A Seventh-day Adventist temple in Brooklyn will host a children’s choir affiliated with Uganda’s Watoto Church, a church that contributed support for that country’s effort to enact “kill the gays” legislation in 2013 that had the death penalty for certain offenses related to being gay or lesbian and life imprisonment for others.
The Kingsboro Temple of Seventh-day Adventists placed two small flyers on the gates outside the temple and its office on 7th Street in Park Slope announcing that the Watoto Children’s Choir will perform at the temple on May 3 at noon. Two of the same flyers were also posted outside the Park Slope United Methodist Church, a progressive church that is less than a block away from the temple. The temple also listed the event on its website.
The Kingsboro Temple of Seventh-day Adventists excitedly previewed the event in an April 24 Facebook post.
“On the first Sabbath in May,” the post noted, “we’re honored to welcome the Watoto Children’s Choir coming to bless us all the way from Uganda! Followed by a sermon from our very own Dr. Sean Thomas, you won’t want to miss it. You Belong Here!”
In 2009, Watoto hosted two meetings of the Family Life Network’s anti-LGBTQ conference. The conference produced Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The legislation was introduced in the Ugandan parliament in 2009. It was stalled until 2013 when Rebecca Kadaga, then the speaker of the parliament, and David Bahati, a parliament member and proponent of the bill, faked a vote. Despite the absence of a required quorum, they said the bill passed. Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president, signed it. A Ugandan court struck down the law in 2014 because there was no quorum.
In 2023, the Ugandan parliament enacted what was effectively the same legislation and it was signed into law by Museveni. There is no indication that the Watoto Church was involved in the organizing for that law.
The Watoto Children’s Choir was launched in 1994 and has been touring in North America, Australia, and Europe since then. The choirs spread the gospel and raise funds for the Watoto Child Care Ministries, which operates housing for orphans and families in Uganda. The 2025 tour schedule suggests that there are multiple choirs touring at any one time. Watoto has been criticized for exploiting the children who serve in the choirs.
The Watoto Church, a Pentecostal church, was founded in 1984 by Garry Skinner, the church’s lead pastor, with support from the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. There is no public evidence that he endorsed the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, but Frank Mugisha, a noted LGBT activist in Uganda, called Skinner “one of the most homophobic people in the world” in a 2011 interview with MetroWeekly. Skinner retired in 2023.
The temple and the Park Slope United Methodist Church did not respond to calls made to both organizations on May 1 in the evening. The Park Slope United Methodist Church outgoing message said its office is closed on Fridays, or May 2 in this instance, and the temple’s office may also be closed on Fridays.
