Gay and mainline

Christian Century, March 21, 2001 by John Dart

CALLERS TO the California headquarters of an odds-defying denomination--one that worldwide has 300 churches made up largely of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons--are greeted by the recorded voice of the founder and chief executive: "This is Reverend Troy Perry. Thank you for calling the offices of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches." An anonymous female voice then recites the conventional options: "If you know your party's extension ..."

The steadily growing UFMCC is still small enough to reflect its active, affable founder. Yet a closer look at the denomination that dared to declare it was Christian--with alternative interpretations of traditional biblical injunctions against homosexuality--reveals, for all practical purposes, a mainline-style church body.

To be sure, the National Council of Churches denied the MCC both membership and observer status in 1992. Rather than adopting a sectarian or separatist stance, however, the three-decade-old fellowship has kept as busy in ecumenical circles as any more established church body.

Perry recently told the CENTURY that the MCC is seeking official ties with two mainline seminaries, asking them to teach a couple of courses required of all MCC seminarians (one on sex and the Bible, and one on MCC polity). The seminaries--Chicago Theological Seminary and the Pacific School of Religion--are both affiliated with the United Church of Christ, which permits local churches to call gay clergy.

Candidates for the MCC ministry have earned degrees for many years at noted seminaries, then have taken at least two courses required for ordination through the denomination's small Samaritan College. But MCC voted recently to close Samaritan because of ongoing funding and accreditation problems, Perry said.

"We intend to sign a covenant with MCC--it's an emotional commitment to being in partnership with them," said Tom Minar, CTS's vice president for development and external affairs. "We would really like to be thought of as a seminary that serves their needs." At PSR in Berkeley, California, President William McKinney said of the relationship: "It's dose now, and we will see where it goes." He added, however, that about 20 MCC seminarians already study at a campus that last year opened a new Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry.

Other steps into "mainline" circles include the following:

* Gwynne Guibord, the MCC ecumenical and interreligious officer, was elected president in January of the California Council of Churches. The council represents 19 denominations at the state capital, mostly on social issues. The MCC also belongs to statewide church councils in Colorado, Hawaii, North Carolina and Oregon. Guibord said that a half-dozen MCC representatives sit on National Council of Churches committees, including the Faith and Order Commission and a task force on justice for working women. The MCC also is an official observer at World Council of Churches meetings.

* The MCC, the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) took an unprecedented step last fall of jointly backing a new congregation in Berkeley to bring together Christians regardless of sexual orientation. New Spirit Community Church, which inducted its first class of 90 members in February, meets temporarily in the chapel at PSR.

The congregation is not formally affiliated with any of the three denominations at this point, said MCC pastor Karen Foster. But she said the idea is solid one: "The people who are finding a spiritual home here love the mix of people, and wouldn't have it any other way."

* In what is now routine, some 60 MCC pastors and lay leaders this year attended the Robert H. Schuller Institute for Successful Church Leadership at the Crystal Cathedral in California. MCC treasurer Donald Eastman said he benefited from the conference in 1981 when he was pastor of MCC's largest congregation, the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas. "Overall, we've been treated well," said Perry. "We encourage our pastors to attend; it's one of the finest church growth meetings you can go to."

* The MCC has many contacts and friends in the straight world. Troy Perry was invited to the White House for conferences on AIDS and hate crimes, and in 1997 he was a guest along with 90 other clergy at a breakfast with President Clinton. Pastor-author Jimmy Allen, the last "moderate" president of the Southern Baptist Convention, spoke to the 1999 bienniel UFMCC convention to relate his family's difficult times with frequent church silence on questions of AIDS and homosexuality. National Council of Churches chief Robert Edgar, speaking as a United Methodist minister, in the fall addressed the anniversary service of MCC's "mother church" in Los Angeles. In February, Anglican Bishop Christopher Mayfield of Manchester, England, preached at MCC Manchester as a part of his dialogue with gays.

Like any denomination primarily serving a minority group, the MCC has an activist side, urging broader civil and religious rights for nonheterosexuals. In a kind of good cop/bad cop strategy, MCC congregations urge social change by political and governmental officials, while the independent, interfaith Soulforce group headed by MCC clergyman Mel White takes a more activist, confrontational approach with other religious groups.