that somewhere in the community, someone will give them some space.”

The move means Christ Chapel will most likely have to move out of Laguna Beach. Lobb said the rent for space in the city is just too high.

“It’s unrealistic unless someone wants to give us a building or some space,” Lobb said.

The church affirms gay lifestyles, which Lobb says is important because many in the gay community may bear a spiritual burden.

The church’s goal is to create a place for gays and lesbians to get spiritual guidance that may be unavailable elsewhere.

“I don’t care if they ever actually come to Christ Chapel, I’m more concerned with them becoming whole healthy people — despite what [Jerry] Falwell says,” Lobb said. “I spend the majority of my ministry cleaning up that wreckage.”

Lobb said that while she’s disappointed to be leaving Laguna, it may be a good thing.

She said the goal is to find a facility that will be more central to South Orange County with less difficulty to get to than Laguna Beach.

She said when Christ Chapel was founded, Laguna Beach was the hub of Orange County’s gay community and the perfect place to plant a church.

“I was really called to Laguna. I prayed that if this was the right place, God would open doors, and God opened doors,” Lobb said.

In recent years however, the gay community has started to spread out across the county.

Lobb, who herself resides in Mission Viejo, said now only about 10% of her parishioners are from Laguna Beach.

“I think it’s great that we’re moving away from the ‘gay ghetto’,” Lobb said.

The relocation is bittersweet for some of the church’s members.

“I’m very excited about the move, but I’m a little disappointed we’re going to have to leave Laguna Beach,” said resident and church member Ken Zielinski.

Lobb said the Christ Chapel is looking into forging a space-sharing bond with other nonprofit groups to help with the high cost of real estate.

Christ Chapel is in search of a space with 3,500 square feet or more.