A Growing Gay Denomination and its Global Leader
Comments. Considerations. Questions.
by Kenneth Bagnell
It’s now nearing half a century since a calm autumn evening in Huntington Park, a suburb of Los Angeles, a dozen people gathered in the living room of a man who had gone through many disappointments. He was a minister, Rev. Troy D. Perry. A few years earlier, he’d been dismissed from an evangelical Church because he was gay. That evening – October 6, 1968 – Perry held a worship service for the handful of people in his living room. All were gay. It was an historic service: it lead to the creation of an international denomination called The Metropolitan Community Church. Its membership is almost entirely gay men and women, who now attend well over 200 congregations in some 42 countries. (Its largest is in Toronto, located in what was once a United Church, its respected senior minister Rev. Brent Hawkes, a member of the Order of Canada.)
Troy Perry, MCC’s first Moderator, was succeeded in 2005 by Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson, whose installation took place in Washington’s National Cathedral, a sign of how dramatically times have changed since Perry’s era. Dr. Wilson, who arrives in Toronto June 24th for Gay Pride week, holds several degrees, one from the highly respected Boston University School of Theology, plus a doctorate from the Episcopal Divinity School. In addition to being minister to various congregations, from Michigan to California, she’s also MCC’s representative observer at The World Council of Churches. (As we finalized this blog, CBC morning news reported a highly provocative development on the eve of Dr. Wilson’s visit: some Catholic school trustees suddenly announced they’ll march in the Gay Pride Parade, on Sunday, June 29. The church’s hierarchy — including Toronto’s Cardinal Collins — are as shocked as they are bewildered and indignant. As one reporter put it: “Stay tuned.”)
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One Sunday last March, my wife Barbara and I were in Palm Springs, a beautiful green town in California with one of the US’s largest gay populations. We went to worship at an MCC congregation on the edge of nearby Palm Desert. Its members were as warm in welcome as any church I’ve ever been in especially when it was announced early in the service that we were there and were United Church members. (We even stayed behind after the service, to discuss for an hour or so, issues and answer questions.) But one thing they regretted as much as we did: their Moderator Dr. Wilson had preached the previous Sunday and they wished – partly because I’m a journalist – I’d been there to meet her. Then someone came up with an idea: how about an interview with her by email? So here, just days before she arrives in Toronto, are some Qs and As, with Dr. Nancy Wilson, Global Moderator of the world wide Metropolitan Community Church:
Q. Do you believe Metropolitan Community Church will grow stronger in years to come? I ask this because when Barbara and I were in Palm Springs not long ago we gathered from our interview with the impressive mayor Steve Pougnet — an openly Gay man and parent — that his Episcopalian congregation, has an ever growing number of LGBT members. Is it possible that people now in Metropolitan Community Church, will eventually become, say, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and so on?
A. My view is that as long as MCC has vision, an expanding sense of inclusion, and stays at least a little close to our primary “target markets” we will be around for a long time, maybe longer that some of the mainstream churches. In Palm Springs, if you added up all the LGBT folks going to any church, it’s paltry. There’s room for all to grow! Those more inclusive mainstream churches reach about 8% of the US population! Most Americans are Catholic (25%) or evangelical (25%) or increasingly NONES — no religious background. These last categories are the ones from which MCC has always drawn folks -– ex-Catholics, refugees from fundamentalism and conservative evangelicals, or those with no faith, looking for community. MCC also often identifies with more working class, and marginalized LGBT folks. There’s room for us all.
Q. I know you’ll be welcomed by Torontonians as are LGBT people and other visitors. One question lingers in my memory from last year. I hope you don’t mind answering a question that’s a bit controversial. Last year, after Gay Pride celebrations, a man wrote a letter to one of our papers saying, in a reasonable way, that there was one thing he did not understand: that gay men in the parade could be virtually naked on the floats, while if they walked up the street the next day that way, they’d be charged with some form of indecency. How do you react to the contradiction?
A. Well, that’s a complicated question. Sometimes repression leads to obsession, and I think there is plenty of that to go around in all sexual groups and cultures. Gay Pride has been an assertion of the goodness of LGBT people and LGBT sexuality. I think there are Mardi Gras and parades and festivals in other countries and cultures that permit the rules to be bent a bit, shall we say, for all folks. English-based cultures are more conservative, like the US as well. I was touched seeing Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart” last night on HBO – how the act of coming out, of being able to be free sexually, was so connected to gay identity and the early gay rights movement – and was in your face, defiant, rebellious, and not well-behaved. I think that spirit persists, maybe even long after its purpose is less necessary. And, there is a joy in sexuality and the human body that is part of our liberation. And, I struggle with the fact that as we have grown up and older as a movement that now includes lots of parents and kids, do we want our parades to be x-rated? Very tough. We do not necessarily have good conversations about these issues. When MCC was very young, our church bulletins often had ads in them that we would not include today -– as we are more open to children and a more “general” audience. Great question!
Q. Can you give me a sense of your church’s growth since its inception – how many members, how many congregations and so on?
- A. MCC’s growth has come in leaps, then plateaus. Today we have about 20,000 members worldwide (we have a strict definition of members), tens of thousands of others who attend and follow MCC; about 200 churches worldwide, and another 80 or so aligned organizations and churches that are in the process of being planted) . We have churches, groups or offices in about 42 countries today. HIV/AIDS took a huge toll on us and our leadership for about 15 years, and we are still recovering from that – and re-imagining ourselves in a new context – in the US, and in the world, where we are needed as a voice for human rights and spiritual freedom.
Q. Am I correct that your church is a member of the World Council but was denied membership in the US National Council of Churches? What led to your being excluded and will you continue to seek membership?
A. We are not a member of the WCC, and have never asked to be. We have Observer status given to MCC. We were excluded in 1983 from the US National Council, because, although the membership committee determined we met all the criteria, the churches were so divided on the issue, they could not take a vote. They decided not to decide. Later, they rejected us for observer status, in 1993 or 4, a low point. The NCC today is struggling to survive at all. They have struggled to keep pace with emerging issues. Frankly, I believe the world is less and less interested in whether or not Christians acknowledge or accept each other – and more interested in inter-religious cooperation – that is where the action is, where the true tests of this century are.
Q. Not to oversimplify, but how would you characterize the general theological perspective of the Metropolitan Community Church?
A. We have a range from progressive evangelicals, to liberals, to those who do not fit any mold. MCC was born in the heydays of liberation theologies, but, remember, we were founded in the US by a former Pentecostal – so, we have a unique blend! We think that is reflected in our blended worship, and in a variety of indigenous MCC expressions around the world. Our Theologies Team, for instance, has folks who are from Baptist, Catholic, Orthodox, conservative and liberal, and no church background at all!
- Q. Discuss the governance system of the church – conciliar, Episcopal or whatever.
- A. Again, we are a blend. We are governed by a General Conference, held once every three years face to face, (with occasional virtual meetings for a single issue) composed of lay delegates from every church and all credentialed clergy. This body elects a global Governing Board that is ½ laity and ½ clergy. It also elects the world-wide Moderator (for a 6 year term). In this way we are “representative.” We have two houses, clergy and lay, making us a little more episcopal, I suppose. The Moderator is the Chief Pastor of MCC, and also is the Chair of the Governing Board. The Moderator is the Chief of Staff, and the main spokesperson for MCC Worldwide. The local church is more congregational in style – the church congregational meeting elects its pastor (which must be an MCC clergy, or a clergy of another denomination who is granted standing by call), and their local board. They have local by-laws which must be reviewed by the denomination so that they comply with global by-laws.
Q. Does the church ordain its own ministers or are most already ordained ministers who then transfer to MCC?
Both. We raise up people who go to seminary, and are ordained by us. We also transfer clergy in from other denominations, and there is a screening and orientation process for that.
Q. What are the academic qualifications of ministers of your church?
- A. Since we are a global church, we have protocols in every region of the world, with equivalencies that are culturally appropriate. In the US and Canada, for instance, the M. Div. is the general standard, plus MCC Polity and Sexuality Studies, along with a standard background check. We also require CPE in the US. In some cases, exceptions are made for those with extraordinary track records of success, from backgrounds that may not have required an M.Div. We may still require some graduate, supplemental education, decided on an individual basis.
- Q. Many “liberal” churches in Canada, including the United Church of Canada, (and most churches in Europe) face declining congregations. How does the institutional future of Metropolitan Community Church appear?
- A. In the US, we also face declining churches, in all denominations, but especially in liberal ones. We are sure this has had an impact on us – but, from the beginning, LGBT people and allies were extremely off put and suspicious of church – so this is not a totally new thing for us. Most MCCers come from three demographics religiously – very conservative evangelical churches, Catholics (nearly 40%) and the NONE’s – no religious identification. I think we have a bright future as a truly ecumenical, progressive spiritual voice that is radically inclusive – to transgender people, families, those who have been alienated from religion but open to faith. . . .
Q.. Finally what, in brief, would you like to say to the people of Canada?
A. I very much believe that alienation from mainstream religion is due to the church’s lack of relevance to people’s real lives and issues; from hypocrisy about issues like sexuality; and even from betrayal (child sexual abuse, for instance). And, I know there is genuine spiritual hunger everywhere, especially where the church is absent, or dying. I think the vision of a Beloved Community is still a vision worth living for, worth struggling for! He started a movement, and the “Church” has often betrayed that movement. There are many who yearn for a community of faith that is non-judgemental, engaged in the key issues that people care about today; and provides celebratory, open-hearted worship and opportunities to change history and change lives for the better. Just catch a service of MCC Toronto online and see if that does not fit the bill.
(This Q & A interview with Dr. Wilson has been slightly condensed.)
All my past blogs are archived on my website: your comments are welcome here: www.kennethbagnell.com.