The Rev. G. Shane Hibbs, led LI Community Fellowship

The Rev. G. Shane Hibbs said he believed that God cared for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, a belief that led to his forming the Long Island Community Fellowship in 2002 to serve the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

"Shane had a passion for people who sought God but was not accepted because of the rules established by various churches," said his friend, the Rev. Harold Lay, pastor of the Parkway Community Church in Hicksville. "He didn't let opposition - whether political or religious - slow him down. He was a very caring person."

Hibbs, also a therapist and part-time professor at Adelphi University, died in his sleep in a hotel on Aug. 25 while leading parishioners on a retreat in Tennessee, said Hibbs' partner X. Mark Lu. Hibbs was 36. There was no evidence of foul play, according to local police.

"The coroner mentioned there were no abnormalities. His heart slowed down," Lu said. "My spiritual side tells me God needs an angel up there."

Hibbs, a native of Midland, Ohio, and the son of a Baptist minister, always thought he would go into preaching, which he had once described as "the family business."

He had an early start, declaring his faith at the age of 4 and serving as a preacher to youth services at local churches at the age of 12. He also traveled in the Midwest as a guest speaker. He was ordained a minister by the Baptist Christian Church in 1992.

But Hibbs had a crisis of faith and identity five years later, when he welcomed an openly gay man into the congregation in a small Ohio town and was asked to leave the church and the Bible college that he was attending at the time.

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"It was a very rough time for me," Hibbs told Newsday in 2004. "I rebelled against God and I hated God then, and I had so many emotions, so many feelings . . . . Eventually, I realized I either had to die or accept who I was, because I was on the verge of suicide."

His path of self-discovery led him to the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, where he obtained a master's degree and a counseling internship in Manhattan. He also began identifying himself publicly as a homosexual.

He would later earn a doctorate in psychology from Capella University and would move to the New York area in 2000. He worked as a mental health practitioner, with referrals from churches and religious organizations.

In 2001, Hibbs was inspired to start a special ministry after talking to representatives of the Metropolitan Community Churches, a worldwide ministry with special outreach to the gay community. Nearly a year later, in February 2002, Hibbs founded the Long Island Community Fellowship, which is now based in Bay Shore.

Lu said Hibbs was focused on trying to "build bridges between the GLBT community" and the broader religious society. Lu said Hibbs also wanted to help those in the gay community who may have felt ostracized to reconnect with their faith.

A memorial service for Hibbs will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Parkway Community Church in Hicksville. A funeral was held in his native Ohio, where he was buried in a family plot.