A longstanding Winnipeg gay rights group lost its registration as a charity earlier this year after tax officials found it had been inactive for 11 years.

The Council on Homosexuality and Religion Inc. had pushed for Christian churches to be more accepting of gay and lesbian worshippers since the 1970s. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked its charity registration in March.

“The organization has not provided a reasonable explanation for its extended period of inactivity,” CRA officials wrote in a Feb. 12 notice to the charity. The letter notes that the charity had been cautioned once before about the potential consequences of inactivity.

The council was first registered as a charity in 1979, but had been active for three years prior to that, according to historical records. Its founders included an Anglican minister as well as one half of the first gay couple to marry in a Canadian church in 1974.

A 1978 pamphlet says the council was formed to address “an evident need for a counselling service aimed specifically at homosexually-oriented persons troubled by an apparent conflict between their religious beliefs and their sexual orientation.”

At the time, the group was focused on providing that counselling, along with Christian worship services, a library of relevant publications, public education that included a weekly radio series and outreach to churches.

“The influence of religious institutions within society has for centuries been used repressively against homosexually oriented men and women. The council believes that a new examination of homosexuality will lead the church to reassess its teaching,” the document reads.

The charity’s members also participated in public protests, including a high-profile one in 1980 when Winnipeg police attempted to ban sales of a book called The Joy of Gay Sex. In 1989, the council was part of a coalition that filed a human rights complaint against Winnipeg’s mayor for refusing to issue a proclamation for Gay and Lesbian Pride Week.

But the CRA notice says auditors have found no evidence of charitable work by the group since 2016.

Treasurer Chris Vogel contested that claim in a letter to the CRA in November.

“Most of our work, nowadays, is to provide in-person counselling and referral and to provide speakers and seminar leaders for religious and secular organizations and schools, usually in or near Winnipeg. This work is done by members of the council, and has not required expenditure,” he wrote.

He said the council also continued to administer the Manitoba Gay and Lesbian Legal Defence Fund, and was participating in plans to build a monument at the provincial legislature to honour victims of homophobic violence.

However, CRA auditors said the charity had provided no documentation of its counselling work, the defence fund was not included in its stated charitable purpose and the planned monument appeared to be the work of a different charity.

Representatives of the council did not respond to a request for comment. Charities can challenge the revocation of their registration in court.

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