By Angela K. Brown

A.P. writer

ARLINGTON, Texas—Relatives of a gay Navy veteran who died say they are upset that a fundamentalist megachurch near Dallas canceled his memorial service 24 hours before it was to start.

Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service but no one hinted of problems while planning it, said his sister, Kathleen Wright.

“But when the obituary came out in the paper and listed his life partner as one of the survivors, I truly believe the big-pocket parishioners called the church and said, ‘Why are you having a funeral for a gay person?’” Wright said Aug. 10. “It’s a slap in the face. It’s like, ‘Oh, we’re sorry he died, but he’s gay so we can’t help you.’”

But the pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair was gay until the day before the service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men “engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing.”

Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, but it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there. The family had asked for an outside officiant—a gay men’s chorus conductor—and an open microphone for anyone to speak, he said.

“We did decline to host the service—not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle,” Simons told The Associated Press.

Simons said the decision had nothing to do with the obituary and that no church members or ministers commented on it. He said the church offered to pay for another site for the service, made the video and provided food for more than 100 relatives and friends of Sinclair’s.

The 5,000-member High Point Church was founded in 2000 by Simons and his wife, April, and meets in a 432,000-square-foot facility in Arlington, near Dallas.

Wright called the church’s claim about the pictures “a bold-faced lie.” She said she provided numerous family pictures of Sinclair, including some with his partner, but said none showed men kissing or hugging. She said one showed them sitting on a couch, but “it could have been him and his brother if you didn’t know them.”

Tim Seelig, conductor of the Turtle Creek Chorale, a renowned gay men’s chorus in Dallas, said he wanted to talk to church officials about his role in leading the service but none returned his calls.

Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair, who was not a member of a church, because their mentally challenged brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in Desert Storm, died Aug. 6 at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant. He donated his body to science.

Wright said a minister knew that Sinclair was gay because when he went to the hospital the night her brother died, she introduced him to Sinclair’s partner.

Wright said relatives declined the church’s offer to hold the service at a community center because they felt it was an inappropriate venue. She said because the minister did not call her with news of the cancellation until the evening of Aug. 8, she had to scramble to find another location. Then they spent hours notifying about 100 people of the new site.

The service at Moore Funeral Home turned out to be a celebration of Sinclair’s life, although the church’s cancellation lingered in some minds, Seelig said.

“That’s where they are misguided,” Seelig said. “They preach love, but they don’t act it out.”