November 11, 2005 volume 26, Number 23 Serving the Carolinas For Over 25 Years! Rev. Nancy Wilson Installed as Moderator of MCC By Bob Roehr Contributing Writer The Metropolitan Community Churches installed Rev. Nancy L. Wilson as Moderator on October 29 in a ceremony that blended pomp with the down home feeling of community. Hie event drew about 1200 people to the gothic National Cathedral, an Episcopal church, which overlooks Washington, DC. A censer led. the processional, vigorously swinging the smoking brass pot perfuming She path for the robed dignitaries. The afternoon sun streamed through stained glass windows to dapple the carved limestone vaults with blue, red, and yellow. The organ and choir resounded magnificently; .. — Rev. Canon William ' Barnwell s welcomed them to the Cathedral saying, "It is an honor to have you in this celebration today." However in speaking to the press, spokesman Jim Naughton made dear, "This is not a shared ceremonial thing. We're not laying hands on their moderator." The Cathedral has been used by many organizations and for many purposes, inducting the televised memorial service for former President Ronald Reagan. Among those offering words of congratulations was Fr. Malcolm Boyd, wearing a rainbow stole, needing assistance in walking. He called Wilson "the ideal choice to lead MCC into the future." The two had worked together on the book "Amazing Grace." The furniture designer Mitchell Gold said this was perhaps the fifth time he had ever been in a church; "Being raised Jewish, I have not always felt 'welcome, but today there is no place I would rather be." In her homily, Rev. Wilson noted that the GLBT community is suspidcnis of institutions such as the. church that often have not treated them well. She said, "That makes for an.interesting continued on page 6 The Rev. Nancy L. Wilson participates in a laying on of hands at her installation at moderator of MCC. Nancy Wilson, below left, and the front of the National Cathedral. Photos by Bob Roehr r Finding Strength & Tools for Advocacy in Your Faith Tradition.., m By Bob Roehr Cortrtouttng Writer "We are mimicking the same old .oppressions df the churches we came out of," said Bishop Yvette Flunder. What .the GLBT community needs "is not reli gion as usual but religion The pastor of San Francisco's City of Refuge United Church of Christ was aking at a Faith and Fairness forum J1 (HRC/fii _ DC, on November 2. It was part of a new area of program activity for the national organization. K ' Bishop Flunder said gays have wan dered in the wilderness of not being seen | as a whole person or as being loved by * god. She asked, "Where did we get out ^Strength to find our way through?" She • suggested that part of the answer is that gays are "prophetic; people with prophetic gifts" and a unique experience of survival. Black lesbians and gays are asked to. come out But in doing so, they rMkv; 1 and the broader African American com munity. ■ ■ - the GLBT community "to . -T j places fin* people to. land/ < where they do not feel "disconnected; from all of the places they have came to love...Where they do not have to play straight If we create those safe places to land, they will not have to play straight" Rabbi Steven Greenberg, the first Orthodox rabbi to come out and author 1 of "Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition/’ urged GLBT people to tell their storks § and to bring that experience to i Visit us on the web at www.frontpagenews.com