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
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