Four Historical Readings from 44 Years of MCC Ministry

Four Historical Readings from 44 Years of MCC Ministry

Below you will find four selections fromMCC's early history, suitable for sharing in worship services leading up to Fellowship Sunday, on Sundays throughout October -- or reprinting in your church's weekly worship folder or church newsletter.

Here's a wonderful way to remind your congregation of MCC's founding narrative and to share highlights from MCC's early history with your church family.

FIRST SELECTION

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCHES: THE FOUNDING

The story of Metropolitan Community Churches begins with one individual, defrocked by his Pentecostal church for homosexuality and recovering from a suicide attempt, who dared to believe God's promise of love and justice for all people. MCC was conceived when Troy Perry, then 27 years old, shared his faith with a friend who had just been arrested during a police harassment of a gay bar.

"Nobody cares!" his friend Tony Valdez lamented. "God cares," Troy responded. This is the essence of MCC's message, an idea so powerful that over the next 44 years it would birth churches and ministries circling the globe. But Troy had trouble convincing Tony, who felt he needed a church to help him communicate with God, and every church they knew denounced homosexuals as sinners. When Tony left, Troy knelt and prayed for a church that affirmed gay men, lesbians, and all others who experienced rejection from their houses of faith. Then, like an electric spark in his mind, understanding burst forth: God was calling Troy Perry to start a church for all people!

MCC was born several months later, on October 6, 1968, when Rev. Perry led 12 worshipers in the first worship service of what was to become Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles. Foreshadowing the diversity that was to blossom over the next four decades, the congregation that first morning included a person of color (Latino), a Jewish worshiper and a heterosexual couple, their backgrounds both Catholic and Protestant.

The church quickly outgrew its first meeting space, a pink duplex home in Huntington Park (a suburb of Los Angeles) where Rev. Perry lived with his friend, Willie Smith. The first MCC met in many locations, including the Huntington Park Women's Club and the Embassy Auditorium. At each place, as soon as the nature of their group was discovered, they were asked to leave. In 1970, they moved to the Encore Theatre for seven months before purchasing a deserted church building at 2201 S. Union Street in Los Angeles, exactly two years after the first worship service. The purchase made MCC Los Angeles the world's first lesbian and gay organization to own property. MCC worshiped there until January 27 of 1973, when the building was destroyed by what the Fire Department called a fire "of suspicious origin."

Within months of the first worship service, Rev. Perry began receiving letters and visits from people who wanted to start Metropolitan Community Churches in other cities. MCC groups from eight U.S. cities were represented at the first General Conference in 1970: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Costa Mesa, California; Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; Kanohe, Hawaii; and Dallas, Texas. An MCC group existed in Miami, Florida, but did not send a delegate.

Today -- 44 years after MCC's first worship service -- Metropolitan Community Churches has grown into a worldwide denomination with churches, programs and ministries touching 37 countries around the world.

SECOND SELECTION

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCHES: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE

Since its very first worship service in October 1968, MCC has preached a message of Christian justice and Christian social action as core components of our faith. MCC's commitment to social action was put into action for the first time in April 1969, when Rev. Perry led a group of eight MCC Los Angeles members in a peaceful demonstration in front of the Los Angeles offices of State Steamship lines, a company which had fired one of their employees for publicly declaring his homosexuality.

MCC has also embraced fasting and marches as nonviolent means of achieving social justice. On June 28,1970, shortly after Los Angeles' first lesbian and gay pride parade, which Rev. Perry helped organize, he sat on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas Avenue and began a public fast for meaningful dialogue about changing unjust laws that discriminated against lesbians and gay men. Two women sat with him, Carol Shepherd from Daughters of Bilitis and Kelly from the Homophile Effort for Legal Protection. All three of them were arrested that day, charged with "maliciously obstructing a sidewalk." After spending the night in jail, Rev. Perry continued his fast in front of the Los Angeles Federal Building for 10 days, until three Los Angeles City Council members came and committed themselves to meaningful dialogue with Rev. Perry.

The fast and arrest stunned the MCCLA congregationand the church's board of directors tried to fire Rev. Perry. He took his case to the congregation and asked for a vote of confidence. The membership voted to support him by an overwhelming 111-10, and social action became firmly established as a foundation of MCC practice. Rev. Perry later intentionally selected three people who had voted against him to serve with him as MCC's first Board of Elders.

In September 1977, Rev. Perry returned to the Federal Building and fasted to raise $100,000 (USD) to fight the Briggs initiative, a proposed California law that would have banned gay men and lesbians from teaching in public schools. The measure was part of a rising tide of homophobic laws that were adopted throughout the United States during that time. Rev. Perry's fast galvanized gay and lesbian citizens and within 16 days, contributions from across the United States nation allowed Rev. Perry to reach his goal and end his fast. MCC then organized and educated voters by working with other leaders of the lesbian and gay community, including David Mixner, who later became an advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton. The Briggs measure, also known as Proposition 6, was overwhelmingly defeated by California voters in November 1978.

Today, social justice continues to be at the heart of our faith, as exemplified by MCC's establishment of the Global Justice Institute, in partnership with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, and Rev. Nancy Wilson's service as a member of President Obama's White House Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

THIRD SELECTION

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCHES: INTERNATIONAL GROWTH

MCC's mission as a church for all people has led to the founding of MCC congregations around the world and to the development of an increasingly global vision throughout our Fellowship.

In 1972 -- just four years after the first MCC worship service -- the Board of Evangelism and World Mission (renamed World Church Extension in 1975) was founded with Rev. Lee Carlton as its first executive secretary. Its earliest mission was "the implementing of new churches, conservation of existing missions, encouragement of spiritual renewal in congregations, and establishing special ministries to prisoners and other particular groups." Others who headed World Church Extension include Rev. Freda Smith, Rev. Jean White, Rev. Louis Kavar, and Rev. Judy Dahl.

MCC welcomed its first churches from outside the United States in 1973. That year marked the founding of the first Canadian congregation, MCC Toronto, and the first British church, MCC London. In 1974, Rev. Lee Carlton traveled to two continents, planting the seeds that have grown into some of the oldest churches within MCC. Rev. Carlton toured Australia with Rev. Troy Perry, during which three missions joined MCC from Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Rev. Carlton also visited Nigeria in 1974 at the invitation of Rev. Sylvanus Maduka. Two gay men in Nigeria had read an article condemning MCC in the Jehovah's Witness publication, Awake, then sought out Rev. Maduka, a former Methodist clergyman, and encouraged him to establish a church open to all people. Rev. Maduka, a Nigerian, became the first person from outside the United States to be licensed as MCC clergy in 1974.

MCC's international growth is the story of "firsts." The first elder from outside the United States, Rev. Elder Jean White, was elected in 1979. The 1983 General Conference in Toronto was the first held outside the United States. The 1985 conference was the first with equipment to translate sessions into Spanish.

International growth and ministry continue to be at the forefront of MCC's vision. According to Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson, moderator of MCC, "Today, we're engaging the vital question of what structures and systems will best support MCC's growing and emerging international ministries for the coming decades. MCC's International Task Force is hard at work preparing proposals for the Governing Board of our denomination to present at the next General Conference. They are committed to help us re-shape MCC with a global vision that incorporates the work of starting and growing churches alongside the biblical work of justice. We need a world vision that honors cultural differences, with mutual accountability, autonomy and connection at its core."

FOURTH SELECTION

Metropolitan Community Churches: Commitment to Equality

Equalityis a core commitment within Metropolitan Community Churches, and the journey from vision to reality has been both fascinating and hopeful. Women participated in the first General Conference in 1970 as both deacons and attendees. The following year, two women, Rev. Alice Naumoff of San Francisco, California, USA, and Rev. Ruth (Rob) Shivers of Dallas, Texas, USA, attended the General Conference as "licensed ministers," a position that, at the time, had much less authority than it carries today.

By 1973, the number of women in leadership had grown significantly, and a spokesperson emerged and was affirmed by the Fellowship as a whole. Rev. Freda Smith made a major impact on the 1973 General Conference, where the number of women attending had grown to 10 percent. Rev. Smith led the conference in a line-by-line revision of the denominational bylaws; every time the word "he" appeared, she stood and made a motion that it be changed to "he and she." The process was slow, but every single change was approved. Conference delegates were so impressed by Rev. Smith that she was nominated from the floor for the position of elder. She won on the first ballot, becoming MCC's first woman elder. She also became the first ordained woman in MCC that same year.

An outgrowth of Rev. Elder Freda Smith's leadership was a Women's Commission report to the 1974 General Conference recommending development of guidelines for non-sexist worship and an inclusive hymnal. The commission's work resulted in a unanimous vote at the 1975 General Conference to recommend that every church work toward the use of inclusive language.

The inclusive language debate climaxed at the 1981 General Conference, where delegates amended and approved the report of the Task Force on Inclusive Language, chaired by Rev. Brent Hawkes. The report included basic definitions and guidelines for inclusive language and an amendmentof the Statement of Faith according to those guidelines.

The first General Conference action on behalf of transgender members came in 1979, with the adoption of a denominational resolution that stated, in the language of the day, "It is the sense of the MCC that male-to-female transsexuals are women and shall be accepted and treated in all respects as women; and that female-to-male transsexuals are men and shall be accepted and treated in all respects as men." Rev. Heather Anderson, later known as Rev. Sky Anderson, was the first transgender clergy licensed by MCC, receiving clergy credentials in 1975. MCC is also the first Christian denomination to be served by a transgender elder.

Throughout its history, MCC has increasingly challenged itself to achieve equality by race and ethnic background. More than a dozen people of color attended the General Conference in 1971, including those of Latino, African and Asian heritage. The report of the Christian Social Action Committee to the 1973 General Conference declared, "Rather than procrastinate any further by waiting for our ethnic minority groups to search us out, it is time for us to actively seek them out to share in Christian fellowship with them."

In 1974, MCC licensed its first clergypersons of color, Rev. Sylvanus Maduka and Rev. Jose Mojica. The first elder of color was Rev. Jeri Ann Harvey, a Native American elected in 1979. The first African American clergy, Rev. Delores Jackson, was licensed in 1976, and the first Asian clergy, Rev. Hong Tan, was licensed in 1981.

Today, MCC continues to embrace and live the words of Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

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