Rev. Michael Angelo A. Sotero
Metropolitan Community Church-Metro Baguio
Reclaiming Equal Rights
By Mike dela Cruz
PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 2009

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Michael Angelo A. Sotero – better known as just Myke – knew of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) “way back in 1997, after meeting Fr. Richard Mickley, OSAe, Ph.D. in (the Pride parade) in the city of Manila,” he recalls.  The connection strengthened in 2003, when Myke and his late partner “entered our relationship in a Holy Union that became Baguio City’s first well-publicized gay Holy Union, officiated by Fr. Mickley, then already the head of the Order of St. Aelred.”  It was then that “I informed him that I wanted to enter the ministry, and build a gay-friendly denomination in the (Baguio City).”

The LGBT community, says Myke Sotero, still has a lot to do.  There’s the “division and politics of the LGBT community, (which) I frown upon.  It is like a slap on our own faces,” he says.  Still, “I am inspired by the uniqueness and free-spirited people in it. We’re not afraid to speak our minds out and we have a way of saying it with a touch of class and sophistication.”

The drive, for Myke, was to “focus my energy in LGBT advocacies and human rights campaigns. I have always wanted a Christian denomination that welcomes people regardless of what their sexual preferences are. Growing up as a Roman Catholic, I felt losing a part of me whenever I come to church. I was part of a local church choir and had been active in church activities, but I needed to lie about my homosexuality knowing that mainline church doctrines frown upon people who are different,” he says. “The feeling of not being worthy of God made me question the validity of my faith and what I was taught to believe. I have stopped coming to church and even questioned the existence of the Divine.”

Even while Fr. Mickley helped guide Myke’s earlier learning, in 2005, he met Rev. Ceejay Agbayani, with whom he discussed starting a Bible study group for LGBTs in Baguio City, in the hopes that this would be the starting seed for the MCC in the region – a plan that took shape in 2008, and, by January 30, 2009, progressed to the establishment of the MCC-Metro Baguio (MCCMB).

Myke, who finished his Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication degree from the Baguio Colleges Foundation in 1998, has had numerous career shifts – e.g. E-representative at Peoplesupport Baguio (2007 to 2008), correspondent cum videographer for the Tan-aw Multimedia Collective (2002 to 2007), medical representative of Metro Pharma Philippines Inc. (1999 to 2001), external relations officer and peer educator of ReachOut AIDS Education Foundation (1996 to 1998), and news writer for the Baguio Midland Courier (1997). But it was around this time (early 2009), too, that Myke realized this was his calling, so he entered the Ecumenical Theological Seminary (ETS) in Baguio City to pursue a Masters of Divinity studies in June 2009, and was, thus, and was installed the MCCMB’s Interim Pastoral Leader.

“I was hesitant to come out upon entering the seminary. I kept the nature of my ministry to myself and tried to test the waters (to check) how my co-seminarians would react when they learn that I’m with a gay church. Although I’m aware that the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), which manages the seminary I was in, possesses many progressive minds, half of it is still conservative. A gay seminarian may send the institution panicking, (and I may) get kicked out from their halls," Myke recalls.

However, one time, one subject in class led to a discussion about homosexuality, and Myke said he "felt the urge to speak out."

"I was coming out finally and to my surprise, they all welcomed me as an equal,” Myke says.

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